Five Ways to Make Sure Your Goals Fail

January is the time of year when everyone makes a fresh start.  Whether your goal is to get in shape, lose a few (or a lot) of pounds or find the work you love, everywhere you turn there is is advice you can heed and products you can buy.  Gyms are full of newly dedicated enthusiasts and classes are starting in every imaginable category to motivate and create the life you dream of.  Where will you be three months, six months down the road?  Will you be riding high on the wave of success or disappointed once again by failure?  Will you be blaming a lack of willpower and motivation to create the life you desire?  Here are five ways to guarantee you will fail again this year.

1. Don't set priorities--If you create goals but then allow everything else in your life to take precedence over that goal, then you can rest assured that you will fail.  Want to start an exercise program that you stick with?  Make sure you schedule it into your day and treat it like any other appointment that you might make.  You wouldn't schedule a doctor appointment and then allow other events to encroach on that time would you?  Would you schedule breakfast with a friend and then sleep in instead?  Treat your goals with the same respect that you treat other appointments in your life and schedule a specific time to work on them each day.  Let the important people in your life know that the time set aside for that goal is sacred and treat it that way yourself.
2. Don't be specific--Goals that are vague are a wish list not a goal.  If your goal is to get in better shape or to write more or discover your passion, then you haven't created a goal, you have a wish or an ambition.  Successful goals identify the behavior that goes with them.  Work out daily for 45 minutes and lose 20 pounds in the next 6 months is a goal.  Spend 30 minutes daily writing and create a blog post once a week is a goal.  Make sure you know not only what you wish for but how you will go about accomplishing it. 
3. Don't develop a support group--goals that are created without a support group will probably fail.  Not telling anyone about your goals unless you are sure they will discourage you from even trying, is a recipe for failure every time.  This is why people who join Weight Watchers or Alcoholics Anonymous are so often successful.  They have a consistent group of cheerleaders who want to see them succeed.  You can have a formal support group or you can create your own informal one but everyone needs to hear "good job" and get a pat on the back sometime.  In addtion, everyone needs someone to spur them on when they are feeling like giving up.  Make sure there is someone like that in your life. 
4. Expect failure-We get what we expect and if you don't create and focus on a vision of success then you will instead create and accomplish the vision of failure that you imagine.  This is why it is so important to spend time actually visioning the accompishment of your goal and then live as though that goal is already accomplished.  Be the person you want to be and live as if that were already a reality.  Then when you accomplish your goal you won't be adjusting your mindset and actions to a new reality, you will already be living it.  This is a major distinction.   
5. Don't create an action plan-Goals that are created without a plan for how to accomplish them will fail.  This doesn't mean you have to have every step in place but it does mean that you have to have the first few steps in place.  Self-publish a book in the next year or find a new job are all goals but what is the first step?  What will you do to move down the path of accomplishing those goals?  Write down everything that you can think of, big and little steps and then divide the steps into things you can do daily, weekly, monthly.  No matter how tired or unmotivated you are, do something every day toward accomplishing your goal.  Set aside a specific time each day to work toward the goal (see #1).

Well there you have it; five ways to ensure that you will fail at your goals.  Sound like too much work?  Sound overwhelming?  Think you'll just pass and keep-on-keeping-on with the status quo?  Sounds familiar.... see # 4.

Want to learn more about setting boundaries and accomplishing goals?  Join Called Woman Speaker, Erin Shaw in a FREE webinar on Sunday, January 12th as she talks about:  Fence Me In--Setting Boundaries in 2014.  You can register here:  http://acalledwoman.com/teleseminars/

Want to spend an entire day discovering your passion and reinventing your life?  Join us for the Called Woman Reinvention Convention 2014 on Saturday, March 15th.  You can register here:  http://acalledwoman.com/sign-up/

Like this post?  Share with your friends on Facebook and Twitter!