9 Obstacles Stopping You From Reaching Your Goals
Setting clear goals and having a plan of how to achieve them is an important step toward goal-setting. It’s also crucial to understand the Obstacles Stopping You From Reaching Your Goals.
To effectively fight a battle, you need to be clear on what obstacles stand between you and winning. An awareness of your barriers is the first step. Then you can come up with strategies that will help deal with the barriers and lead you to success.
I’m taking you on a journey to crush your goals, and to set yourself up for what you need to start and on that journey, we need to talk about what you need to quit first. Evaluating the negative influences in your life is just as important as taking inventory of the positives that you need to add to it.
Achieving your goals and dreams will require you to learn and do many new things. This includes new habits, new ways of thinking and even learning new skills.
With commitment and dedication, you can live your dream life. But you need to understand the Obstacles Stopping You from Reaching Your Goals in the first place.
l don’t want you to quit on yourself or your goals. So let’s dive in and understand some key factors that you need to consider, avoid, and deal with to reach the finish line.
RELATED: 3 Things You Need to Do To Prepare to Crush Your Goals
9 Obstacles Stopping You From Reaching Your Goals
Whether you’ve set personal goals or professional goals you need to be prepared for the hard work that it will take to achieve them. While goal setting is the first step in the process, you need to be aware of common roadblocks that could hinder you from being successful.
It’s better to be prepared for the challenges than be surprised by them. Despite our best intentions, a lack of planning for what could go wrong leads to a lack of motivation, stress, and lack of time management.
Knowing the Obstacles Stopping You From Reaching Your Goals helps you eliminate unhealthy and unproductive habits and focus on what you can control. That way you can unlock your full potential and propel yourself toward success.
Procrastination can be a stumbling block to your goals and dreams
I dare you to quit procrastinating. Yup, I said it! Procrastination is the killer of all goals. Putting it off until tomorrow, next week, next month, or even next year reduces your chances of success in the long run.
Putting things off until the timing is right, or until you feel ready, or until you have all the resources you need is just as good as saying you’re NEVER going to start. Don’t put off for tomorrow what you could do today.
One of the effective ways to achieve your New Year’s resolutions is to pick two small goals you can do every day that will move you toward your large goals. If you commit to this, procrastination will be lessened. You’ll be prepared and can attack your ambitious goals by taking these smaller steps in your daily life.
As you take these action steps, you’ll make consistent progress and this will motivate you to keep going because you’ll see the impact they make in your life. Just because they are small steps doesn’t mean they don’t have a huge influence.
Another way to eliminate procrastination start doing something immediately, without thinking and giving your mind time to come up with excuses.
Make a list of 1-3 things you WILL accomplish that day and choose to not allow yourself to do an activity you like until those items on the list are checked off. As you commit to doing what’s in your control, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how far it will take you on the path to your big dreams.
Distractions can lead to a lack of focus on your goals
One of the reasons you believe is stopping you from reaching your goals is lack of time, right?
But have you ever considered that you’re letting distractions like TV, YouTube, Netflix, or social media hijack your time, momentum, attention, and energy? These may look like small things but these time traps could be a major obstacle to you going after your dreams.
Maybe one of the reasons you procrastinate is that you feel tired when you get home from work, so you sit in front of the TV for a short break, only to find that a couple of hours flew by and it’s now time for bed. Or you get stuck in the social media rabbit hole.
Stop wasting your time and turn off the distractions. Focus on your dreams and your plan toward achieving them. Remember that ANY progress towards your goals, no matter how small, is still progress.
Choose to work on your goals and strive for a better life, while others prefer the easier way of living – indulging in activities that only bring temporary happiness.
Choose to reward yourself with a show only after your shortlist is checked off. Creating simple daily routines and habits with discipline will help you to get in the action mode and nip procrastination in the bud.
Quit Making Excuses
I dare you to quit making excuses. They are one of the most common roadblocks to crushing your goals and dreams.
I’m sure you’ve heard this saying … Excuses are like armpits. We all have them, and they all stink! Yup, I said it, you stink … or your armpits do. Excuses stink more than armpits. Excuses make me cringe, and, to be honest, I use them plenty myself. I’m not exempt from making them.
Excuses will continue to try seeping into our lives, but we have to figure out a way to overcome them when they do try to creep in and steal us away from our goals.
You all know the excuses I’m talking about!
- “I’m too tired.”
- “I don’t have enough time.”
- “I lack the resources.”
- “I’m not good enough.”
- “I don’t feel ready yet.”
- “I can’t seem to get it all together.”
- “I’m too old/too young.”
- “It’s not the right time.”
Can you see what all these excuses boil down to? Our feelings. They stem from how we are feeling at any given moment, and, ultimately, they stem from a place of fear. If you let your emotions dictate your actions, then you will be no further along come Dec. 31 than you are right now.
Your feelings cannot have a say in your game plan. You need to execute whether you feel like it or not. We go to work even when we don’t feel like it. We pack lunches for our kids even when we don’t feel like it.
We do the laundry even when we don’t feel like it. We take care of our day-to-day responsibilities even when we don’t feel like it. Why shouldn’t we treat our key goals the same way? Aren’t they important enough to us?
As long as you love your excuses and keep embracing them, you will never achieve what you want. As human beings, we prefer to stay in our comfort zone, doing the same tasks and activities on autopilot. That’s why our excuses even sound convincing.
But if you want to reach your dream life, you need to kill, bury them, and forget about all these excuses.
Letting others dictate your life is a major obstacle to success
I dare you to quit letting others dictate your life. Who are you allowing to speak into your life, and are you letting them decide what you should and shouldn’t be doing?
Take an inventory of who those people are and what motivations they have in your life.
