Avoid Goal Setting Pitfalls
Kathy Gates, Professional Life Coach
www.reallifecoach.com
In order to succeed with long term goal setting, then you need to
be aware of the most common mistakes and pitfalls that can ruin
your best-laid plans. Check your goals, and see where you may
have hit a roadblock.
1 Sticky Goals:
It’s easy to get plugged into a goal, and even though it’s not
working, you hang on to it out of sheer habit or willfulness.
That sets you up for procrastination and frustration. Rethink
the goal by concentrating on the big picture – the direction you
want your life to go - instead of the specific way to get there.
Maybe the goal to own your own business is about wanting to spend
more time with your kids, instead of more money. Maybe the goal
to write a bestseller is really about wanting recognition for
your talents, not fame. Focus on the feelings that you are after
instead of the one-and-only way to get it.
2. Floating Goals:
These goals are floating around in your head, usually
masquerading as a wish list. Writing down goals (and strategies
and actions) takes them out of the *wishing* category and gives
them roots to grow. It’s no longer just a pipe dream in your
head. Now you can simply filter all decisions (big and small)
through your goals -- does it contribute to my goal, or detract
from it? Example: You have a goal to write a best selling
romance novel, with a strategy of writing one chapter each week
for 36 weeks, and your action is to spend 1 hour per day towards
each chapter. If you don’t schedule – AND PROTECT – that 1 hour
each day, it’s more than likely that you’ll get to the end of
each week wondering why you didn’t get more done.
3. Contradictory Goals:
This is a common mistake in goal setting--two or more goals with
opposing results. Marriage counselors see it a lot in people who
want the benefits of being married without giving up the single
lifestyle. Or maybe you have a goal to spend more time with your
family, but you have a job you want to do well at that requires a
lot of face-time. Contradictory goals will frustrate you to no
end, because you’ve given yourself an impossible task. Evaluate
your goals in light of their relationship to each other.
4. False Goals:
These are goals that involve chasing money, approval of others,
etc. If you want to become a doctor just to win the approval of
someone in your life, that’s a false goal. Or if you want to
become a doctor just because of the money you’ll earn, that too
is a False Goal. You’ll find yourself constantly looking for
external motivation to keep you moving forward. Or you’ll find
that no matter what you say your goal is, you just can’t move
forward on it. It may be that it’s not an expression of the
authentic you. Find the courage to tell the truth about what you
really want in your life.
5. Blind Goals:
No matter how nicely laid out the goals, strategies, and actions
are, if you don’t SEE them and review them, and let them become
part of who and what you are and do, on a daily basis, you’ll
lose track of them. The job, the errands, the latest TV show,
worrying about money, worrying about kids, worrying about the
economy will all crowd out your time, thoughts, and energy. They
may remain in the back of your mind, but you won’t gear your life
towards them. Instead, write them out, blow them up to poster
size, put a sticky on the ‘fridge, frame them for your office –
anything, and anywhere that you’ll see them regularly.
Life Coach Kathy Gates specializes in helping people who are
ready to create a simpler, less stressful, more meaningful
lifestyle. Want to know how? Visit www.reallifecoach.com to
learn more and sign up for her newsletter.
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