Struggling to Complete a Goal?

Struggling to Complete a Goal? About 45% of Americans set new year resolutions, but only 8% end up completing their goal at the end of the year. Studies reveal that the top-ranked goal is to lose weight. What secrets do people who achieve their goals know that others don’t that allows them to complete their goals? If you’re looking to complete a goal, whether it's related to fitness, family, or work, the following pointers can help.

1. One Goal: 

Often times, the problem with being able to complete a goal is not that you don’t know how, rather you simply set too many goals to complete. To make sure you have the time and energy, set one main goal to yourself so that you can devote the resources to completing it. Once you’ve accomplished this goal, you can move onto the next. 

2. Begin with the end in mind: 

As one of the habits of Stephen Covey’s book for self-improvement, beginning your goal with the end in mind can provide the motivation and vision to complete it. Covey’s main point with this is imagination. For example, if your goal is to lose 20 pounds, envision yourself on how you would look and what would appear different after you complete your goal.

By doing so, you are visualizing what it would be like when you complete your goal and you can work backwards to create the necessary steps to get there, while always keeping the end goal in mind to keep you motivated.

3. Schedule time: 

The problem is that people set a deadline but don’t pencil in the time on their calendar. Sometimes you might hear that their goal is to “lose 20 pounds by the end of year”. The problem with this is that it sets a goal with a deadline, but without the time scheduled to accomplish it. By doing so, you risk skipping out on days and not placing the time necessary to complete your goal. Instead, create a calendar with scheduled times to dedicate towards your goal. This will help out in the long run because you now know ahead of time which part of your day you're going to dedicate to working one step close to completing your goal.

4. Join someone with same goals:

By finding someone with the same goal in mind, whether a relative or friend, you can motivate each other and make sure neither of you fall behind. By having someone else to tag along with you when you workout, it increases accountability to motivate you further to not miss out on the necessary steps to reach your goal.

5. Measure results:

It can be helpful to keep track of the progress you’re making by measuring the results you’ve worked for so far. For example, if you’re goal is to lose a certain amount of weight, you can keep track of your weight and body measurements to show that you’re on the right track and make any adjustments to your current plan-of-attack, if necessary.

6. Burn or Burn Technique: 

This technique might seem a little extreme or unnecessary for most goals, but if you find it difficult to muster the energy to get started or complete a certain goal, you may want to try this. To start, get a hold of a wall calendar with times booked specific to your goal. Then, grab a paper bill that you would hate to lose, such as a $100 bill. Place the bill on the day you’re on and also place a lighter in sight of the calendar so when you look at your calendar in the morning, you see the bill and the lighter. Now everyday you’ll have to make the choice to complete your daily task such as hitting the gym, or setting the money on fire. Yes, burning money is illegal but you should never have to get to this point. 

The reason why this works is what psychologists call “loss aversion”, which means that your losses are twice as painful as the pleasure from making an equivalent gain. For example, losing $10 has more negative emotions tied to it than finding $10 produces positive emotions.

So now by having to make the decisions to lose something you’re strongly opposed to losing, you’ll be more motivated to complete the task at hand.

All in all, these tips may help you achieve this new year’s goals, but keep in mind that everyone is different and what may work for you may not work for someone else. Find a goal that you’ve struggled to accomplish and incorporate these tips along with anything else you feel would help you and see how far you can go!

Richard was raised in California and is currently studying Psychology and Biology at UC Berkeley. He likes to play soccer and go to the gym. He hopes to be a sports medicine surgeon one day.