10 Core Reasons of Failure: Why Does Goal Setting Fail?

We, humans, are goal-oriented living being. Although, most people are bad at Goal Setting. Failure happens when you are unable to connect the dots between Goals & Actions. Almost every piece of Self-help book, podcast, Video or tweet tries to open “hacks of achieving goals” in your life. And we are keen to see hacks to achieve our goals in less duration & effort.

During childhood to teenage,

• Only 5%-10% of people learn to set goals.
• Out of the 10% Goal-setters, only 5%-10% learn to take action towards it.
• And, Out of 10% of Action-takers, only 1% keep going towards the goal & achieve it.
• Interestingly, only a few Goal-achievers literally sustain the success and grow further.

It’s funny but pathetic. This is the reality of goal setting and achieving.
Before diving deep into the key mistakes of goal setting, you must know- This article is written for those who believe their happiness & peace is in their higher version. If your goal is to live a happy life by growing yourself and others this article would be worth reading for you.

1. Making Emotional Decisions Vs Logical Decisions

During setting goals, we feel excited (Dopamine rush), an excellent energy in our body & mind. It’s called mental masturbation. In this state, your brain gives a feeling of accomplishment while you are planning & writing goals. This is clearly an emotional state.

Now Factually, Emotional Decision is often more inaccurate than Logical Decision.

You set exciting goals with exciting outcomes and time. Generally, we, humans want to achieve goals faster and broader at the same time. As a result, we make cumbersome calculations.

P.S. Don’t be too emotional during goal-setting.

• Be a broad visionary
• Be a big dreamer
• Set boring goals (Less work, sufficient time)
• Act & gain self-awareness
• Re-set goals to your push limits
• Document to accelerate growth

2. Lack of understanding the relation between action & time

The most common mistake in Goal-setting is over-estimation. You simply push too hard to complete an action in a specific duration. After listening to a bunch of motivational gurus, you start working 14 hours a day. The problem is- This is not sustainable. People who are working 80–100 hours a week have different endurance and work ethic.

If you calculated, a 1-task to complete in 3 hours but it took 7 hours you have not good work ethic. You need to work a lot to understand the relationship between action and time.

“Every high-achiever has a fabulous work ethic. They have a deep understanding of starting, running, and progressing a project with time.”

3. Purely focused on “Fake Waterfall”(Temporary Solutions) rather than “Heavy Rain” (Effective Solutions)

Probably, one of the biggest reasons why GenZ is failing: Short-term big goals. We want it to happen instantly. If nothing happens we seek different tactics or change the goal.

Every unsuccessful, unhappy person searches temporary solution and waits for another similar problem to make another temporary decision.

If you really want to take a “deep breath” you must reach the depth of the problem and pluck it off from the root. Temporary solutions are “Fake waterfall”. You must set goals for an effective solution “Heavy Rain”.

4. Not afraid of Failure after starting a project

“Be Fearless but fear your own procrastination”

Most people don’t grow because they are not afraid of not achieving goals. Fear is a great controller of your body and behavior. One might have used it for bad things but Fear has a positive side too.

Decent Fear and Pressure literally push you to grow. Here is how Fear & pressure could help you in goal setting-

Fear & pressure of not achieving goals,

• Help to push your limit or capabilities
• Unlock the hidden potential in your DNA
• Cut off all harmful habits
• Get to rid of bad company
• Active your body & mind to take the necessary steps to survive & grow

Hence, “Fear of losing” is a great driver. Now, you may think-

“Can’t we work with Compassion, empathy, happiness, and excitement to achieve goals?”
Of course, you can & you should. But to work with happiness & compassion you literally need to be passionate about the job. If you have found your passion — work with happiness

but if you are still figuring out work, push your limit, “fear of losing”, and gather self-awareness.

5. You don’t know “How to be obsessed”

Passion is ‘good’ but obsession is “the best” to achieve goals. If you want to keep going passion is a great driver. But what obsession does is create something revolutionary. The most-obsessed people are the most beneficial for mankind.

I am not saying you have to be a revolution and sacrifice everything for society.

But a decent level of obsession is delicious to produce a remarkable outcome. Interestingly, passionate people are most likely to be obsessed.

To practice obsession, you require “The urge to become or to build the Best”.

Your intent must not be finding a solution only but smashing every obstacle into dust. In this stage, your mind reaches beyond your goal.
Again, you can’t be obsessed with every single hour of a day.

Few ways to practice obsession:

• Plan and prepare during your creative hours
• Ask yourself “Is it the best possible way for me to do it?” | “How can I do more efficiently?” | “Is it going to help me/people in the long run?” | “There is room always room for improvement-How to do it here?”
• Choose your most productive hours to practice
• Again don’t delay too much to pull the trigger because you need progression than perfection

6. Your entire day is “full of non-negotiable Goals”

Making a to-do list and setting goals often seems ineffective. But Why is that? We require intentional days, months, and years to reach our goals. Without having a proper plan: Outline, Tasks, deadline, alternatives; how would we reach somewhere?

