Psychology Today: Are You Struggling to Realize Your Goals?

"With researchers recently reporting that people around the world are more stressed and less happy than ever, it’s easy to understand why it’s feeling harder than ever to achieve our goals.

“While you may have a rough idea of where you want to be in five years’ time, people often fail to make meaningful plans to take the small, positive steps required, meaning hopes don’t translate into reality.”

Grace explained there are three common challenges that hold us back from setting more meaningful and effective goals:

• Fear of failure — Behavioral science tells us that the anticipation or fear of failure is far worse than the pain we experience if things don’t go right.
• Not enough time — you can prioritize the time you need to build the skills you need to reach the goals you’ve set.
• What others think or say — behavioral science suggests the spotlight effect means that even if you make a public mistake, other people are more forgiving than you anticipate them to be. In all probability, they won’t even remember your error.

To avoid these common mistakes, Grace recommends:

• Breaking your goals down into smaller, skill-building steps — If you can set a goal for five years’ time, you can then identify the smaller steps that will allow you to get there.
• Putting in place some short-term carrots — By bundling your small steps with instant rewards (carrots), you can overcome your inconsistent time preferences, reduce the costs of engaging in these activities now, and improve the immediate benefits to keep yourself motivated.
• Building your resilience by noticing the small things —We tend to focus on negative encounters with greater longevity and feel them much more than the equivalent positive encounters. To combat this, try to celebrate small wins by taking time to notice what went right with the day and savoring these moments."

Read the full article here!

Reflection:

What are some of your goals?

*One goal of mine is to be more social (to participate in events and try to engage in social interaction more so than usual). This goal would ultimately lead to my bigger goal of building stronger relationships with not only my family but also my friends.*

#Goals #Motivation #Mindset