Achieving our goals is something many of us struggle with. Yet it often feels like everyone else is out there accomplishing their dreams with ease.
The truth is most people face obstacles, setbacks, and barriers that prevent them from turning their goals into reality. According to one study, only 8% of people actually achieve the goals and resolutions they set for themselves each year. Why is that? What stands in our way?
Let’s use my imaginary friend Ellie as an example. At the start of every year, she makes ambitious resolutions about getting fit, eating better, and advancing her career. Yet somehow, come December, she finds herself in the same place, no closer to the goals she had set out to accomplish.
The reality is that all of us likely have things that hamper our ability to achieve our goals. These obstacles might be external, like unexpected events or lack of resources. But often, the biggest barriers are internal — our own psychology, behaviors, and thought patterns — things like self-doubt, distraction, fear, lack of clarity, and more.
This article will uncover the 13 most common things that stop you from achieving your goals — shedding light on what trips us up and how to tackle those issues head-on.
Table of Contents
13 Things That Stop You from Achieving Your Goals
1. Lack of Clarity on Your Goals
It might seem straightforward, but the first major hurdle that many come across is not having clearly defined goals in the first place. How can you possibly achieve something when you don’t have clarity on what exactly that goal is?
For example, vague aspirations to “be healthier” or “make more money” are wishful thinking and hard to put into action. The absence of clarity on what you want can make you feel like you’re just drifting through life, never living up to your potential.
You have to set goals that align with your values and capacity. Start by identifying your priorities and come up with precise, measurable goals that reflect them.
Want to improve your health? Define exactly how, like “exercise four times weekly for 40 minutes each time” or “lose 10 pounds over the next eight weeks”. Similarly, for career ambitions, set a particular salary, position, or skillset to strive for.
Lastly, monitor these goals regularly to stay focused.
2. No Accountability
Unfortunately, your own resolve may not be enough to keep you motivated. Even the most successful people run low on perseverance when faced with obstacles or delays in progress.
One of the most powerful ways to bridge that gap between goals and achievement is to have accountability. In other words, having someone who keeps you on track.
Without an accountability buddy, it’s all too easy for one skipped gym session to turn into a string of them or a distracted work day into a procrastinated week. Progress stutters, and that goal will drift further away.
However, although we know having someone to hold us responsible would be beneficial, we still avoid it for many reasons. Friends and family may seem too judgemental, and hiring someone feels awkward and unnecessary to be spending money on. After all, no one wants to be micromanaged or hovered over.
Yet, finding the right form of accountability that pushes us when needed but isn’t overbearing might actually change our lives. For example, a tutor to advance skills for a job promotion goal, a workout buddy who texts if you miss pre-work class or an app you’re paying for that tracks your daily activity. These are all great forms of accountability worth tapping into.
3. Not Breaking Down Goals into Actionable Steps
It’s exciting to set ambitious goals that fire you up, but you’ll stumble if your end vision isn’t broken down into manageable action steps.
For example, a goal to “become fluent in French” is admirable, but how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Without a plan to take small, consistent actions, the goal will become overwhelming, and inspiration will fizzle out.
To sidestep this barrier, implement backward planning after setting a goal. What specific sub-goals bring you closer? Like aiming for 30 minutes of French listening practice daily or learning 20 new vocabulary words each week.
And then break these down further into tiny, daily progress steps.
Related Post: The Top 6 Areas of Life to Set Goals this 2024
4. Lack of Confidence and Self-Doubt
We all have that nagging inner critic that makes us second-guess our abilities. How often has that little voice held you back from something you want by injecting fears like “What if I fail?” or “I’m not ready yet.”
When you lack self-confidence, you hesitate to set big goals at all or talk yourself out of pushing your limits. You overly fixate on your inadequacies rather than play to your strengths.
The only ways to become more self-confident are to quieten your inner critic, condition yourself to take risks, and focus more on your achievements. Also, seek mentors who believe in your potential and will support your journey.
5. Fear of Failure
Closely related to self-doubt, you might be trapped by an underlying fear of failure when pursuing your goals. This fear manifests in horrible ways, like extreme avoidance of risks or past failures holding us back years later from trying again.
But why? Failing is unpleasant, but it’s a necessary stepping stone to achievement. Remember that courage is not an absence of fear but a willingness to move forward in spite of it at times.
With this mentality shift, you can detach your self-worth from outcomes and let go of the idea that failure is negative. This frees you to pursue your biggest goals without being held down by fear.
6. Procrastination
Everyone puts things off sometimes, but for some, procrastination feels like a full-time job. And it’s one of the sneakiest things keeping us from making progress.
There’s always a convincing excuse — we work better under pressure, we’ll do better work if we wait for the right mood to strike, we just need time to recharge first. Procrastination truly is the master of disguise.
Underneath all these excuses is usually something simpler – we want to avoid an unpleasant or challenging task. So we do something else instead, like endlessly scrolling social media, obsessively tidying up, and taking on less important things with more immediate gratification. We’ll readily do whatever lets us temporarily dodge it, but time keeps passing, and our goals collect dust.
The thing about procrastination is that putting something off doesn’t make it disappear. It usually just creates more issues in the long run — compressed deadlines, declining motivation and energy, growing anxiety, etc.
Taking control comes down to awareness and being honest with yourself. When you feel that resistance bubbling up, ignore it. Gear up by breaking big objectives into small tasks without overthinking them.
And set mini-deadlines to tick things off bit by bit before that big deadline starts breathing down your neck.
Related Post: 60 Procrastination Quotes to Prompt You to Act on Your Goals
7. No Motivation or Drive
Ever have one of those weeks where you just can’t seem to fire up the engines, motivation-wise? Those periods when you’re just not feeling that push to dedicate effort or energy toward your goals?
