Do You Feel Tied Down to Your Goals?

Posted by Christina Crowe in Goal Planning, Work & Lifestyle on September 6, 2010 | 4 responses

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Are you setting goals so tight that you can’t breathe, let alone work? This is how I felt several months ago after I made my schedule. I had so many goals that I wanted to accomplish and very little time to accomplish them. As a result, I felt burdened and my motivation to accomplish these goals plunged.

Don’t let yourself make the same mistake.

Are You Claustrophobic? Give Yourself Room.

Ambitious goals are fine. Over ambitious goals aren’t.

I was so certain that I was doing myself a favor by creating next-to-impossible goals to achieve. After all, if I worked harder, wouldn’t I achieve more? That was my mindset. And what really happened? I lost motivation. I began to procrastinate. I became lazy. Some part of me didn’t want to spend 24 hours of the day working, and so I didn’t. I stopped working completely for a few days, before I slapped myself in the head and re-planned my goals.

You see, at the time of creating them, I had no idea that they were next-to-impossible goals to achieve. It was late at night and I was sure I could wake up in the morning and complete my goals no problem by 5pm. I just had to put more effort into it and work harder. I knew my goals were more strenuous than the norm. It was only later when I realized that my over ambitious goals just weren’t working for me.

How to Avoid Tying Yourself Down to Your Goals

How do you avoid making the same mistake I made? Well, there are a few things you can do.

Set your goals when you’re actually functioning. When I set my over ambitious goals, it was late at night and I was extremely tired from a long day of work. I figured I could use that extra time before bed to plan out the day for tomorrow. At that time of day, I clearly wasn’t thinking and my fogged up brain was confusing me with superwoman.
It’s fine to want to over-achieve, but make sure you have time to eat, sleep and relax. If you thought that you could work continuously non-stop for hours, you’re sadly mistaken. Your body naturally needs a few relaxation periods. If you don’t let your poor fingers rest, your body will shut down.
Only work for a set number of hours, and set a deadline in which you’ll stop working. I find that I work best in the morning, so I try to stop working at 5pm. If you don’t have a set deadline in which you’ll stop working, you’ll have nothing to look forward to and you’ll just stress yourself out. Don’t do more work than you can handle.
Set several easy-to-achieve goals and only one or two difficult task(s) per day. Easy goals are often more fun to work with. Difficult goals aren’t. Maintain your motivation by setting several goals that are easy to reach. Do your difficult tasks first and know that your easy-to-achieve goals will follow. You’ll become more productive.
Give yourself breathing room. If you don’t like achieving multiple goals a day, strive to achieve several goal a week. That way, your deadline is further away. I find that if I set daily goals, I’m less likely to complete them than if I set weekly goals. It also becomes stressful if I set daily goals, as I’m afraid I’m not going to complete them in time. When you set weekly goals, spend a few hours to complete each one every day. By the end of the week, you’ll be amazed with what you accomplish.

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Tags: Goals

4 Responses to “Do You Feel Tied Down to Your Goals?”

ColeStan@Gift Ideas says:
September 23, 2010 at 4:53 am
The most common problem I have right now is how can I effectively implement all my plans in order to achieve my goals. It’s the most serious problem I have right now. Like what you’ve said in the beginning, there are days where I don’t like to work because I have that very down feeling that seems I’m not working based on my plan. As a result, works piled up until I need to spend a whole day finishing everything. I need to fix myself and improve my bad habit.
ColeStan@Gift Ideas´s last [type] ..Find The Best Christmas Gifts For Your Clients
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- Christina Crowe says:
  September 23, 2010 at 9:16 am
  Thanks for sharing!
  One thing you might want to try is to keep track of your goals. I mention this briefly in my article Finding Motivation: How to Adapt a Routine. If you keep a record of your accomplishments and follow your progress, you’ll be able to see how you’re improving. The simple knowledge that you’re improving can help boost that motivation considerably. You’ll also want to get as much done as possible, so that your tasks don’t pile up.
  Another idea is to prioritize your goals. Which tasks are most important? Which tasks can you do without? Do your most important tasks first and then do your least important tasks. That way, you’ll be more organized and you’ll feel better about your day if you put off doing an unimportant task.
  Christina
  Reply
  - Cole Stan says:
    October 1, 2010 at 3:24 am
    To be honest, most of the time I’m starting one task then leave it and go to another task again then leave it. Aside from that, I always count all tasks I’m done. The tendency ko which is for me to finish first the easiest task than the difficult one. Personally, that’s my motivation. But I don’t know, seems like it’s not 100% working on me.
    As for my goal, I usually focus on it than on my achievement as I move towards my goal. Yes, that’s how I think, but I must admit that I’m not motivated in that way. Thanks for reminding me that I can use my progress to give me more motivation than just simply focusing on my goal.
    Cole Stan´s last [type] ..Putting Together Homemade Gift Baskets in 5 Ways
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    - Christina Crowe says:
      October 1, 2010 at 7:10 am
      Thanks for sharing Cole Stan.
      Maybe try switching it around and doing the more difficult tasks first so that you look forward to the easy tasks that follow. It might boost your motivation to do the difficult tasks if you know an easy one will be next. You can even try distributing your easy tasks throughout the day, so you would do a difficult task, then an easy task and again a difficult task. That way, you’re more motivated to get that difficult task out of the way.
      You should definitely consider putting up a progress chart so that you can mark your progress as you complete tasks. Otherwise, you can’t really see the progress that you’re making and it may feel like you’re going no where.
      Let me know how it goes.
      Christina
      Reply