- Are they lifting you up and encouraging you?
- Are they supportive of your goals and the decisions you make to go after them?
- Are they moving in a positive direction in their own lives?
- Are they where you want to be in life?
If you answered, “Yes,” to these questions, then they are good influences and positive role models to have in your life. You can lean on them and draw wisdom from them. Keep them and cherish them!
But, if on the other hand, you said, “No,” to any of these questions, you need to evaluate if it is worth them being a key player in your life.
Take an inventory of those people by asking yourself the following questions:
- Are they dragging you down?
- Do you feel worse off when you leave them than when you come?
- Do they speak negatively or complain most of the time?
- Do they try to steer you away from your goals?
If you answered, “Yes,” to any of these questions, it may be time to let those people go and steer away from them having an influence over you. Sometimes that’s a hard thing to do because it could be a close friend or family member.
You know they have the best intentions for you and you don’t want to hurt them but they are hurting you by being Negative Nellies in your life.
You don’t have to drop them completely, but you may need to spend less time with them, and you definitely cannot take advice from them. Choose your association wisely. Spend quality time with people who support, encourage, and motivate you to achieve your life goals.
The absence of an accountability partner
You’ve set huge goals for yourself and even come up with the perfect plan to achieve them but there’s no one keeping you accountable.
No one checks in on you regularly. There’s no one asking the tough questions about why there’s a lack of progress or lack of consistency toward your plan.
At the end of the day, we all need someone to keep us accountable. Successful people have mentors and coaches who hold them accountable for what they said they’d do. When you do this, it becomes difficult to quit on your goals even in hard times.
If you are looking for a positive online community and group coaching experience, come hang out with us in the Red Hot Accountability Club!
Find community and coaching support inside the group coaching membership so you can lean on others and be inspired to continue working on your goals in the season you’re in with the capacity you have – ditching the stress and hustle altogether!
Setting unrealistic goals leads to a lack of motivation
One of the major Obstacles Stopping you from Reaching Your Goals is setting unrealistic goals. For example, if you never take even a short walk and you want to start exercising more you can’t tell yourself that you’ll run a marathon in 3 months.
Big goals are great but you need to consider your specific situation and if the goal is unrealistic it leads to a lack of commitment and motivation.
Another challenge is you set vague aspirations about your goal and there’s a lack of planning. What are the smaller steps you’ll do daily to reach your goal? When you have an important project, you need to break the tasks into smaller chunks to achieve them.
It’s important to dedicate precious time to go through the planning process and set SMART goals for yourself. This is a powerful tool and framework. S.M.A.R.T is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound goals.
Fear is a major obstacle to reaching your dreams
Fear can stop you from seizing the opportunities that lead you to success. It has the power to paralyze you.
It can be fear of failure, fear of the unknown, fear of what others think, or even fear of success. Most of us have a wrong perception of what failure is.
We need to reframe the fear of failure and see it as an inevitable step to personal growth. Embrace the lessons failure offers and use them to persist on your path to success. Never ever call yourself a failure.
Don’t focus on what you can’t control or what might happen. Have faith in God’s power to help you in your journey. Don’t be defined by past experiences. To reach your full potential, you need to overcome fear and make progress on a daily basis toward your dreams.
Negative thoughts can stop you from Reaching Your Goals
Negative self-talk happens in your subconscious mind. It’s that inner critic that belittles you and only focuses on the bad like your faults, mistakes, and shortcomings.
This internal dialogue can be especially harmful because it shapes our core beliefs. These automatic harsh thoughts and self-limiting beliefs lead to a lack of confidence in who you are and what you’re capable of.
It has an effect on your ability to reach your goals and on your mental health. Next time you find yourself entertaining negative thoughts, replace them with positive affirmations and reinforce your abilities and strengths. Positive thinking, engaging in self-care, and celebrating small wins will keep you motivated.
Visualize yourself reaching big goals every single day and plant success in your subconscious mind instead. Believe in yourself for that’s the key to achieving your dream life.
Focusing on the result
You’ve set your larger goals before you and through hard work, your eyes are set on the end result. You may have become impatient and anxious, thinking things are taking too much time and you want results now.
But everything that’s worth it takes time. The end result is not the only thing that matters. The process is also important. Enjoy the journey to the finish line.
Taking action on a daily basis and focusing on the new skills you’re gaining and how you are becoming a better version of yourself is a good thing. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Reaching your goals takes dedication, commitment, and a willingness to try new things. The first step in the process is goal setting. Successful goal setting requires awareness of the barriers that could hinder you from getting to the finish line.
The 9 Obstacles Stopping You From Reaching Your Goals include procrastination, making excuses, distractions, letting other people dictate your life, unrealistic goals, fear, negative self-talk, not having an accountability partner, and focusing on the result.
When you acknowledge what you’re dealing with, you can address these stumbling blocks head-on. With focus, a supportive community, determination, and being intentional, you can overcome these stumbling blocks and achieve the goals you’ve set.
Red Hot Accountability Club
You have your goals in front of you! You may even have a good strategic plan to follow to achieve them, but you’re feeling a little lonely in the online space and sick of the hustle culture telling you to do more.
If so, then the Red Hot Accountability Club might be just what you need!
A safe space. A faith space. A friendly space. A forward momentum space.
Find community and coaching support inside the group coaching membership so you can lean on others and be inspired to continue working on your goals in the season you’re in with the capacity you have – ditching the stress and hustle altogether! (and ditching social media for business if you want to!)
You CAN work your goals into your lifestyle without sacrificing everything to achieve them.
If you are looking for a positive online community and group coaching experience, come hang out with us in the Red Hot Accountability Club!
