5 Reasons Why You Can’t Stick to Your Goals (and What to do About Them)

Ok, let’s get real about goals. How many times have you set some you were super excited about. Buuuut then a few weeks go by and you can’t stick to your goals?

Yeah, you’re not alone. Literally, every human has dealt with this! The ones who seem to slay their goals like a mo’fo? Yup. Maybe they’ve only dealt with this a few times, but still.

So I thought for the rest of us, it’d be good to go through the 5 biggest reasons why you can’t stick to your goals.

Listen to the episode here!

If you’re in the listening mood, listen to this post as an episode on the Imperfection with Intention podcast by clicking below!

Grab the Free stick to your goals journal

1. You Set ’em and Forget ’em

This is the #1 sin of goal setting. How many times have you said something like, “I will work out every day this week” and forget about it after a week? How can you stick to your goals if you don’t remember what they are?

When you don’t have them written down, then you don’t have the reminder of what you want. Visualizations can be a powerful form of motivation, but only if you can see it!

There’s something powerful in seeing your goals written in front of you. For me, this makes it all the more real. So, when I set my monthly goals and intentions, I always write them down and pin them on my wall in my office.

I like to go a step further and add them to a vision board and write them daily in journals.

Yeah, I get a little wild when it comes to writing goals down, but it’s for good reason! I write them SO much that there’s no WAY I could forget them!

Set it and REMEMBER it Action Step

1. Head to the “How to Create Your Life Vision” post and create your own vision.
2. Write your vision/goals down and read them EVERY day.

2. you set too many at once

Ohhhh I am G.U.I.L.T.Y. of this one. Honestly, I still have to make a conscious effort NOT to do this. It’s almost impossible to stick to your goals if you have TOO many goals!

Think about it like this: what if instead of you splitting your time, attention and energy between a ton of different things (and not doing any of them as well as you’d like), you focused on ONE goal until you completed it. You’d be able to get it done a lot faster and better because your attention wouldn’t be pulled in a million different directions.

For me, some of my “I need to set ALL the goals” mentality comes from society’s expectations that the more productive you are, the better. So, the idea of narrowing down my focus was foreign.

So my recommendation? Start with one big goal you want to accomplish. Create a vision of what that looks like, and create your monthly and weekly to-do’s around it. You should be spending the bulk of your to-do’s on your goal so you can accomplish it.

Something else I love is the 1/3/5 to-do rule when it comes to daily tasks. I first heard about this from Shine Talks. Basically, break your to-do’s up into 1 big task, 3 small tasks and 5 little tasks, that way you never overwhelm yourself with too many to-do’s in a day.

I’ve been adding this into my morning routine and I LOVE it!

Reason 2. Action Step

1. Pick ONE area of your life with a goal you want to accomplish. Then ONLY focus on it until it becomes habit
2. Don’t drown in daily to-do lists. Keep it simple with the 1/3/5 rule!

3. you Let Other’s Needs Come Before Your Goals

This might be one of the hardest mistakes to get over in order to stick to your goals. You’re probably thinking, “Shouldn’t I put others ahead? I’m a nice person!”. Take it from a former people pleaser and over-apologizer, that idea is totally backward!

The most powerful example of this is women who are mothers. I don’t have children myself, but I have coaching clients that are. I would hear, “I have to put my kids first” all the time.

But I challenge you to think about this in a different way. Just like how you spread yourself too thin if you have a ton of goals, the same happens when you give the best parts of yourself to everyone before yourself.

With my clients I’ve worked with, I’ve seen the transformation firsthand. When they start to take time out of their day JUST for themselves and their goals, they’re able to be more present with their kids (and everyone else in their life).

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m NOT asking that you abandon all your relationships or change how you provide for those who need you. What I AM asking is for you to think about how much more you could do for them if you spent some time on self-care and working on fulfilling goals.

Creating Time for you Action Steps

1. Start small! Check your calendar for pockets of free time you can use for yourself.
2. Add in small ways you can re-charge and work on your goals (even just for 5 minutes).

4. You Give In to Instant Gratification

Instant gratification is the silent killer of daily motivation. We’re creatures of wanting to do what’s easiest at the moment. It’s literally built into our DNA.

I KNOW you’ve dealt with this if you’ve had the goal of working out regularly. It’s easier to focus on the instant gratification of collapsing on the couch rather than the long term benefit of better health.

Instant gratification can get in the way of ANY goal because it and procrastination go hand-in-hand.

In my own life, I have the long term goal of a top-ranked podcast. Problem is, that takes work and time. But you know what doesn’t take work or time and I get a “benefit” of instantly? Watching another episode of Stranger Things.

So how do you beat it? Here are your Action Steps.

• List out ALL the excuses you’d use not to work towards your goal. Don’t hold back, be ruthless here.
• For each excuse, list at least two reasons either why the excuse is crap AND what action you’ll take to overcome the excuse.

I go a lot more into beating excuses in my workout regularly post, so make sure to check that out!

5. You Let Negative Self Talk Get in the Way When It’s Hard

This one’s a real doozy. We’re so damn critical of ourselves that we can stop ourselves from achieving a goal before we even start.

The second we start thinking about doing something scary, the limiting beliefs come rampaging in. So, while we can’t control the initial thoughts that pop into our heads, we can control if we choose to keep them in there.

Just like with pulling yourself out of negativity, you need to create some distance between you and your negative self-talk.

Negative Self-Talk Action Steps:

1. Catch yourself when you say, “I’m not smart enough to do that”, and rephrase that feeling.
2. Change it to, “I’m not feeling like I’m smart enough to do that”.

I know that sounds small, but after a while of consistently doing that, you start to realize that your limiting beliefs are just that: BELIEFS. They aren’t facts.

Doing this helps you realize that while you have moments of self-doubt, it doesn’t make up the entirety of who you are

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How are you going to stick to your goals?

I hope after reading this (or listening to the podcast episode), that you have a few ideas on how to stick to your goals.

Here’s the golden rule of accomplishing ANY long term goal: You just have to stay consistent. That’s it.

I KNOW you’ve got this! I believe in you, now all you need to do is believe in yourself. And, if you need any extra help with this, let me know!

xo,

Monica