Our goals are our guiding principles they help us achieve what we aim for in life. Our goals determine how we outline vision of our life, based on the vision we have, we create our long term, goals, medium term goals, and short term goals. These goals motivate us to work harder and make us responsible for ourselves. These goals form an hierarchy and fulfillment of one leads to fulfillment of others…

So where do we go wrong in our goal setting and planning?

When we set unhealthy and unrealistic expectation  we create complications in goal setting; At times we know what we don't want rather than what we want, this creates confusion and we lose the plot.

There are seven basic mistakes people make unknowingly in goal setting that causes problem and stops us from achieving our targets. Understanding these mistakes will help you be more responsible and accountable for your own actions.

So let us understand these mistakes:

Not writing down your Goals

It is very important that we write down our goals ,only when we write them down do we actually acknowledge them and work hard towards achieving them. When we write our goals we frame them in a positive manner and check how they can change our current situation and help us refocus on things that are important. Remember always write down your goals.

Having unclear motives

sometimes we are very vague in our goals because we are not clear what our motives are. Not having clarity on why are we setting goals and what do we want to achieve. We need to have clear motives based on our expectation and priorities.

Setting unrealistic goals

Another major mistake we do is set unrealistic goals only focusing on one aspect of what we plan to achieve and forget the long term requirement of it. we over compensate on one aspect and ignore others which leads to unclear motive and as a result we feel devastated and give up when we cant achieve our goals.

Not having a plan

When we base our goals on our feelings than on action we loose focus, this is the mistake that derails our efforts as we look at our goals from emotional perspective than practical one. to be able to achieve our goals we need to move from feelings to action only than can we have a tangible and realistic plan to work on.

Not taking action

One of the major sin in goal setting is procrastination or delay that we make in taking action towards our goals. It is very important to take action without delay because that determines our own commitment to change and growth. When we don't take action we lose focus and do not move ahead, this leads to giving up on ourselves and on our life's vision.

Losing focus

Next mistake we make is we lose focus after a while, this happens when our motives are not clear and our goals are not in tune with our core values. when our priorities are not clear and we don't have a plan we lose focus and our goals remain unfinished. we need to work regularly and have ourselves responsible and accountable for our goals.

Lack of follow up

At times we do not follow up or follow through our plans due to which we are never able to work on our goals. lack of or no follow up creates gap which is difficult to fill and we get lost and give up on our own goals just moving through life aimlessly.

Next time when you are planning your goals be careful of these mistakes as they are the reason why we fail. understanding these mistakes helps us create balance and work proactively towards our goals.