5) Not Considering The Consequences Of Success: Activities that may bring you happiness may not bring you a steady paycheck, and feelings of joy can be quickly replaced with feelings of inadequacy, and a severe inability to pay for even the bare necessities of life. Activities that may bring you success in any manner you define it may be bundled with more frustration and stress than you initially imagined, along with a new commitment to maintain your new level of success. The definition of consequence is the effect, result, or outcome of something occurring earlier. A consequence is not inherently good or evil. A consequence just is. Oddly enough, it just might be something you would not be willing to live with if you knew it was coming.

4) Not Factoring In Resistance: The problem with goal setting is that it takes effort, which requires you to do some work. The problem with pursuing your goals once you do put in the initial work of goal setting is that it requires you to do even more work. It is work that at times will be unpleasant, painful, and not seemingly worth it. There will be days when the tasks you need to achieve do nothing but wear you down, and the more items you check off your list of things you must do today, the more items that are added to the things you have to do for the days to come. You will get tired of pushing forward and getting more and more resistance with the more force you push. The resistance will never cease, and if you genuinely want to achieve your goals, neither will you.

3) Not Working Out The Details: Having a plan in your mind for how you will accomplish your goals is akin to having a final destination in mind before you plan a trip. Having an executable plan in place (which would include things like what you need to do to accomplish your goals, what you need to have to do the things you need to do, the people that you need to convince and the people you need to avoid while doing the things you need to do, and the like) is akin to pulling out a map to preview your journey and then putting the full address of your final destination into your car’s GPS. Your plan does not have to be perfect, or even complete, but you have to consider the details in accomplishing your goals, and have a plan to begin the journey.

2) Not Being Willing To Give Anything Up: We all know that there are 365 days in a year, 24 hours in a day, and 60 minutes in an hour, for a total of 525,600 minutes a year, just like the song and basic math tell us (525,949 minutes in a year if you add the quarter day science would like). All of those minutes must be used and attached by some activity, even non-activity. If you refuse to drop a few tasks that are just taking up time and not adding to your life, you can not open up your schedule or your life to any of the new ‘you’ items you will list as a goal.

1) Not Creating Right Sized Goals: Setting goals that are too ambitious will leave you frustrated and exhausted. Setting goals that are too small provide no challenge and will bore you. A goal that is to vague will leave you confused and wandering. A goal that is too strict and offers no flexibility will drive you insane with the amount of detail and nit picking involved.