The Biggest Mistakes You Need to Avoid When Setting and Working Towards Goals

Have you ever set a goal and then be able to reach it within the time frame you set for yourself?

Was completing the task even easier than you’d imagined it would be? 

If so, you probably created a reasonable goal for yourself. Reasonable goals are supportive and achievable rather than ambiguous and discouraging. 

But we’ve all set less-than-reachable goals, too. You might have had a goal in mind, but for one reason or another, weren’t able to achieve it. Likely, you didn’t construct that goal to ensure your success. 

What were you doing wrong? Here are some of the biggest mistakes you can make when setting and working towards goals. 

 

⛔ Your goals are vague and too easy to achieve.

Edward Locke and Gary Latham, two researchers in goal setting and performance, discussed what separates useful goals from ineffective ones.

In his work, Locke found that “over 90% of the time, goals that were specific and challenging, but not overly challenging, led to higher performance.”

Goal setters were less likely to achieve their plans if the goals they set were generic or too easy. 

 In other words, in order for goals to be motivating, they need to have particular parameters, like “I want to send out five RFPs before the end of the month.” They must also be difficult, so they’re meant to achieve but not so complex that they become overwhelming. 

Full Focus founder Michael Hyatt echoes these researchers in suggesting that many people don’t set specific enough goals. Vague goals, with specific mentions of which and how don’t serve goal-setters well. 

“Most goals – even written ones – suffer from being too vague. ‘I want to write a book’ or ‘I want a better marriage’ are too general. Which book do you want to write? How do you want to improve your marriage?” Hyatt said.

 

⛔ Your goals don’t incorporate a completion marker or a sense of urgency.

Often, goal-setters stumble because they don’t know if or when they’ll complete a goal.

The finish line of each goal should be baked into its construction. 

For instance, let’s say you do want to write a book, like in Hyatt’s example above. This goal is far too vague to be useful. When is the book finished? After you complete a draft? After you send it to trusted colleagues to review? After you get it published? To make this goal more specific, it should detail the parameters for completion. 

You may also fall into a trap where you don’t have a timeline or a set of sub-goals that lead you toward achieving a complex task. For instance, if, say, you want to accomplish a difficult, multifaceted goal in one year, what markers do you have in place to mark your progress? 

“We become complacent throughout the year, with a false sense of security that we will always have enough time to achieve our goals – wasting most of the year and then desperately trying to make up for a lost time as the end of the year draws near,” said Nelson Tressler, founder of goal-setting app IGotSmarter.

So, what are some sub-goals and deadlines that can help you advance toward a larger goal? If you don’t have these sub-goals, each of which with its own parameters for completion, then you may find that you’re nowhere near your bigger goal – and become so discouraged you give it up entirely.

 

⛔ You aren’t using tried-and-true goal-setting principles.

Over decades of research, experts Locke and Latham came up with five goal-setting principles that help individuals be more likely to achieve success. These should incorporate the following:

• Clarity – this best-practices involves the specificity mentioned above. The more particular the goal, the more likely you’ll be to achieve it. 
• Challenge – if you reach a goal you didn’t think you’d be able to achieve, you’ll build “a winning mindset” as well as give you the confidence to set goals you wouldn’t have thought you’d be able to achieve. If a goal is too simple or too easily achieved, it may actually be a sub-goal that needs to be completed on your road to a more complex objective. 
• Commitment – some people may set goals that they don’t then commit to achieving. This could be because the goals seem too complicated or far off, or perhaps they’re not specific enough. Instead, you need to be able to commit to your goals in order to achieve them. 
• Feedback – you need to receive feedback, both from yourself and others, about how close you’re coming to achieving your goals. For instance, if you haven’t achieved one of your measurable parameters of success, you may need to modify your long-term objective. 
• Task Complexity – Tepring Crocker of Pryor Learning explains what Locke means here: 

“This principle considers the observation that some goals require more complexity to achieve. ‘Working out three times a week’ is a goal that requires only identifying a preferred place or form of exercise. ‘Making 5% more sales’ may involve many more tasks to reach – marketing plans and collateral, incentive plans for salespeople, research, lead nurturing, etc.,” he said.

 

Avoiding the Biggest Mistakes You Can Make When Setting and Working Towards Goals

 

If you can identify what you want, you’re more likely to get there. That’s the benefit of setting goals.

Humans are present-oriented creatures, and creating useful goals help you prepare yourself now to get what you want in the future. 

However, some of the biggest mistakes you can make when setting and working towards goals will make your objectives less than effective. Instead, consider writing CLEAR goals that clarify where you want to go. Read our guide to see why CLEAR goals are more useful to modern professionals than AGILE ones.