Common Blocks to Achieving Your Goals and How to Overcome Them

No Mission Or Game Plan

Often, you may have a general dissatisfaction in your life but aren't quite sure what you need to improve your life or, you may have a goal but it lacks definition and therefore isn't really achievable. In order to improve your life you need to have clearly defined goals to aim for. If you are struggling to find out what it is you want, try noting down an average week. How much time do you spend working or with your family? How much time do you devote to your spiritual needs? Then note down what you would like to be doing. This is often enough to show you where the imbalance is and what you need to do to get where you want to be.

Once you have your goal it is important to make it S.M.A.R.T. This means it should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-limited. In other words, what exactly is it you want to achieve, by when and how will you know when you've achieved it? One note I would like to make here is that people often set goals because they think it's what others want of them or what they should be doing for others; this won't work. Your goals are just that, your goals. The changes you're trying to make in your life is to make your life better for you and therefore any goals you set should be because it's changes you want to make.

You Feel Too Old

Everyone has goals and aims for their life, however unfortunately. Some people feel too old and too set in their ways to ever make the changes they would like to see. This is not the case, just recently in the news there have been people in their 70's and 80's achieving a degree for the first time. They are an inspiration to everyone who feels they are too old to achieve anything. It is never too late to improve your life, if you are dissatisfied with your life then it is important to work to change it and find ways to do this that you are comfortable with.

Too Many Family Commitments

Lets face it, we all have family commitments and sometimes, they do get in the way. However it is important to balance your family life with your commitment to your own life without neglecting either one.

Make a timetable, ensure that family time is set aside first and foremost and any previous commitments to them are honoured in this table. Following this, set aside some time for you to work on achieving your goals and achieving the kind of life you want. Once this table is drawn up it is often easier to see that you do have time for the both. If you still find this hard, remember that if you do achieve your goals it is not only you who will benefit, but your family too.

You're In A Rut

Sometimes, you can feel completely stuck in a rut and unable to see any way out. You may have dreamt of making changes for so long that now you feel you've let your life stagnate and that there is no way out now.

To overcome this make a list of everything you would do if you had the perfect life without any restrictions on you. Once you have this list, prioritize everything in order of how easy it is, how much it would impact your life to make the change and how cost effective it is. Then start working on those with the lowest cost impact and lowest impact on your life.

Trapped By Your Material Success

Occasionally, you may want a simpler life but have achieved so much success that you feel unable to completely give up the kind of material success that your current lifestyle allows you to have.

If this is true for you, then set aside some time to write a list of all the pros and cons of both keeping your current lifestyle and simpler life. Include in this list all your reasons for wanting a simpler life and all the reasons for remaining in your current lifestyle. Following on from this prioritize all your choices available and from here move on to any changes you choose to make.