First and foremost, before we get into setting goals, what exactly are goals? Goals are the desired outcomes that a person or group of people envision for the future with the intention and purpose of achieving them. Success is defined by goals, and goals determine success. All successful people keep their objectives in the back of their minds. People who are unsuccessful do not set goals. Successful people know what they want and work hard to achieve it. Setting goals is a master skill of success; without goals, there is no success.
Consider any sport, such as football, where the goal of the game is to get the ball into the back of the net. A football match would be pointless without that goal. The same analogy applies to life; without goals, you live an unexamined life, which Socrates believes is not worth living. You fly like an arrow with goals, straight and true to your target.
- In reality, you put the ball into the net.
There’s a chance you have more natural potential than you can possibly use in a thousand lifetimes. Whatever you have accomplished thus far is only a fraction of what you are capable of accomplishing. Do you want to accomplish more? If so, you set new objectives.
A clear goal is usually achieved because it boosts your confidence, develops your competence, and increases your level of motivation.
Most of the time, you become what you think about. Your exterior is simply a reflection of what’s on the inside. What you think about is mirrored back to you. Whatever you think about constantly manifests in reality.
There is no lateral displacement, unlike a standard mirror.
Successful people consider what they want and how to get it, which is their goal, and they achieve their goals by paying the price required to get there. However, unsuccessful people talk about anything except what they want. Most of the time, they discuss their problems and concerns, as well as who is to blame.
Living without a goal is analogous to embarking on a journey without a destination. That is unlikely to be of any use. However, having a destination makes the journey more meaningful. The same is true in life. Setting goals gives your life meaning; it demonstrates that you have a purpose. Another advantage is that it leads to success.
Surprisingly, humans have goal-achieving abilities. When you are crystal clear about your goal by simply deciding what you want, you will begin to move directly towards it, and it will begin to move directly towards you. You and the set goal will meet at the right time and place.
Many people, however, do not have clear, written, measurable, time-bound goals that they work toward every day. This is still a mystery, and we may be curious as to why. These are some of the reasons why people don’t set goals.
12 Reasons Why People Do Not Set Goals
1. INADEQUATE OBSERVATION OF SET GOALS
Personally, I believe that a lack of proper orientation is the primary reason why people rarely or never set goals.
Just as a computer cannot output what has not already been inputted, we cannot maintain certain habits for which we have little or no orientation or were not raised with as children.
When our parents or guardians do not set and achieve goals for us, we grow up to be the same. Of course, as we all know, fruit does not fall far from the tree.
Because there is no grooming from parents, elder siblings, relatives, or childhood advisors when they themselves do not see the importance of these goals, many children grow up not knowing what setting goals entails, which leads us to reason number two.
2. SETTING GOALS IS NOT IMPORTANT
Most people believe that goals are unimportant because they do not understand the significance of goals and do not believe that they can be achieved.
As previously stated, parents cannot instill the proper orientation in their children because they are ignorant of the importance of goal setting and its role in our success story.
Most of the time, people adopt this mindset not because they believe goals aren’t important, but because they don’t know how to set them, which brings us to reason number three.
3. THEY HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO SET GOALS.
People frequently fail to set goals because they do not understand how to do so. We all think we know until we try and realize we have the wrong mindset about goal setting.
Many people believe they have goals when, in reality, they have a series of wishes or possibly fantasies. Of course, it is acceptable to set the bar high, but setting goals entails being realistic while also breaking through limitations.
People come up with wishes such as “I want a lovely home”, “I want to buy a Mercedes” “I want a lot of money in the future”. They say all of these things and call them goals, not realizing that they are merely wishes shared by everyone. A goal, on the other hand, is not the same as a wish.
A goal is specific and precise. A goal is a well-planned strategy for achieving it. A goal not only tells you what you want to achieve, but it also shows you how to go about achieving it and how to tell when you’ve achieved it. We have short-term, long-term, and daily goals.
Remember, our daily goals are more important than our short-term goals, just as our short-term goals are more important than our long-term goals; in other words, you can’t create long-term goals unless you have a detailed plan for achieving short-term goals while on the journey to your long-term goals.
3. FAILURES TO MEET PREVIOUSLY SET GOALS
Even when some people have a good background orientation on goal setting and are aware of its importance, they do not set goals due to previous disappointments.
Many times, we set goals and have high expectations with the hope of achieving them, but we are often disappointed when we do not achieve these set goals.
The majority of the great men we see today would almost certainly count their disappointments and failures while recounting their successes. As a result of these previous disappointments, reason number 5 emerges.
4. FEAR OF FAILURE
This is referred to as Atychiphobia. It is the single most significant impediment to success.
As previously stated, past disappointments play a role in developing this phobia, and even those who have never set goals or been disappointed find it difficult to do so because they are afraid and filled with negative thoughts of ‘it wouldn’t work out when undertaking other challenges even before trying, but hey, ever thought of putting your mind to it and making it work?
Most people are now more afraid of failing to achieve a goal than they are of actually achieving it.
