I am always excited to embark on another year to fulfill my purpose and pursue great! I know many people have certain practices and rituals they engage in as they reflect on the old year and develop goals to accomplish in the upcoming year. But I cannot help but consider why many people who create resolutions in the New Year, often fail to fulfill what they have resolved to do. The failure rate is as high as 80%[1]
Then there are people who set to out to accomplish many noble goals, then they become impacted by what I coin as “Goal-Overwhelm” — having the mindset to accomplish goals, but life’s challenges seem to get in the way and get them so flustered, frustrated, frazzled or frozen until we stop moving. So how can you defeat goal-overwhelm?
Identify the common causes of Goal-Overwhelm
Some common causes of Goal-Overwhelm include:
- Committing with emotions and not the will.
- Having an unclear purpose
- Pursing goals alone
- Having truly unrealistic goals – expectations are too high
- Not allocating enough time to engage goals
- Not having enough money to fund the fulfillment of the goals
- Not having a plan of execution
Getting Clear on Your Priorities
It is tempting to want to “fix” everything in our lives all at once, especially at the beginning of a new year. The sense of a new start can be inspiring and energizing. But it is best to think soberly, realistically, and strategically about this. A tool I recommend is the Wheel of Life assessment. The tool helps you to get a high-level view of the key areas of your life such as health, career, love, spirituality, family, money, fun, and friends.
The Life Wheel helps you assess which areas in your life are generally going well and that you feel satisfied with, as well as the areas that you feel need the most improvement. The ranking ranges from 1 to 10. 1 being the lowest, which indicates “needs significant work” to 10 being the highest indicator of “very satisfied.” The aim is to zone in on the areas that you feel most dissatisfied with and develop goals to target improved outcomes. You use this Free Life Wheel Assessment.
Get Clear on Your Purpose
Getting clear on your priorities, developing actionable goals around them, and executing action steps to accomplish these goals are necessary. However, I also want to challenge you to be intentional about carving out time and making the effort to do the deep work of getting clear on your purpose. Evaluating your priorities through the lens of purpose will help you to have a clearer focus on not only what you are looking to achieve, but why you’re wanting to achieve your goals.
Your purpose is the meta-narrative or the overarching story of your life. [2] Want to get clear on your purpose? Sign up for the upcoming course, Uncluttered: How to Discover Your Purpose through Your Life Story You can accomplish your goals and defeat goal-overwhelm. Let’s go!
[1] Caprino, K. (2019, December 29). The Top 3 Reasons New Year’s Resolutions Fail And How Yours Can Succeed. Forbes. Retrieved January 2, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2019/12/21/the-top-3-reasons-new-years-resolutions-fail-and-how-yours-can-succeed/?sh=22a0c2746992
[2] GotQuestions.org. (2021, April 26). What is a metanarrative? Retrieved January 2, 2022, from https://www.gotquestions.org/metanarrative.html