7 Common Goal-Setting Mistakes You Can’t Make Anymore

I know we all love to set new goals, and sometimes we get a little too excited and set new, huge goals on a moment’s whim. In a way, it’s good – if you like to set new goals for yourself, that means that you are serious about your future and that you really want to make some real changes in your life.

While the enthusiasm is good, it’s important to ensure that you’re not making any rookie mistakes while setting your goals. After all, you really want to change your life and not just waste your time, right?

The unfortunate truth (which I’m sure we both hate) is that reaching your goals can be super hard! One of the most annoying things when it comes to working on improving your life is that you often feel like you’re just wasting your time and not getting any results.

There can of course be many reasons for not seeing results, but one of them is making mistakes already when setting your next goal. Let’s dive deeper into some common mistakes you might inadvertently be making. If you just keep these in mind, you’re much more likely to reach the goals that matter to you.

1. Setting goals on a whim

If you’re as enthusiastic about setting new goals as I am, I’m sure that you too have made this mistake.

Setting a new goal on a whim after seeing an inspiring movie, watching a Youtube video, or simply getting a random idea, usually doesn’t get you very far.

Even if becoming a lawyer sounds like a fantastic idea right after seeing Legally Blonde, you might want to let your new idea simmer for a while before setting any new goals. This also applies to deciding to learn a new language, starting any online projects to make money, and creating new exercise routines.

2. Not being clear

This is a super common mistake when setting a new goal. People tend to set general goals, like “make more money” or “travel more”, but those goals don’t really mean anything.

Traveling more could mean doing an extra day trip to a nearby town each year or backpacking around South America for six months. The question is, which option is right for you? What do you really mean when you say you want to travel more or make more money?

You need to be as clear as possible, so that you know exactly what you want and what counts as having achieved that goal. Otherwise, you won’t even know what you’re esupposed to do to make your goal happen.

3. Setting goals you don’t actually care about

This one is actually more difficult to avoid than it sounds. You naturally only set goals that you care about, right?

Wrong.

We are all influenced by other people, and that’s why you might inadvertently set goals that aren’t right for you. Perhaps all your friends are talking about marriage, so you too look for that special someone. But in reality, somewhere deep inside, you have always preferred being alone.

Or maybe you are planning on buying a house because all your life you’ve heard how important it is to own a house. But is that what you really want?

Would you actually be happier in a two-story house with a backyard compared to a convenient 2-bedroom apartment? Would you do something in your new house that you can’t do in your current home?

Setting goals because of social pressure or status is always the wrong reason. And while it can be hard to know what is right for you (and sometimes you just need to try and see what happens), it’s important to stop and think aboutt why you’re setting your goals.

4. Assuming everything will go right

The unfortunate thing about life is that sometimes unexpected things happen. And when it comes to goals, you’ll often learn that what you thought would be quite easy to do, is actually really hard.

Blogging is a great example – no matter how fascinating you think your posts are, if your titles and intros aren’t interesting enough, people aren’t going to read your posts.

And there will always be Google algorithm updates and technical problems that will hinder your growth or drop your traffic to almost zero just when you thought you were doing well.

As discouraging as those things can be, they are to be expected and you should consider them mere bumps in the road.

That being said, it’s fundamentally important that you are prepared for them so that you’ll know what to do when things go wrong.

5. Setting too many goals at once

Another mistake some overly enthusiastic people (like me) make is setting way too many goals at once.

You might be inspired to change your whole life right now, but while that in itself is good, you don’t want to start too many new projects at once. If you have too much on your plate, it’s unlikely that you’ll reach your goals.

Take your time to really think about which goals you actually want to set right now and focus on one or two at first to see whether they’ll take off. Later on, when you are confident that you have enough time and energy, you can set some new ones.

6. Goals that are way too optimistic

I’m the last person to be discouraging or tell you that your goals are too big (they are not). I most definitely believe in you and your ability to make your dreams come true!

But there’s a difference between being ambitious and being unrealistic.

It’s not easy to reach big goals that require a lot of time and involve learning new skills, especially when they partly depend on other people.

Let’s say you dream of having 100,000 followers on Instagram. That’s definitely doable, since many people have done it. But if you currently have 500 followers and you don’t know anything about growing your account, it would be unrealistic to set a goal to reach that 100k 6 months later.

Not because it’s impossible, but it would be very hard for you to cram all the learning, trials and errors, and consistently publishing quality content, into only 6 months.

It’s all about the time frame. Two or three years would be much more realistic, but you still need to take into account many factors, like algorithm changes and how much time you have per day to commit to your goal.

7. Setting a goal, but no plan

A goal without a plan is just a dream. Don’t make the mistake of simply telling yourself that from now on, you’ll eat healthy or you’re going to start a podcast.

You need to know exactly how you’re going to make it happen. What are all the steps you will need to take? What will you do on a daily basis? What are the skills you need to learn, do you need to give up anything, and how will you track your progress?

When you have a solid, detailed plan that takes into account your daily schedule, all the things you need to do and the possible problems that might come your way, you’re much more likely to reach your goal.

Are you ready to set your next goal?

I hope you’re still enthusiastic about changing your life and setting new goals. It’s just important to take your time when choosing which goals to set and when creating plans to reach them.

Goal-setting is a wonderful way to level up your life and make things happen. You just need to make sure your goals are achievable and that you are serious about them!

If you are interested in staying organized and efficient when working on your goals, do check out my shop where you will find all kinds of helpful printables!

And if you’re looking for more information on goal-setting, may I suggest these two articles next:

6 Tips to Not Be Overwhelmed By Your Goals

What You Should Do With Conflicting Goals