A Goal Setter is a Goal Getter! 5-part series Bonus

I hope you enjoyed the Goal Getter 5-series blog series. This article is a bonus to that series. I thought I would share with you some of the most common goal-setting challenges that people make so you are able to identify these challenges and adjust appropriately.

After years of coaching patients, students, mentees, and clients, this is my list of the top 4 challenges that I see people make when it comes to setting goals.

Challenge #1-Striving for Perfection

If you have followed me for some time, you've probably heard me talk about this before, most people fail because they are striving for perfection. I used to be a Perfect Patty too. I am happy to admit that I am recovered perfectionist! I want you to learn something that took me years to learn; perfection = stagnation. If you keep waiting for the “perfect time” to leave that company, go back to school, write that book, or start that goal, it will not happen. Because guess what, things will NEVER be perfect and they shouldn’t be. You should always be in a constant state of personal and professional development. Perfection is impossible in every single area of life, and this is no different when it comes to goal attainment. Instead of striving for perfection, what you should be striving for is PROGRESSION. Trust me, done is better than perfect any day.

Challenge #2-Setting too many goals

The second most common challenge that I've seen is when people set too many goals at one time. Don’t get me wrong, I'm not saying you shouldn’t write down all of your future plans and dreams and goals, because you should. In fact, this is the first step to successful goal setting. But I do agree with a study conducted by Stanford University, that the brain does its best work when it is allowed to focus on one goal at a time. The prefrontal cortex of the brain, which also manages your willpower (among other things) gets easily overwhelmed and exhausted when it's required to focus on multiple tasks or pieces of information at one time. When the frontal cortex becomes overwhelmed, it’s less likely that you're effectively going to follow through on any of your goals, especially if they require a strong emotional or mental effort. So... setting one goal at a time is a sure-fire way to set yourself up for success.

Challenge #3-Unrealistic and undefined goals

The third most common challenge that I've seen is when people set unrealistic goals. Setting goals means you have to take an honest self-assessment of yourself and your current situation, your capacity, your ability, even your support system which could be nonexistent. One thing I know about setting unrealistic goals is that it can be a setup for failure (and make you feel like a failure), so you definitely don't want to set unrealistic or undefined goals. Goals are easier to reach if there SMART! This means your goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. Setting vague goals makes it easier to abandon your goals when the going gets tough. Setting SMART goals help you to stay on track. I show you how to do this in my Goal Getter Workshop.

Challenge #4-Lack of accountability/support system

This next challenge is a sensitive subject for a lot of people but it’s the hard, honest truth. Many people fail to achieve their dreams because they lack accountability or support. This is especially detrimental if you're a person that is generally not intrinsically motivated and have a hard time keeping yourself accountable.

Let me keep it real for a moment. When you start to set goals for yourself and to make positive changes in your life, you might also notice that things may start to get uncomfortable with those closest to you. When you are changing, especially when you are trying to better yourself, it reminds those closest to you that they are not changing. As you can imagine, this might make people tend to pull away from you and not provide you with the support you were looking for. It’s not that they are not happy for you and don’t want you to succeed, it just reminds them of what they may not doing. (Of course, they could also NOT be happy for you but that's another conversation altogether).

When you lack the support that you need from your closest friends and family, you need to reach out to other people who can relate to your plight. Are you in school? Your accountability partner could be a classmate. Are you just starting a business? Find support in other entrepreneurs. Surround yourself with others that can relate and understand what you are going through and the goals you are trying to achieve for yourself. Find your tribe because you need that accountability and support to really set yourself up for success when it comes to achieving your goals.

If you missed "A Goal Setter is a Goal Getter Workshop", you can now enroll into the workshop for absolutely free! In this free workshop, I share some best practices and my top strategies when it comes to setting and keeping goals that set you up for success!

This workshop reviews...

✔️How to overview the biggest goal-setting challenges
✔️The 6 “Goal Getter Secrets”
✔️How to set goals #likeaboss

Plus, I walk through how to set personal, academic, and business goals and also show you a behind the scenes look at how I set and track my business goals using the Asana project management platform.

Get started with goal-setting like a pro today.

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Quisha Umemba is a Registered Nurse with a Public Health background. She teaches "helping professionals" to monetize their skillset so they can build, launch, and scale a profitable public health consulting business using her proven step-by-step system called Ready.Start.Launch! Find out more by visiting https://quishaumemba.com/ or schedule a 20-min discovery session.