Sometimes, we chalk it up to laziness — but that’s not quite right. Laziness suggests we just don’t want to do the work. Lack of motivation means not having an adequately compelling “why” to fuel us. And if we can’t connect our actions to a purpose we find meaningful, it’s tough to keep momentum.
So, when you feel motivation lagging, revisit why a goal truly matters to you. How would achieving it add value to your life or shift how you see yourself?
Also, celebrate small wins along the way to fuel momentum gradually.
Related Post: 5 Golden Ways to Achieve Your Goals When You Have Zero Motivation
8. Lack of Focus and Concentration
It’s a common trap — we sit down, ready to crush an important goal-related task, only to go down an Instagram rabbit hole 20 minutes later. Somehow, our brains got hijacked, attention fractured, concentration MIA.
Even without digital temptations, fatigue, stress, or wandering thoughts can fracture our attention spans.
The antidote to this is to:
- Set a designated workspace, clearing physical distractions to maximize concentration.
- Use website blocker apps.
- Take breaks deliberately to consciously re-focus rather than unconsciously lose grip.
Our brains may naturally meander, but we can train concentration through our environment.
By taking back control of our attention, we take back control over our goals.
9. Poor Time Management Skills
Despite having the best intentions, a lack of time management skills can become a major obstacle to accomplishing goals.
Days slip by without progress because we lack systems for organizing tasks or get derailed handling unimportant issues with loose deadlines.
We promise ourselves for the 10th time that tomorrow, we’ll wake up early and work diligently on that project. Yet suddenly, it’s mid-afternoon, nothing is done, and that deadline still approaches.
Getting a handle on time management requires some trial and error but reaps huge rewards.
- Set realistic daily objectives allocated to blocks of time.
- Learn to gauge how long tasks actually require — we’re terrible estimators.
- Schedule focus time for big projects first before less urgent items.
- Build buffers for the unplanned things that inevitably crop up.
- Say no to unnecessary obligations outside core goals.
- Set time limits for working using the Pomodoro method.
Working on these skills will free up precious hours that you can direct toward the goals that really matter.
10. Making Excuses
There’s an ultra-creative excuse machine living inside us, churning them out on command whenever progress stalls.
“I would have met my daily writing goal for my book, but the kids were extra needy today.” “I planned to send out ten job applications this week until I got slammed with that last-minute project at work.” Sound familiar at all?
Excuses help us give up responsibility whenever the going gets tough on our aspirations. They conveniently crop up courtesy of our jobs, health issues, finances, or general lack of time.
And they feel so justified in the moment — of course, external issues “forced” your hand! But when we make a habit of excuses, goals get pushed down the priority list.
To overcome this, you have to take responsibility for your dreams. Internalize, “I’m 100% responsible for making this happen, regardless of what arises.”
Related Post: How to Finish What You Start (And Make Yourself Proud)
11. Lack of Discipline and Willpower
Sticking to long-term goals is downright hard when our willpower tanks. Those good intentions to stick to a budget or wake up early to work out always seem to crumble by mid-week when life gets crazy.
Suddenly, we’re “treating ourselves” to those cute shoes we can’t afford or hitting snooze for the fifth time rather than gearing up for the gym. Why do we struggle with self-control and discipline no matter how committed we feel? Because we overestimate our willpower stores. Resisting urges and distractions is exhausting! So we eventually cave when we’ve got no reserves left.
But here’s the thing — no one has endless willpower. Instead of white-knuckling it day after day, set up routines and environments that do the discipline for you.
Automate part of your paycheck into savings every month so you don’t have to make the choice. Lay out your running shoes and clothes the night before so that you aren’t making any decisions in the morning. And use apps to block tempting websites when it’s time to work.
Discipline is learned behavior. Set up a world where the path of least resistance guides you toward your goals.
12. Comparing Yourself to Others Excessively
It’s inevitable — no matter the goal we’re chasing, at some point, we compare our progress to everyone else’s.
Whether they’re getting the promotion we want, effortlessly sticking to their healthy habits, or building huge social media followings overnight.
And suddenly, despite making genuine progress, we can’t help but obsess over how far ahead Sarah or Jason or whoever else appears to have it all together. Before we know it, we’re trapped in comparison land and our motivation tanks.
Here’s the deal, though — we never have the full picture. People may seem flawless on the outside while privately struggling just like us behind closed doors. And they likely face their own massive challenges we can’t see.
Comparing finishes rather than journeys sets us up for despair. But we all move at our own pace with individual strengths, priorities, and obstacles. So stay in your lane! Tune out everyone else and ground yourself in your reasons why the goal matters.
Focus on competing with your former self by continually learning and upping your game. Measure progress on your yardstick alone and let others motivate rather than intimidate you.
13. Not Learning from Mistakes
Lastly, one of the most common things that stop you from achieving your goals is not learning from your mistakes and failures.
It’s so easy to beat yourself up and get totally deflated when you make a mistake, but here’s a hot take — mistakes don’t have to ruin your chances if you actually use them to get better.
Instead of dwelling on failures, understand them as data showing where we still need to improve. Figure out the root cause then course correct rather than repeat the same outcome over and over.
Final Thoughts
I hope this post was an eye-opener on the things that stop you from achieving your goals.
These pesky things — like fear, overwhelm, distraction — are normal stumbling blocks along the path. Any big dream worth chasing is going to involve some frustration and false starts.
Resist seeing obstacles as fatal flaws or signs to throw in the towel. All they signal is improvements needed in a certain spot.
I wish you all the best on your journey!