3 Reasons You're Not Reaching Your Goals

It's Time For A Change

What's keeping you from achieving your goals?

You may be surprised by the three most common reasons that women don't reach their high-level plans. You could have a hard time figuring out where to start, feel overwhelmed and under confident in what comes next, or just need someone else who has been there before with some inspiration on how they overcame these obstacles so I am here for all of those people!

Well, I have good news and bad news for you in regards to reaching your goals. The bad news is you're the reason you're not reaching your goals. The good news is you're the reason you can reach your goals.

I have learned that in order to be happy, I need to be true to myself and my values. Often times we set out to do what others want us to do. Often, we do things that others want us to do, but this doesn't make us happy. It can be frustrating and disappointing when we don't achieve a goal that isn't aligned with who we are.

Here are 3 main reasons you're not reaching your goals and some ideas to help you overcome each obstacle.

1. Your goals are not aligned with values.

This is probably the hardest one to recognize, but the easiest one to fix. Growing up, my parents would say, "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything." I interpreted this as having a strong sense of value and morals. And I've learned that my values have a deep connection to how I respond and act in certain situations. So after getting off track several times, I realized the root cause was that I was not being true to myself and my values.

In order to make sure I stay focused and on track, I created a vision-valued goal productivity system where my goals are based upon my values. This ensures that my goals are aligned with what I believe in and what is important to me. This way there is a deep connection between my values and my goals. I can stay focused because I have made that intrinsic connection to the goal. I become personally invested in the outcome.

2. No vision for what you really want.

It is so hard to get to where you're going if you don't know where you're going. When you're driving in the car, you can't see out the window if there is mud and dirt all over the window. You'll never get to where you're going if you can't see clearly, so you need to gain clarity. And while you're in the car, often times you will need to use your GPS to go to places that you've never been before or unchartered territory. Your GPS serves as your guide and provides a clear set of directions with step-by-step instructions. And that is exactly what your vision does for you as you're working toward your goals - it provides clarity and direction to help you reach your destination.

So in order to make sure you're clear on your vision, "write the vision and make it plain." In other words, create the vision you want for your life such as the goals you want for your business, family, health, travel, etc. You can go old school and create a vision board from magazines and a poster board. You can also journal your vision or keep it in a notebook. I sometimes like using apps such as Project Life and Zinnia to create my vision boards. Have fun and take the blinders off to create your vision board. Remember, nothing is impossible. The bigger the vision, the harder the work, the greater the reward.

3. Lack of structure with proper planning.

Boy, is this a big one. Sometimes we're so focused on being busy that we're not actually being productive. And this is because we haven't taken the time to properly plan what we're trying to accomplish. It's best to be intentional which helps to eliminate excessive resources and wasted time. Proper planning isn't about filling every hour of every day with something to do. It's about being intentional with our time and focusing on those items that will get us closer to our goal. For example, you may need a website for your business, but spending hours upon hours building a website and you are not very tech-savvy is not an efficient use of your time. Maybe spending a couple of hours creating the content for your site and then outsourcing the website design to someone at a minimal cost is a better solution. Same outcome - a completed website, but different planning - finding someone to design while you spend less time creating content.

In order to make proper planning a habit, set aside some time on a regular basis, once a week should do, and take a look at your goals for a specific timeframe and create a planning guide that will allow you to take small baby steps toward your goals. If you're a visual person maybe an app like Trello would work nicely. If you're a paper and pen kind of person, pull out your planner and set daily intentions of what small steps will help you reach your goals.

By now you've come to realize that you are the problem and the solution when it comes to reaching your goals. Both roads can be hard, but the awesome thing is you get to choose your hard. Choose wisely.

Where are you struggling to reach your goals? Are you on track or have you gone down a path and need some help finding your way back to the road to your journey?

Want to learn more about how to build out your own value-vision goal productivity system? Be sure to click this link to stay connected with me. #productiveplanning #visiontovictory #goalgetterlife #consistencyiskey