Sometimes Goals Suck: How to Turn That Thinking Into Success

Do you have a goal that you are trying to achieve? To be rich?  Have a fit body?   Or be healthy?  I have goals similar to these, and I just have to say, that goals suck!  Especially these goals that are long term.  And I am not talking a few weeks to achieve, but a few years, and possibly decades.  How does one keep going on a journey that will take this long?

Give me a few moments of your time.  Because first, I want to just vent and talk about how much goals suck.  But then, I want to flip that thinking and try to leave you with a better mindset on having goals.  Because having goals, is the secret to achieving them!  Make your goals “suck”cessful.  (See what I did there?  Yep, I am cheesy like that)

Why Goals Suck

You are always thinking of them 

So much of my life has been spent thinking about weight loss and money.  I just can’t help myself.  The problem is that so much of my mental energy has gone into these topics, and setting goals around them, that I just don’t stop thinking about it.  Sometimes, I wonder if I could use that mental energy elsewhere, I might have solved World Peace by now. 

You can be a failure

I have set thousands of various goals throughout my lifetime, and I get disappointed every time I don’t achieve them.  This is defeating and it makes it hard not to just go out and splurge when you are feeling sorry for yourself.  If I didn’t have goals, I just wouldn’t have anything to feel bad about

Long term Goals take FOREVER 

In a world of instant gratification, it is hard to wait to achieve our goals.  We want it right here, right now.  I can’t even wait for certain pages to download on the internet, much less wait 4 weeks just to lose 4 pounds.  Ugh!  I want to lose 20 pounds by the end of the month…or by tomorrow morning when I will be stepping on my scale to see how much progress I have made.  Don’t deny that you secretly wish the same when you step on the scale!

Goals mean work

Think about it.  If you have a goal, then you have work to do.  No goals, no work!  Wouldn’t life just be much simpler then?

Now I know that this sounds like I haven’t achieved any goals that I have set out to do, but that simply isn’t true. There are many areas in my life that I have found that success.  Goals are the secret to achieving your dreams, and it can and will happen if you go about it in the right way.  Here are just a few things to remember so that your goals will be “Suck”cessful. 

How to make goals Successful

Make them realistic 

This is one of the biggest mistakes in goal setting.  You need to be realistic, not based on what you think, but what has been a past pattern in your life or in general.  Don’t set a goal to payoff your debt of $45,000 in a year while having a salary of $50,000.  It probably isn’t realistic, unless you have plans to increase your salary or get  a few side hustles.  Don’t set a goal to lose 20 pounds by the end of the month.  All the recommendations are to lose 1-2 pounds a week.  Be real about what you want to accomplish and how much time it will take you to achieve your goal. 

Positive thinking

This post started as the total opposite of positive thinking, but what encouraged me to write this is the fact that I am just now realizing how much of a habit I have of thinking negatively about goals.  I need to surround myself in positive thought and change that habit. If you believe it can happen, you will make it happen!

Have a Timeline 

You need to set when you will achieve your goal.  I have a timeline to retire in 10-15 years, which is much earlier than the age of 62.  Although, I have dreams to retire in 1-2 years, it just isn’t realistic.  So I will make myself be patient, and continually optimize my choices.  Perhaps, I will retire even earlier, but only time will tell.

Along this timeline, you also want to make sure you have other timely smaller goals that you are trying to achieve.  Once you start hitting those little milestones you can see if you are on target to hit your main goal early, on time, or if you need to step it up a little.

Get serious…I mean really serious

 How many times do you set a goal, and then a few weeks go by and you aren’t seeing results.  But you realize, you haven’t been taking it very seriously.  That happens to me all the time.  I recently have gone 2 months and have lost a total of 0.8 pounds.  Even thought I say I am on a weight loss journey, I just haven’t been taking it seriously.  And I haven’t been doing all the things that I know I need to do…such as tracking my food, eating less sugar, eating more vegetables.  To win, I need to make sure that I am taking this seriously and follow the program that has shown me success.

Want to read how I lost 35 pounds by walking?

Failure will happen…accept it

It is going to happen.  At some point you will set goals, and you won’t make them.   You need to see all the progress you have made and not let a minor setback get in the way.  Here is my example, and I do have many examples of failure.  This past month, we have not been taking our budget as serious.  And since, I feel like I have blown it, I want to just spend money.  What does it matter?  Well, it does matter.  Sure, it may have not been the best month on our pocketbook, but over the past year we have done great. 

You can read our story of how we increased our net worth by $100,000 in one year here. 

We have made significant progress in our budgeting and management of our finances.  One month of being over budget will not hurt our progress.  Accept this setback and make plans to improve next month.

If you want to learn more about setting goals to achieve your dreams, I encourage you to get my 7 day course.  It is completely free and will give you even more insight into how to set reasonable goals and make progress on this long journey ahead of you.

I wish you the best of luck.  You can do this!