How You Hold Yourself Back From Reaching Your Goals Success is more step-by-step than most people realize.
By Timothy Sykes •
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People make all sorts of excuses for why they're not reaching their but the simple truth is this: if you're not attaining what you want in life, it's probably because you're not being tactical in pursuing your goals.
The good news? Many of the common reasons why you're not reaching your goals are easily remedied. Really! In this post, I'll address some common things that hold people back from reaching their goals and offer suggestions for how you can systematically remove the roadblocks that are keeping you from moving forward.
A lack of specific goals.
You will never reach your goals if you don't have specific goals laid out to begin with.
If your goals are vague, like "get rich" or "be successful", that's about as helpful as trying to get to a specific address in Miami by entering "Florida" in your GPS. It might get you somewhere in the region of your goal, but not quickly or efficiently.
To attain your goals, the first step is really getting firm on what your goals actually are. For example, instead of a goal of "buy a house," consider setting a goal like "save $50,000 in the next two years so I can put a down payment on a house in X neighborhood."
With a specific goal to work toward you can make a plan with specific milestones to get there.
Related: 7 Steps to Achieving Any Goal in Life
A routine.
You might find routines boring, but they deliver results. Consider, for instance, that some of the most successful people have a regular routine that begins with waking up early. They use this time to get mundane tasks out of the way and generally get mentally prepared for the day ahead. Their morning is structured so they can approach the workday with clarity and focus, and not be pulled in too many directions.
If you're just winging it every day, your career results will be similarly sporadic. To achieve specific goals, set a routine that will allow you to achieve milestones without cramming. Work slowly but steadily toward them.
Related: 14 of the Best Morning Routine Hacks Proven to Boost Productivity
Guidance.
Just as a GPS can help get you to the destination faster and easier than using an old school road map and navigating the roads yourself, proper guidance can help you reach your goals.
If you don't believe in the power of a mentor, consider this: Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah, and Bill Gates all credit their mentors with helping them find the success that they went on to attain. By getting yourself a mentor, you're giving yourself a kind of fast forward button on your career. From a mentor, you can gain guidance, direction, advice, and so much more. Want to become successful sooner? Get a mentor.
Related: 4 Ways to Get Anyone -- Even Your Heroes -- to Be Your Mentor
Accountability.
To get on track is one thing...but to stay on track is another. What checks and balances do you have in place to keep yourself accountable?
Even the most aspirational people have trouble staying motivated sometimes. An accountability partner can help. This is someone who does regular check-ins with you to see how you're progressing toward your goals. A good accountability partner can be just about anyone -- a co-worker, a friend or a family member. It just needs to be someone who can reliably check in with you about how you are doing on reaching your goals to help you stay accountable.
Not learning from your mistakes.
Pursuing lofty goals is like climbing a big tall mountain: no matter what, you're bound to stumble a couple of times along the way. While you should actively try to avoid mistakes, you should acknowledge that a few will probably occur along the way.
Rather than letting mistakes crush you, try to learn from them. As a silver lining, what feels devastating at one point might save you from a much bigger mistake later if you're able to learn your lesson the first time!
