About This Episode

In this episode, I will talk about the mistakes that people make in goal setting. In reality, some of us have never thought about setting goals each year. So when we are talking about setting goals or even thinking about what you want to achieve this year, sometimes there are people who find it weird. 

I was like that before too. After having kids, I thought it was not easy to achieve the goals that I wanted to do each year. But then, after trying and implementing the goal-setting system that I have been using over the last maybe five years, I realized that it’s not as hard as you think. 

When setting goals, there are just some things that you have to be aware of. But really, it’s just as simple as you taking some time sitting down and reflecting on what do you want to achieve this year? 

You have to think about your goals like a roadmap in your life or a compass. If you don’t know where you want to go, you can’t ever get there. 

To nail down the direction that you want to go, you have to be clear about this.

Mistake number one is not setting any goal.

It is the most common mistake that the majority make every year because they think resolutions are enough. 

They make resolutions. 

Maybe they think they want to stop eating sugar; perhaps this year, they want to start running and read five books; these are resolutions. They say that you want to create more of it around a new year. They think that it is an excellent time to think about the direction they want to go.

However, resolutions don’t work because if it’s not written down and you are not clear, you can’t make real progress to make your resolutions a reality. 

Are you the kind of person who is always in the new year? You say you want to do some things, or maybe you even listed all of these things that you want to do? But at the end of the year, you blame yourself, or you feel down because you never achieve any of those things you want to achieve. 

It is normal to feel that way. Because it is not something that we have been taught about growing up.

We don’t know how to make really achieve the goals that we truly desire achieve. 

What does this mean by goal setting and achieving things you want to achieve? 

When I think about an attainable goal, it does not mean that the goal must be too easy in the sense that, by the next week, you have already achieved it, and that’s the end of it.

That’s not an exciting goal or something that will stretch you, right? The first step is to sit down and set that goal.

The second mistake is if you are making that goal too easily attainable. 

When you set goals that you know in your heart, you know that you can achieve them quickly. You cannot be excited about it throughout the year, or at least the next six months or three months.

How do you set goals for yourself? 

Some of the questions that I ask myself when setting goals are, what are the cool things that if I can do it, or if I can achieve it will mean that this year will be the best year for me? 

Sometimes it’s not easy for us to think about what we want to do. Again, apart from hustling apart from, you know, creating more money, finding money and, you know, really being responsible or doing all those things required of us. Therefore put some time aside and maybe get out from your current routine and environment to reflect on what would be the best 2022.

Also, when I set an easily attainable goal, I always find myself, will lose motivation quickly because it will not push me and make me work harder to get it. Mid-ways I’ll become bored of pursuing it, maybe because the goal doesn’t move me out of my comfort zone, and ones that will make me excited about pursuing it. 

Therefore remember, when you are creating your goal, think about all of the domains of life, make sure you are excited to achieve all of these goals that you have put for yourself. The main thing here is to focus on what you want to accomplish this year. 

The third mistake is forgetting to set deadlines.

If you are one of those people who like to make resolutions and create these statements of wanting to do something, but then you don’t put any deadlines on it, there’s a high chance that you will not achieve them. 

Not using deadlines can result in a lack of a productive mindset. You’ll probably not make any progress on it. And when you don’t put a deadline on your goal, eventually, it becomes the last priority in your life. Then, when December comes, you get overwhelmed. And it’s not because you don’t think about wanting to achieve the goal during the new year. It’s because you don’t put any deadline on it. 

And because of that, you don’t feel the urgency and the importance of getting it done when you should have made progress in the past twelve months that you have. 

Not setting aside time every day to work towards them also sets your progress back. 

When it comes to goal setting and managing progress. You have to be conscious to make time in your schedule every day to move forward with your goal. You probably think that setting time aside to work towards your goal on top of everything you’ve already have on your To-Do lists seems impossible, but it’s not that complicated. 

Say you are working on a project at work. If you are working on the project work and you’re, you have this goal that you want to achieve, writing down how long it takes to complete each project during the day along the way helps you to keep tabs on how much daily time you’ve devoted to achieving your goal. This means that you have at least put aside some time every day, block that out to ensure that the goal you have is also prioritized into your daily schedule. 

The critical takeaway is to view this mistake as an opportunity to grow. Moving forward, you should not constantly adjust your schedule to cram everything and anything into your schedule. 

You are changing your mindset to include a conscious effort to track what you’ve already done to attain your goals and how it affects your time management.

You must have this clear goal because it becomes your roadmap. You are overwhelmed with so many things to do every day because you are not clear about what purpose you want to achieve. When this happens, you will get overwhelmed with people pulling you in many different directions. You start to second guess yourself, and you don’t know where to prioritize. 

Take this end of the year as a time to reflect on where you want to go in your life. Moving forward, making a conscious effort is the key to taking back control of your life and crushing the dream that you already have in your mind. 

The fourth mistake in goal-setting is not adding self-development as one of your yearly goals.

You have also remember to have personal growth, self-development, and make sure that you move at least 1% towards the positive direction.

Make that conscious effort. Because if you don’t consciously take this continuous self-development thing, you will notice that over time, instead of becoming better at something, managing your life, and so on, you start to realize that why is this negative thinking that creeps in your life more often? 

And why is it like you cannot handle it anymore? 

Because the reality is that you haven’t put aside some time to learn things for your self-growth. 

Those are just some tips and some of the mistakes that I’ve seen over and over again, especially during the new year.

Before we say goodbye to 2021, here’s my question for you…

Reflect on this…

How can you progress the goal you have written down every day throughout 2022?

That’s all for today. Come back again in next week’s episode, and remember to start your day with intention, love what you do, and end your day with gratitude. I’ll see you next week. As salaam alaikum

Comment below or let’s talk about it over Instagram yourock.podcast in the comments.

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The Mindset You Need to Cultivate to Achieve Success.