Three Ways to Avoid That Sucker Punch Feeling When Not Finishing a Goal

Creating goals is one thing, creating and sticking to them through completion is an entirely different proposition. There are many goals that I have personally set where I completely and utterly failed to accomplish what I set out to do; it sticks me hard in the gut when I think about them. I'm sure others have similar feelings, it's always that one goal you are not able to realize, or you forget you wanted to achieve (yes I've done this) until someone else close to you does. In some cases you might be in a very bad habit that you are trying to fight but for one reason or another you take the safe comfortable route.

Three Ways to Avoid That Sucker Punch Feeling

1) Misaligned goals

It's important to shake-off negative thoughts, little failures - ignoring the goal isn't going to help in this situation. You need to tackle it head on and assess why you are not able to stick to the goal. Perhaps you have set a goal that is not in alignment with your personality. You may have picked a goal that is beyond your physical ability. In some cases you may be trying to achieve a goal that was set by someone else. In any of the case it's going to be very difficult for you to achieve these goals, you've set them for the wrong reasons, you don't have any vested interest, believe me it’s difficult to keep motivated to help someone else accomplish their goals.

2) Right actions wrong order

Another issue that keeps folks from setting and realizing goals is that many try to execute their goals in the wrong order. There is a path that you must take (albeit short-cuts are encouraged) to get where you are trying to go. Say your goal is to get a gold medal in the Olympics. If this is your goal then I sure hope you have done some preparation, thinking and dreaming about a gold medal when you might not be athletically incline, or if you’ve not picked a sport would be a all be good recipes for failure. Regardless of the goal there are steps you must take to get there. Make sure you understand what it takes.

3) Lack of follow through

Finally you have got to follow through on the activities required to complete the goal. It means commitment and hard work, if your not committed and ready to work reaching the goal will be near impossible. At the end of the day it comes down to be personally accountable for your actions. You are the only one who can accomplish your goals and to do this you must follow through.

There is no single action or thought that will help you focus on your goals, however one thing that has helped me and many others is to really find the daily time to focus on the key activities that are going to help you make forward steps, as small as they may be, needed to keep you moving towards your goals. It comes down to taking ownership and being accountable, pick goals aligned to which you are, make sure you work on them in the right order. And finally you'll need to work at it; hard work towards the right activities will pay off.