{"id":24768,"date":"2013-12-23T04:00:26","date_gmt":"2013-12-23T10:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/?p=24768"},"modified":"2013-12-23T04:00:26","modified_gmt":"2013-12-23T10:00:26","slug":"10-biggest-goalsetting-mistakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/10-biggest-goalsetting-mistakes\/","title":{"rendered":"The 10 Biggest Mistakes People Make in Setting Goals"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you are anything like me, you\u2019re already thinking about the year ahead. How will it be different than this one? What might be possible? What do I want to accomplish?<\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s time to begin thinking about goal-setting for 2014.
\n
\nI don\u2019t know about you, but I have been going through this annual exercise since my second semester of college, when a friend introduced me to the concept. Almost immediately, I loved the concept and saw the potential.<\/p>\n

But I have not always done it well. I have made a lot of mistakes along the way. I have also watched numerous other people do it poorly. (That\u2019s one of the reasons why I put together three free videos<\/a> on goal-setting. They won\u2019t be available free for long.)<\/p>\n

Here are the top ten most common mistakes I see people make when it comes to goal-setting:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. They don\u2019t write them down.<\/strong> Unless a goal is written, it is merely an aspiration\u2014lifeless and devoid of power. Once you commit it to writing, you set something in motion. You clarify what you want and begin focusing on how to attain it.<\/li>\n
  2. They create too many.<\/strong> An old Chinese proverb says, \u201cMan who chases two rabbits catches neither.\u201d While you probably need more than a single goal, you need to stay focused on a manageable number of them. I recommend no more than 7\u201310.<\/li>\n
  3. They only set them for one area of their life.<\/strong> Most people are accustomed to the idea of setting career goals. But life is far more than your job. If you are going to be happy and fulfilled, you need goals in each of the major areas of life\u2014spiritual, physical, marital, relational, etc.<\/li>\n
  4. They don\u2019t make them specific.<\/strong> Most goals\u2014even written ones\u2014suffer from being too vague. \u201cI want to write a book\u201d or \u201cI want a better marriage\u201d are too general. Which<\/em> book do you want to write? How<\/em> do you want to improve your marriage?<\/li>\n
  5. They don\u2019t make them measurable.<\/strong> The only way to know if you have achieved a goal is to quantify it. \u201cLose 25 pounds\u201d is much better than \u201close weight.\u201d \u201cEarn 10% more than I did last year\u201d is better than \u201cearn more money.\u201d When in doubt, assign a number or a percentage.<\/li>\n
  6. They don\u2019t assign a due date.<\/strong> So often the important gets sacrificed on the altar of the urgent. A deadline is one way to create urgency and force yourself to pay attention to what\u2019s important. Without a deadline, there\u2019s little pressure to get it done. It\u2019s easy to procrastinate.<\/li>\n
  7. They don\u2019t keep them visible.<\/strong> How many times have you written down a set of goals and never looked at them again? I\u2019ve done it plenty of times. That\u2019s why you need a plan to keep them visible, whether that means reviewing them daily, weekly, or at some other regular interval.<\/li>\n
  8. They don\u2019t stretch out of their comfort zone.<\/strong> Safe goals are boring goals. Unless we set our goals outside our comfort zone, we won\u2019t find them compelling enough to actually follow through and achieve them. They shouldn\u2019t be unrealistic, but they should be challenging.<\/li>\n
  9. They don\u2019t make them personally compelling.<\/strong> When you pursue a meaningful goal, it is exhilarating. Accomplishing it, even more so. But the \u201cmessy middle\u201d is where most of us get stuck. This is why we need to write down a set of motivations for each goal identifying why<\/em> it is important and what<\/em> is at stake.<\/li>\n
  10. They don\u2019t identify the next action.<\/strong> You don\u2019t need an elaborate action plan for each goal. (Often this can just be a fancy way of procrastinating.) But you do need to identify the next action, so you can initiate and maintain momentum.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Chances are, you are going to live through 2014, one way or another. It can be another year just like this year and last. Or it can be something different … something extraordinary … something amazing! The choice is yours.<\/p>\n

    So, if you are serious about avoiding the mistakes I just mentioned and getting the tools you need to make this your best year ever, check out my three free videos<\/a> on goal-setting.
    \n

    Which of these mistakes have you made in setting goals?<\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    If you are anything like me, you\u2019re already thinking about the year ahead. How will it be different than this one? What might be possible? What do I want to accomplish? It\u2019s time to begin thinking about goal-setting for 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":24769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[71,20,1054,95,406,1176],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe 10 Biggest Mistakes People Make in Setting Goals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Whatever your goals may be for 2014, you have a much higher probability of achieving them if you avoid these ten common mistakes.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/10-biggest-goalsetting-mistakes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The 10 Biggest Mistakes People Make in Setting Goals\" \/>\n<meta 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