Talk to ten people and nine of them will tell you they believe in goal setting. These nine people will tell you that goals are important, that they can help you be happier and healthier, and that they are the best and fastest way to achieve more in life.

I would agree with those nine people.

Unfortunately eight of the nine, when pressed, will tell you they don’t set many (or any) goals; that they really want to, but . . .

Actually, I’m being a bit optimistic here. I’ve read several times (though I can’t corroborate it with specific research right now) that only about 3% of people ever set and write down any goals.

If most everyone thinks goals are important; and most everyone would like to be happier, healthier, achieve more, etc., etc., etc.; why don’t they set goals?

There are seven reasons that I have observed.

The Seven Reasons

1. People don’t know how to set goals.

2. People are searching for the perfect way to set goals.

3. People are afraid to set goals.

4. People are afraid to succeed.

5. People are afraid they won’t succeed.

6. People don’t want to set the goal too high.

7. People don’t want to set the goal too low.

After looking at and thinking more about this list, I believe they really are excuses for not setting goals, not reasons. Let’s look at each excuse, and then explore how to solve the problem and erase the excuse.

As you read the list this time, read them all with a whine in your voice, and look for which on list is your personal excuse (there may be none – good for you; there may be more than one – good for you for being honest – now you have the opportunity to change your habit).

Excuse #1 – “But I don’t know how . . .”

This makes sense in a way. How can we do anything if we don’t know how to do it? Maybe you really don’t know how, but to be honest the resources to help you learn are plentiful, and we aren’t talking rocket science here. There are thousands of books about goal setting and hundreds of free resources on the internet. (Actually an Amazon.com search on goal setting nets more than 30,000 results, and a Google search on the same phrase yields more than 23 million results.)

Solution #1 – Find a resource, read it and get started.

Excuse #2 – “But I want to set them the right way . . .”

This excuse is the opposite of Excuse #1. There are some people that collect goal setting books, tools and techniques like others collect baseball cards. Yes, there are many approaches; and yes, some may be better than others or work better for you. But none of them will work until you do.

Solution #2 – Enough collecting! Pick an approach and get started.

Excuse #3 – “But I’m afraid . . .”

Afraid of what? The unknown? There is nothing to be afraid of, except the unknown of trying. Recognizing your fear is a great first step, but setting goals isn’t like the unknown climbing Mt. Everest or swimming with sharks. There really is nothing to be afraid of (although there are two more excuses related to fear).

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