Why Don" t Most People Have Goals?
Every human being has an incredible capacity to achieve great things in his or her life. As long as there is no serious damage to a person's physical or mental faculties, any person of reasonable intelligence can go on to accomplish great things.
For those of us who have been involved in the self-improvement industry, it seems pretty obvious that goal setting is a powerful and indispensable strategy for achieving more of the things you want in life. After all, how can you possibly achieve everything you want in life if you never stop and think about what it is that you want, and you never actually set these things as priorities?
Unfortunately, the simple truth is not so obvious to the majority of Americans (or the majority of people around the world, for that matter). Why is that? Well, there are four principle reasons why most people do not set goals.
They think the goals aren't that important. Some people simply don't understand the value in setting goals because they have never experienced the process. Perhaps they do not have any family members or acquaintances who emphasize the importance of setting goals.
They don't know how to set goals. Many people have never learned the process of setting definite goals. In addition, many persons think that they have goals simply because they have fantasies about making $1 million or losing weight at some undefined point in the future. Of course, there is a big difference between a wish and a goal. Far too many persons are lacking a well defined, written goal and a corresponding plan to achieve it.
They have a fear of failure. None of us likes to experience failure. It can be an emotionally toil and leave us very discouraged, and many people simply stop trying in order to avoid the pain of future failure. The key is to learn from our failures and improve the next time around rather than simply giving up in order to avoid failure.
They fear rejection. The fourth reason is similar to the third. Many people simply avoid goals out of a fear of rejection. They are concerned about failing and having other people ridiculing them. They are also concerned of family members looking down because of goals that are supposedly too ambitious or unrealistic.
All of these are common reasons for not having a goal, but none of them serves as a legitimate excuse. The key is to overcome the obstacles and fears that keep us from setting and achieving our most important priorities in life.
For those of us who have been involved in the self-improvement industry, it seems pretty obvious that goal setting is a powerful and indispensable strategy for achieving more of the things you want in life. After all, how can you possibly achieve everything you want in life if you never stop and think about what it is that you want, and you never actually set these things as priorities?
Unfortunately, the simple truth is not so obvious to the majority of Americans (or the majority of people around the world, for that matter). Why is that? Well, there are four principle reasons why most people do not set goals.
They think the goals aren't that important. Some people simply don't understand the value in setting goals because they have never experienced the process. Perhaps they do not have any family members or acquaintances who emphasize the importance of setting goals.
They don't know how to set goals. Many people have never learned the process of setting definite goals. In addition, many persons think that they have goals simply because they have fantasies about making $1 million or losing weight at some undefined point in the future. Of course, there is a big difference between a wish and a goal. Far too many persons are lacking a well defined, written goal and a corresponding plan to achieve it.
They have a fear of failure. None of us likes to experience failure. It can be an emotionally toil and leave us very discouraged, and many people simply stop trying in order to avoid the pain of future failure. The key is to learn from our failures and improve the next time around rather than simply giving up in order to avoid failure.
They fear rejection. The fourth reason is similar to the third. Many people simply avoid goals out of a fear of rejection. They are concerned about failing and having other people ridiculing them. They are also concerned of family members looking down because of goals that are supposedly too ambitious or unrealistic.
All of these are common reasons for not having a goal, but none of them serves as a legitimate excuse. The key is to overcome the obstacles and fears that keep us from setting and achieving our most important priorities in life.
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