The Truth About Why Goals Fail (and How to Make Yours Stick) | 110

Why goals fail might not be what you think, and if you’ve been blaming yourself for falling off track, it’s time to shift that story.

In this episode, we’re digging into the real reason your goals might not be sticking, and how a few subtle mindset shifts can completely change the way you approach goal setting, especially as an entrepreneur. 

What you’ll learn:

• The most common reason why goals fail (and why it’s not a personal flaw)
• The 3 beliefs that quietly sabotage your follow‑through
• How to reset your goal setting mindset without scrapping your goals
• Why progress matters more than perfection (especially when life gets busy)
• How to set goals that actually fit your current season of life

If goal setting has felt heavy, frustrating, or demotivating lately, this episode is for you.

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Show Notes: https://cheerstoproductivity.com/podcast/ 

Transcript

Speaker 0:00

There's different reasons why you may not have achieved those goals. But it doesn't mean that you never will. Hey, I'm Lucy Reyes. Welcome to the podcast where we make productivity feel doable and aligned with practical tips to help you manage your task, streamline your systems, and stay consistent in a way that honors your energy, your faith, and your real life capacity. If that sounds like something you need, then hit subscribe and let's jump in.  Forget the goal setting tactics because until you change these three beliefs,  no tactics will stick.  Hey, I'm Lucy Reyes and I help overwhelmed and busy business owners set goals that actually fit your real life, not your ideal perfect one. So let's go ahead and dive into these three beliefs that are going to really make every goal feel so much more doable, and honestly, like a breath of fresh air.  By the way, if you want a quick, low pressure way to refocus on your goals every single week, then go to the description, wherever you're listening to this, and grab my free weekly reset GPT. It's linked down below.  Alright, let's talk about these beliefs because  like I mentioned, unless your mindset is behind you, it makes it so hard to achieve anything. Mindset is one of, is one of those things that we want to write off as unimportant, but is actually part of the foundation before you do anything, including setting some goals. And this first belief is one that I hear all of the time, and it is one that we really need to debunk right away because if you don't get past this one, the other beliefs don't even matter.  So the first belief is that   your past doesn't disqualify you from future follow through.  So just because you didn't achieve or follow through on goals that you have set in the past  doesn't mean that you never will.  It doesn't mean that at all. There's different reasons why you may not have achieved those goals but it doesn't mean that you never will. It doesn't mean that you should never set goals. It doesn't mean that you're the type of person that just never is into goal setting or  it just doesn't work for you. You just haven't found a  way.  For it to work for you. So don't disqualify yourself. If you feel like the past,  you just haven't done it, so  every season gets a new try.  There's tryouts in schools with kids. My son, he's in football, so he has tryouts. So that's top of mind. So, you know, you get tryouts, you get to try again, and so I really want to encourage you to try again.  Try again. Just because it hasn't happened in the past doesn't mean it never will, and that's true for anything.  Belief number two is that progress counts. Perfection doesn't. So progress counts not perfection.  Perfectionism  loves  to lie to you.  It loves to make you believe that. Like, oops, if you missed one day,  you are just gonna keep missing every single day. And now anything that you do  from here on out doesn't matter, or any work that you have put in behind you no longer matters and no longer counts and that you're a failure and that is not true. Okay? That is not true whatsoever. You have, you are able to  set some goals and miss the goals that you're setting. That is totally okay. What we want is information. What we want is data. What we want is to keep trying all of this together, still helps you get closer to achieving the found final outcome that you want. Just because you miss a day or two, or maybe even a full week, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't keep trying. It doesn't mean that any work that you have done up until that point doesn't matter. So don't try to be perfect. Don't try to set standards or set goals that are going to require you to show up every single day. And if you miss one of those days that all, you know, it all goes to waste. That's not the case Okay? Because progress is still progress.  I mentioned this in the last video where I was talking about any progress is better than no progress, right? So imperfect action is actually what helps you build self trust and keeps up momentum because those small wins matter. So if you miss a day on walking on your treadmill or going outside to get fresh air, or you... whatever. There's so many ideas, so many examples that we could go through. If you forgot to eat veggies one day, if you didn't work out one day, if you missed reading a book, there's always reasons. There's always reasons why those things didn't happen, and it's not just because you suck,  that's never the reason. So take a moment to reflect on why did this happen? And then try to do better the next time and that is how real progress, real true progress that sticks, not just for the year, but for lifetime. That's how it happens. Okay? By you making mistakes,  going back, reflecting on them, it's trying to see what happened that messed me up. Why did I miss? And then doing something about it and then trying again. So keep that up. That's the momentum that you want. That is what's going to make this a lasting goal with a lasting outcome, not just for one year or whatever timeframe you're trying to set this for. So that's belief number two. Belief number three is that   your goals should match your season. Life is seasonal.  