Setting goals for a day is literally preparing a blueprint for your success. All the above statements are true.

However, we fail to understand-

“We have a brain. And it tricks us to avoid pain”

Now, if having a to-do list is crucial then why do most people fail to accomplish them? The reason why most people fail to accomplish goals is- they set tasks but not priorities. In addition, while setting goals we suddenly become emotional & overestimate our capacity & pattern.

The person who hardly completes 2 Simple tasks/day, plans to do 17 different non-negotiable tasks/ day due to emotional chemical rush. (Described the issue in 1st Point)

Your to-do lists must include various levels of priorities with tasks. Such as-

Here is an example of tasks with priority, time to conceptualize a to-do list. Set your tasks based on goals and priority.

Kobe Bryant says,

“You require non-negotiable tasks to become successful over time”.

However, if you fill your entire day with non-negotiable tasks

· You will definitely burn out & waste the next day with poor performance

· The idea of non-negotiable tasks becomes overwhelming & a cause of procrastination

Remember that our goal is to grow daily consistent efforts. We can’t expect results from a “single 16 hours of work-day” but “4 hours of 160 consistent work-days”.

7. Over-optimizing the process for faster result

Getting results fast is one of the core demands of mankind. Tons of businesses are built on the idea of giving “Faster Results”.

We want

· Faster learning

·Faster improvement

· Faster personal growth

· Faster business and online growth

· Faster weight loss

· Faster muscle Gain

· Faster fairness

· Faster delivery

· Faster transport

Expecting things faster is in our nature. But “Faster Result” is demanded not because we have a finite life span but it’s exciting. We try every possible shortcut to make the journey shorter and the outcome quicker.

The problem is we often forget the most useful & outrageous things on our planet are built over a very long period of time. If you talk about world-class empires, sculptures, or world-class personalities they had taken time whatever it takes.

It’s a fact now, we humans are not good at setting goals. And the biggest trap is time. Thus, Choose 1 outcome between the following 2:

Fake & Faster Results V/s Fabulous & Phenominal Outcome

The first combo is disappointing but the second one requires courage and patience. Again, don’t be patient with action the outcome. If you are taking a little action and idolizing results takes time in the end you will be miserable my friend.

“To become extremely happy & progressive, be impatient with action & patient with outcomes”

— -Gary Vay-ner-chuk (Serial Entrepreneur, investor)

8. You Read more than pulling the Trigger

In this age of the internet, we feed too much information. Humanity had never been so much fortunate to access information as in the 21st century. But tremendous benefits come with huge drawbacks too.

It’s been told, “GenZ knows a lot but they do a little”.

Right now, to solve a single problem you can-

1. Search on Google

2. Watch the demonstration on YouTube

3. Read Books Online

4. Follow experts on social

5. Buy Online courses

6. Attend seminars/webinars

7. Get online consultancy

But what’s going to happen after that? Nothing! Literally nothing!

After gathering the information you would stay exact same spot. However, mentally you assume that you have done it.

To achieve anything in our life span we have to take action.

Moreover, all the suggestions and advice you have taken online are general advice. Your situation or context might be different than others. You still need to figure out tons of unknown paths toward your own goal.

“For success: You need action first not information”

9. You Practiced “Tons of Failure”

Most common slogan: “Failure is part of the process towards success”. It is true. Now, it’s a huge psychological trap.

If you become comfortable with failure it becomes a habit.

Here is how failure becomes comfortable & turns into a habit.

You

1. Set goals but no priorities

2. Set priorities but you don’t obey or believe it

3. Do incomplete tasks

4. See nothing serious happen if you avoid or skip tasks

5. Fail to achieve goals by the deadline

6. Feel sad for a while but soon recover & moved on

7. Set another different goal

8. Repeat the same for years

9. Repeat the same for decades

10. Over a long period of time you regret a failure in life

There must be something completely unacceptable in your daily activities. Most tiny tasks have the biggest impact on your future. No matter what hold you must hold yourself accountable for small tasks. You can reward and punish your behavior not repeat tiny failures.

Not to become habituated with the failures you must create momentum in your daily activities. Let’s see how to create momentum in your daily routine.

10. You fail to create momentum

The meaning of momentum in daily routine is to create harmony & rhythm among physical, emotional, and intellectual action to reduce friction.

What is physical, emotional, and intellectual rhythms is a discussion of another day. Now, let’s focus on how you can achieve momentum in your daily activities.

To create momentum, start your day with 1 easy completed task, a small win & the most difficult completed task in the first 6 hours.

Starting momentum: At the beginning of a day, the task could be making your bed or brushing your teeth, or anything that requires minimum effort. It will give you a sense of accomplishment.

Accelerating momentum: Solve the most difficult problem or tasks in the first 6–8 hours of a day.

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