Overwhelming Goals

Have you ever announced an ambitious resolution and quickly lost the motivation to follow through with it? Maybe you’ve resolved to become a vegan or reach fluency in a new language in the new year. While it’s highly admirable to set challenging goals, unrealistic goals can keep you jogging in place instead of getting anywhere.

Members of Congress often wisely say “the perfect is the enemy of the good.” In the legislative context, attempting to push a “perfect” bill through both houses of congress without making political concessions is an unrealistic objective. Undertaking too much of a challenge in your life will similarly produce failure, frustration, and a loss of confidence.

The solution is to set realistic goals. Factor in the steps involved in achieving a goal, the amount of time and resources required, the level of motivational intensity you will need to maintain, and the hurdles you will face. Involve people who know you well enough to judge whether your goal is realistic, given all of these factors. Don’t be afraid to set a modest goal. Achievement of a modest goal is far more impressive than making a resolution to achieve the unattainable.

Vague, Ill-Defined Objectives

Advance in your career, become more of an intellectual, lose weight, and improve your investment portfolio are all goals that share one ill-fated trait. They’re too vague! They don’t lead to a specified outcome. They’re not S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Bound).

The solution to transform the above vague goals into S.M.A.R.T. goals is to amend them as follows:

1. Get promoted to accountant manager for the southwest division by December 1.
2. Read The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, and The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli by year-end.
3. Lose 30 pounds by August 1 through strictly following the Mediterranean Diet, pre-preparing meals for the week each Saturday morning, and running 40 miles a week.
4. Re-allocating your investment mix precisely to 45 percent domestic stocks, 25 percent international stocks and 30 percent domestic corporate bonds by March 1.

Mental Unpreparedness

Every former cigarette smoker recalls multiple failed resolutions to quit—until one day they were tired of feeling tired, their clothes reeking of smoke, and getting sick every month. At that point, they were mentally prepared to overcome the challenges of going quickly from a pack a day habit to no cigarettes at all. Sometimes mental preparedness comes when we can no longer stand the pain points of our present condition and have to do something about it. Sometimes mental preparedness comes when we hike our way up successively higher hills before conquering Mount Everest.

The solution is NOT to passively wait until we are at a good place in our lives to tackle a challenge. It is to first identify how we can get to that good place. What are the obstacles in the way. What are the incremental or smaller challenges to take on before making the loftiest possible resolution? For instance, you may want to get on a diet plan first before quitting smoking if that is more attainable and would bring about a better mindset.

Poor Time Management

If you’re like most working professionals, you can’t do everything you want to do in life. You may want to volunteer on your HOA committee, build three homes with Habitat for Humanity, and train for the Dallas Marathon, but if you have three kids, a sick mother, and a spouse who would like to eat more dinners out, something has to give.

The solution is effective time management. There are many approaches to this, and we highly advise reading about the subject in extensive detail. Many people use to-do lists and cross off tasks as they perform them, without giving weight to high priority goals. Time management concepts like those in Stephen Covey’s First Things First should be on everyone’s list of things to learn.

Engaging in Activity and Not Achievement

Even highly motivated, hard-working people fail. One of the most common reasons for this is that they dive in too quickly into activity that may be related to an achievement, but is not necessary or not sufficient for its accomplishment. If you have ever set a specific physical fitness goal like losing a certain amount of weight or gaining a certain physique, you have probably experienced this. You may have immediately joined a gym and gone to work on the many machines, or enrolled in cardio classes. Without a specific plan informed by knowledgeable fitness experts, the specific exercises you performed were likely not the right combination to efficiently produce your intended results.

The solution is collaborating with someone who can offer expertise, and to whom you can be held accountable for achieving your goals. It’s one of the reasons why the fitness training profession continues to grow.

Another scenario may be that your need to accomplish a specific objective may have been emotionally satisfied simply by taking a significant first step. Some actions toward a goal can produce a dopamine release and a feeling of satisfaction that actually inhibits the achievement of the end goal. For example, the actions of purchasing a road bike or a kayak can feel like a major milestone toward a fitness goal and causes for celebration. But these actions are in fact, just a first step, and a meaningless step without continued progress. The significant and challenging part of meeting your fitness resolution is the endless repetition of hard physical labor.

The solution to not falling flat after a false first step is to avoid first steps that can produce a dopamine rush. Don’t buy that flashy treadmill; instead, start with the humble pair of running shoes you already have.

Have you set new year’s resolutions in the past? What has been your experience, and what have you learned from your successes and failures. Feel free to share your memories with us on Facebook!