Individuals suffering from Atychiphobia fear failure primarily because they lack confidence in their abilities and what they can accomplish. People who are afraid of failing frequently give up trying unless they are guaranteed or assured of success or perfection in certain tasks.
Atychiphobia is frequently associated with traumatic or humiliating events in one’s past. Strict or overly demanding parents, as well as demeaning siblings or friends, can all contribute to a child’s extreme fear of failure.
Minor mistakes made as a child that could have resulted in embarrassment or ridicule. Nobody wants to be found looking stupid. But we fail to recognize that “failures are not failures, but motivation to put in more effort and do better” (DollyMchottney).
And many of these failures are the result of a lack of passion, which brings us to point number six.
5. NO DREAM
In some cases, people do not set goals because their lives are already planned for them before they are born. They discover that they are unable to set goals because they have little or no passion for their ostensible goal.
These are situations in which families want a certain standard and insert a certain mentality of what they want for you [it could be a career choice situation, which is very common] and you can barely go for what you want.
You find yourself growing up into such; sometimes it may coincide with what we want for ourselves, but other times it may not. Also, in cases where we are raised in strict homes where we appear to have little or no choice, we often find ourselves not putting much effort into it or even having any form of goal-setting because there is no passion.
“The goal motivator “Passion” enhances goal achievement.” -DollyMchottney
6. FUTURE ANXIETY
This is a real and distinct phobia known as chronophobia. It is defined as a persistent and frequently irrational fear of the future or the passage of time.
Chronophobia affects different people differently, and it frequently contributes to a reluctance to set goals.
A young man suffering from this phobia, for example, may abruptly drop out of college, where most people his age are focused on successfully graduating and preparing for their future.
In this context, I would associate this with xenophobia, or fear of the unknown, which can take many forms.
Because life is a mystery and we have many questions with no answers, the fear of the unknown can lead to overwhelming thoughts, which can affect one’s daily life and activities and prevent them from achieving or setting goals.
7. FRIENDLY INFLUENCE
I previously mentioned how our family backgrounds prevented us from having proper orientation. However, even if some people have good orientation from their various homes.
They enter the school system and mingle with or keep friends who lack this goal-setting orientation and see no reason to. And, as we all know, bad habits are killed by bad associations.
Of course, you could set goals at first, but over time, you would most likely find yourself not seeing reasons why you should, eventually adapting to their mentality.
It is common knowledge that birds with similar feathers flock together. Constant association or mingling with people who do not see the value in setting goals eventually rubs off on you. And then, sooner or later, you find yourself lacking motivation to set goals.
8. NONCHALANT/WRONG MINDSET OVER GOAL SETTING
Most people are actually very casual and take goal setting very lightly because they have the wrong mindset. The mindset of “let us drink and eat for tomorrow we are to die”. This simply means that the popular belief that we only have one life has prevented many people from setting goals.
They clearly do not care or see any reason to. They take life as it comes with the nonchalant belief that life is meant to be enjoyed and that goal setting is unnecessary because we don’t know what tomorrow will bring; after all, you only live once[YOLO].
They maintain this mindset despite the fact that, in reality, we live every day and die only once. And we must learn to distinguish between enjoying life and destroying the future at some point in our lives.
9. LAXITY
Certainly, a sizable proportion of people do not set a goal for no other reason than laziness.
Although one may have a thorough understanding of the importance of goal setting and how it can improve one’s life and success, the desire to act on that understanding may be lacking.
That is the entire summary of laziness versus goal setting. A lazy man cannot be a goal setter or a goal getter because to achieve a goal, one must be willing to work, be determined, and leave their comfort zone.
“Goal achievers are never slackers.” -DollyMchottney
10. DELAYING SETTING GOALS
So Tasha finished reading the importance of goal setting and said with so much motivation “from tomorrow henceforth I would start setting goals and work towards it” but then tomorrow comes knocking and she spends her day sleeping, watching TV, etc and then said “I would start the following day”.
So, guess what? Tasha ended up with no objectives. “Why start tomorrow when you can start today”. Procrastination and laziness are inextricably linked. Many people intend to set goals, but their procrastination attitude causes them to remain at square one with no goals because they lack self-discipline, which brings us to our final point.
11. INSUFFICIENT SELF-DISCIPLINE
The act of self-discipline begins with our daily goals. Discipline is a very important tool in goal setting, and many people lack it, making it difficult for them to actually set goals.
It was a major war when I first started setting daily goals and trying to imbibe the act of self-discipline.
I often find myself on the wagon one moment and then falling off the next, as if there is no need to write out another set of goals for the day that I will not follow.
I’m sure many people have been in such a situation once or twice, resulting in them saying “there’s no need” due to a lack of self-discipline.
I could totally relate, but here’s the trick: it’s okay to fall off the wagon once or twice, but the real discipline is the act of sitting down to map out those goals daily while trying harder every day to achieve them and gradually realizing you did better than the previous day and before you know it, you gradually incorporate the act of discipline in goal setting.