We all go through different seasons and your goals should keep up with that. Okay? You might be in a season where. You just had a baby, which means your goals cannot be the same as when you were single and no kids.  That is not possible.  There is so much that happens and changes in your life when you become a parent. That is one example. You know, Even going from the summer, if you are a teacher and you have work over the summer and work, or you have no work over the summer, but then you have, you know, work during  August until winter break in December, and then you have two weeks of winter break, like all of those are different seasons. That's three different seasons. That I just mentioned in that one year, there's definitely more. So goals are seasonal and they should match the season that you're in. So yeah, I wish we could just set a goal and it's magically the same goal forever, and we have to follow the exact same routine and task every single time in order to achieve that. I wish that was the case.  but unfortunately life is life and that's not how it works. So you don't want to set goals based on a past season that you were in. You have to be honest with yourself, even if it's not what you want, right? Like  I have so many goals that  if I had no kids, if I had no partner, would probably be way easier for me to achieve because I would naturally just have more time. And that's just not the season that I'm in. Like it's just not. I had more time, even when I was a mom of one versus a mom of two. Like Even that season is different. So,  be honest with yourself. Reflect on what is the season that I'm in right now? How long is this season? Like, is it something that you can actually see like, "Okay,  this is a season that's going to maybe be three months long," or "This is only a two week season because I'm on winter break," or "Is this  five years because I have  kids that are teenagers that are going to leave the house in a few years," or, you know, is this something that could be potentially for life because you have some sort of chronic illness or health condition? And so you need to work all of these things in and take them into consideration when creating these plans. So you really  want to make sure that   you are committing to goals that match your season.  Okay? So the belief is not that  every goal can match whenever you want. Like They have to match the season and when they do, then they really adapt to how you're meant to work, how you need to work, instead of just really pushing against you or you always constantly feeling, because yeah,  that gets demotivating.  If you set these goals and you're really trying and you really want to achieve them, but you set them up in a way that's meeting a past season and not your current one. You're going to keep messing up, messing up and you know, and the last point, the last belief I said, mess up are good but I also can recognize that too many mess ups back to back, to back, to back, it makes it hard to one, to really understand what the heck is going on and it can become demotivating. So when you are doing the opposite and you are making sure that they're matching your season, then at least you're being more realistic about it. And that is  very, very important. That is one of the most important key points when setting some goals. So these are the three biggest beliefs that I want you to change your mindset around when and before you even start to set any goals. And if you have already started to set some goals, well then go back and see which of these three are not matching up with this exact goal? Right. So I want, I'm curious,   which part of goal setting trips you up the most?  Is it getting started? Is it sticking with it, or is it, or is it adjusting your goal when life gets busy? Go ahead and share in the comments. I'm super curious. There's no right or wrong answer. I'm just curious on where you get tripped up the most. And as a   mini action for you to do is to go back to any goals that you have already set for this year, for this month, for this quarter, for this week, and make sure that one, you're not disqualifying yourself. Two, that you're allowing room for imperfections and that progress still counts even if you miss a day or two, or if you're missing several days or you're missing your goal by a lot, really taking a look to see if that goal even matches the season that you're in and what adjustments you can make to it, so that way it does.  Okay? So that is what I want you to do. That is the mini action for you. And go ahead and leave me a comment down the video below or send me a message through whatever podcasting app you're listening to this on. And if you want to try a grounded approach to really reflecting and resetting your week every single week, then go ahead and grab my free weekly reset GPT. It helps you reset and refocus your goals and your task in just 10 minutes a week based on your real current reality. So the link is in the description.  Remember, you don't have to set bigger goals, just ones that match your real life. All right, I'll see you in the next video.