7 Things That Stop You From Achieving Your Goals

What is the one thing that’s holding you back from achieving your dreams?

As it turns out, there is a multitude of things that stop you from achieving your goals. But from them, I have picked out the 7 major ones that are causing you most of the trouble.

Things would get really easy if you knew those reasons, as the barrier between you and your goals would only exist until you get rid of them.

Eager to know of your weaknesses?

Go on browse through them, and together, let us discuss how to overcome them.

Things That Stop You From Achieving Your Goals:

1. You Need to Plan Better

A man who does not plan long ahead will find trouble at his door.

CONFUCIUS

Planning is the beginning of every strategy. If you don’t plan well, then there are high chances that your effort will end in vain.

Your efficiency and output are only limited by your planning.

You might be having tons of potentially great ideas, but if you choose not to write them down or procrastinate on planning ahead, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

In order to set up an action plan, you need to look at your goals and work backward. You have to clearly define what work you need to put in every single day to achieve your target.

Using the right tools can save you a lot of time, which can be used on other worthwhile things.

I use and recommend 3 planner apps for students which are:

1. Todoist

2. iStudiez

3. myHomework

2. Your Goals Are Unrealistic

It is easy to dream big, but when it comes to taking the action, the huge workload that comes along won’t be easy to finish.

Choosing a realistic and attainable goal plays a huge role in keeping your motivation levels up and running.

People often set huge goals in the beginning and either become too overwhelmed to start or gets burned out somewhere in the middle.

Well, now arises the golden question. How to set realistic goals?

To set achievable goals, you need to do the following things:

1. Be super specific

Specificity is the key to defining your goals. Your goals should be on point and not generic.

If you’re planning to cover a subject, be sure of how many portions you are going to cover within a month. You should be able to further break it down to weeks and days.

2. Be aware of your deadline

Time is a huge factor in determining achievable goals. If you haven’t already set a deadline, be sure to write that down and stick it in your calendar.

3. Allow time for rest

A healthy mind and body is needed for attaining goals, so make sure you give yourself enough time to rest.

Ideally, plan out work schedules having regular short breaks in between to keep your mind and body refreshed throughout the day.

3. You Have Fallen into the ‘Perfectionist’ Trap

A common mistake among beginners in any field is that they want their start to be perfect before even fully understanding what it takes.

This ‘Perfectionist’ attitude makes them get hung up on the wrong details rather than focusing on the things that work.

This is a common problem that stops you from achieving your goals. Don’t, I repeat, DON’T fall for this!

When I started my journey as a blogger, I was so focused on creating the perfect blog post that I spent weeks working on a 600-word blog post!

Can you believe it? It was causing me lots and lots of time.

But later on, I stopped trying to be perfect and realized that some rookie mistakes are necessary to learn the turf.

If you have fallen into this trap, stop trying so hard and go on with the flow. Make some mistakes and learn from them. After all, experience is the best teacher.

4. You Have Developed a Negative Mindset

Pretty often, lack of motivation combined with a small amount of disappointment can lead you to negative thoughts and thereby depression.

Negative thoughts force you to give up on your goals and compel you to remain in your comfort zone.

Every extraordinary dream begins when the dreamer decides to step out of their comfort zones. Having a negative mindset won’t ever let you do that.

Negative feelings can happen to anyone randomly. Even I procrastinated a lot before actually beginning to work on my goals.

What I did to overcome procrastination was to watch affirmations and motivational videos to cheer me up.

Here are some of the YouTube channels that helped me and might help you as well:

5. You Are Focusing on the Wrong Details

Another silly mistake I did in my beginning days of blogging was that I stressed too much about the website design.

I wanted the website to be beautiful and wasted excessive amounts of time on tweaking the site’s design. This was a wrong move.

A website’s main purpose is to serve the audience with great content, not with beautiful design.

Similarly, most people waste a major part of their time focusing on the wrong details. Students, mostly, waste time on making neat notes and don’t concentrate much on learning those portions.

Analyze what main action you need to take in order to make progress towards your goal. Set that action or task as your primary task and make that #1 on your priority list.

Dedicate more time and energy to your primary task than the other secondary ones.

6. You Give Up Too Fast

Success rewards consistent hard work, not just hard work. Working hard for a day or two is easy. But what really matters is sticking to it.

One or two things I learned from my life is that you don’t need the luck to be successful. There’s zero involvement of luck in progress.

Your actions define what you are and what you become. If you think you’re putting in your 100% effort and it’s not working, stick to it for a month or two.

Keep pouring in the same effort for a few more days because great things take time. Maybe that extra time could have the potential to surprise you.

If you’re looking for ways to be consistent, here are 5 tips to improve your consistency:

7. You Are Not Motivated

Lack of motivation is another thing that stops you from achieving your goals.

What makes successful people stay motivated?

They are not driven by money instead, they have a higher purpose. Their purpose acts as the source of their motivation which, in turn, leads to consistent action, and thereby, success.

Find a purpose that gives meaning to your effort and let that meaning drive you.

Check out our guide on how to stay motivated to study when you don’t feel like it.

That completes our list of the top 7 things that stops you from achieving your goals.

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Thanks for reading!