Goal Setting: Do Your Expectations Outweigh Your Achievments?

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 26th, 2010

Does it feel at times as if you can't achieve the goals you are setting for yourself no matter what you do? Do you feel as if all your efforts are a waste of time because nothing seems to get any better for you? Maybe it's not the effort you're putting forth that's the problem. Maybe it's the goals that you have set for yourself.

We humans have the habit at times of seeing the big picture as the issue we need to deal with at the moment. Then when the big issue hasn't been dealt with in the time frame we envision, we get discouraged and decide that it's not worth the effort.

Let me share a couple examples with you to show what I mean. Let's say you've decided you need to lose fifty pounds to get to the weight you want to be at. That's great. But what is your plan to lose the fifty pounds?

What changes in your diet and exercise regimen are you going to implement in order to achieve your goal? And more importantly. what is a safe and realistic average for you to lose each week and how many weeks will that plan take you to lose the fifty pounds?

Let's look at another example. You have an internet business and you have set a goal for yourself to quit your job and work full-time on the internet within a year.

Once again, that is a great plan. But how much will you need to make in your on-line business on a monthly basis in order to achieve your goal in a year? And how much will you need to make each day in order to hit that mark each month? What markrting plans do you have in place and will thay make it possible for you to make that much each day?

You see, it's not always your efforts that are the problem. Sometimes it's simply a matter of not having a well thought out plan, and confusing goals with dreams. The big picture is the dream. That's what you eventually hope to accomplish, whether it's losing fifty pounds, working full-time on the internet, or whatever the case may be.

Your goals are the short term plans you have that link together to get you to your dream. If you try to achieve the big dream all at once without a viable plan made up of short term goals, you will soon get discouraged and give up without ever realizing your dreams.

So, if you're expectations outweigh your achievments, then maybe you're trying to reach the top of the ladder without climbing from rung to rung.

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