General

The #1 Reason You Can’t Achieve Your Goals

We’re a couple of weeks into January, how are you doing with your New Year’s resolutions? It’s getting to that time when dreams and goals for the new year start falling by the wayside. I can see it at my gym. The parking lot was literally overflowing 30 minutes after opening on January 1^st. It was super hard to even find an open treadmill for the first ten days of the month. Now, things have settled back almost to where it was before 2018 started. Why do people start off so strong, but lose interest in achieving their goals so fast?

People stop working towards their goals because they’re focused on achieving an outcome.

That sounds like an odd statement, doesn’t it? The goal, or outcome, would be the focus, wouldn’t it? The problem with focusing on a specific outcome is that it doesn’t properly address the underlying behavior behind why you haven’t achieved the goal already.

The real reason people have such a hard time achieving a difficult goal or dream is that they’re asking the wrong question. They ask themselves, “What goal do I want to achieve?” Maybe that goal is to lose 30 pounds or have $1 million in their retirement account. These are great goals, but they’re so far off in the distance it’s easy to become discouraged. Progress is small and slow, and a sense of discouragement overtakes you easily.

Instead, ask yourself this question: “Who do I want to be?” When you start thinking about who you want to be and make changes in your life to be that person the goals you may have previously thought of will come naturally. Let me give you some common examples:

Weight Loss

Instead of working towards the goal of losing 30 pounds, think about the kind of person needed to achieve that goal.

Who do I want to be?

I want to be a health-minded person who pays attention to what I put in my body. I also want to take care of my body by exercising 4 days a week.

These are small, tangible behaviors you can track, change, and achieve on a daily basis. When you become that person, the weight will drop off easily.

Finances

Instead of working towards the goal of having $1 million in your retirement account, think about the kind of person needed to make that happen.

Who do I want to be?

I want to be a financially minded person who uses a 24 hour waiting period before buying anything significant and saves something out of each paycheck.

Again these are small behaviors you can track and improve upon each and every day. When you become this person, your retirement accounts will increase and you’ll be much better off when you retire.

Working towards achieving a goal or dream can make life worth living, giving you a reason to get up in the morning. But it has to be done correctly. Simply setting an outcome based goal may not work for you if you do not address the underlying behaviors needed to achieve them.

What do you think, Clever Friends? Who do you want to be? How will you change behaviors to become a better person help you achieve your goals and dreams?

Brock Kernin

Brock is a software engineer by day and personal finance blogger at night. He is a fitness junkie and enjoys grilling and smoking meat. Married with two children,  Brock strives to improve his skills as a husband and father, and is always on the lookout to stretch his family’s budget as far as he can.