Did you know that only 8% of people achieve their goals? Why is it that our goals are destined to fail?

Read on to find out how you can achieve your goals and the live your dream life.

Why do we fail in achieving goals?

The most common goals include losing weight, healthier living and life improvements, but within 6 months these goals have been completely given up or forgotten. So why are our goals doomed to fail before they have even begun?

The goals that we set are too broad and unrealistic for us to be able achieve. They usually lack real meaning and we set them without putting a plan in place on how we go about achieving them. Confidence and being ready for change is also a big factor. If you really aren’t ready to make those changes and you aren’t confident that you will get there, then you are likely to fail before you even get started.

How to overcome challenges for goal achievement

Create a vision

A vison is the picture that you have of yourself living your life the way you want it to be. It is a picture of you at your very best self. It can be in any shape or form, a picture, a painting, bullet points or even a paragraph. It needs to be unique and meaningful to you. Before you create your vision, ask yourself, what is the reason I want to be this way? What is the true meaning behind my vision? By identifying your deep motivators will help keep you on track.

Everything you need is within you now:

Identify your strengths

We rarely take time to reflect on our achievements in life, but by identifying all the things that we do well will boost our confidence to help us achieve our goals. Take some time to list out your top five strengths, or reflect back on the times where you have successfully accomplished something. If you are struggling to think of them then you can take the VIA strengths survey to help you.

Overcome your barriers

Look at your vision and ask yourself, what could get in the way? Make a list of any potential barriers that may arise. Once you have jotted them down, read over them and start planning some strategies to overcome them.

Enlist support

Tell your family, partner, friends or work colleagues of your plans. Having support around you increases your chance of success.

Failure is the key to success

Part of successful change is setbacks. You will fail along the way. Without failure, you will not be able to succeed. You need to fall to grow, learn and develop new strengths. See your setbacks as an opportunity to grow. Growth leads to lasting change.

Are you ready to change?

This is one of the most important parts of goal setting. How ready are you for this change? How important is it for you to make this change right now? A good way to measure this is to use the ruler scale, give yourself a number between 1-10. Ideally you need to be at least at a 7 before you start your plan.

Why set goals?

Goals represent landmarks on a journey, if you don’t have a structured plan in place then there is no path to follow. Preparation is key for successful goal setting. Changing behaviour is essentially about changing habits. If you change your habits too quickly and without planning, and if you aren’t ready for that change it is harder to achieve those changes.

Successful goal setting

Start with a 3 month outcome goal with weekly action goals that lead you towards the 3 months. Starting with 3 months is more realistic for us to envision. If we change too quickly our bodies struggle to adapt. It is the small changes that lead to long lasting change. Ask yourself, what would I like to be doing in 3 months that will lead me towards my vision? What do I need to do to get there?

Create SMART goals

SMART stands for specific, measurable, attractive, realistic and timed. By using this principle, you will succeed with your goals. For example if you goal is I want to be exercising a few times per week, this goal doesn’t fit the SMART formula, whereas, I want to be running on Mondays and Wednesdays for 45 minutes and strength training on Thursdays and Saturdays for 30 minutes does fit, as it is specific, measurable and timed. Realistic and attractive is equally important; the goal needs to be something that you really want to do as well as realistic to achieve. You can use the ruler scale again here, ask yourself, how confident am I that I can achieve this goal this week? How important is it to me?
Once you have set your 3 month goal, the next step is set your weekly goals that will lead you toward the 3 month goal. For example, your goal maybe, on Monday I will for a walk at 6am for 15 minutes, just remember to follow the SMART formula and you are guaranteed to succeed.