Why We Don't Reach Our Goals

It doesn't matter if you are a guy or gal or if you are trying to achieve something in your personal or professional life, at one time or another we all experience defeat for one reason or another. For some, dilemmas can be life altering, preventing them from getting to their goals and living with defeat. The key is to get up after falling down is to get back up and to keep on trying. Remember, you aren't only hurting yourself when you give up on your goals - you are also hurting the people that may have been positively affected by whatever you may have accomplished. Clearly it's worth trying to achieve your goals and defeat defeat.

It's tough though to defeat defeat. How do you do get around it and meet your goals?

First starters, stop saying negative things to yourself. Sometimes the internal messages going on in our brains are our worse enemies. We talk to ourselves and convince ourselves of things that no one else has said or thought about us - it's our own opinion, yet we believe it's what everyone else believes and then we act according to that negative message.

Poor self speech: "I am not technical. I could never create that training video."
Better thing to say to ourselves: "Well I am not sure if I can do this or not, but I do have experience with technology so I'll give it a try and ask for help if I need it."

Set realistic goals. Take into consideration your experience with whatever you are doing. Have you done it many times before or is this your first time? If the project is a professional job in the workplace, how well educated are you on the topic. Do you have a degree or have you never dealt with this topic before? Break whatever you are working on into small segments and try to go at it a little at a time. This will provide constant encouragement along the way and keep you from feeling overwhelmed.

Unrealistic goal: Cleaning the whole house before your husband gets home from work while caring for your curious two year old.
Realistic goal: Cleaning one room a day while caring for your little one with the clause that you'll do one extra thing if nap time goes well.

Surround yourself with others already accomplishing your goal. If you are a stay-at-home mom and your goal is to run a happy, well running household, surround yourselves with other mothers and make sure they vary in age. Make friends with women your own age and women who are more mature and "have been there, done that." They'll help you reach your goals by inspiring and encouraging you and offering you advice. People in the workforce can do the same thing by joining professional organization in their field or more general organizations like your local Chamber of Commerce. Not only will these people offer advice on how to reach your goal, more than likely they'll help you reach your goal by patronizing your business with the thought "I'll help you, you help me."

People to avoid: Lazy people with no goals, those who are jealous of you, people with poor attitudes that will bring you down.
People to befriend: Those who truly care for and love you, those with the same goals, people with a positive outlook on life in general.

Work on self-improvement. Every successful person who has accomplished their goals has educated themselves on their topic. And I don't just mean a formal education from high school or college, although that can be helpful for career goals. I mean reading everything you can to obtain information on how to do what you are looking to do, and to be inspired by those who have already done or are in the process of accomplishing the same goal. Talking to others already doing it in person or online via discussion boards is also a form of educating your self towards your goal. You won't be able to get there without keeping on top of you goal.

Bad idea: Sit around boasting about your goals and how you'll going to do really well someday, but never taking steps to get started.
Better idea: Read a book about your goal, try some of the things the book suggests, and talk to someone already doing this (remember, this can apply to parenting, starting your own business, getting a new job, improving your looks, or whatever goals you have in mind.)

Get started on your goals today. There is nothing really stopping you except for yourself. Take these tips into consideration and get going. You can do it! Life is not impossible.