Insights
7 Reasons Your Goals Aren't Working
March 30, 2026 · 7 min
We had three months to work on our New Year's resolutions, and it's now finally spring. Time to see how our goals have held up so far. If you're honest with yourself, you've probably either dropped yours somewhere along the way or you're still in there fighting but not quite feeling it. I've done both, and I'm determined to make it right this time. Spring feels like the perfect moment for that. New life, new beginnings, so let's use it.
So let's talk honestly about what happened in the last three months. There are many reasons why we struggle with goals, and the most important thing before jumping into fix-it mode is identifying the real root cause. Otherwise we risk spinning in the same spiral and ending up right back here again.
Unsure about the goal, questioning if it's the right one
This is something I deal with constantly, mostly because I have too many interests and I'm always second-guessing which direction to extend myself in. But everyone has their own reasons for feeling unsure, and some of them come down to values and priorities, which I'll get into in more detail below.
Whenever I feel uncertain or underprepared about a goal, I run it through a stress test. It's a set of 25 questions spread across 5 sections, covering everything from how the goal was formed to how you plan to execute it. It helps you figure out whether the goal is right for you right now, and whether there are any gaps in your thinking that might cause you to abandon it later. If you want to try it yourself, you can find the Goal Stress Test at the end of this post. Set aside about 30 minutes if you want to do it properly. It's a deep thinking exercise, but well worth it.
Your goal isn't aligned with your values and priorities
If you picked a nice to have goal rather than something that would genuinely push you toward the future version of yourself you've been imagining, you were starting on difficult ground. Nice to have goals are harder to begin, harder to plan around, and they're the first thing to fall away when something more important shows up: life, career, kids, anything that sits higher on your value list.
Think back to any moment where something pulled you away from your goal. Did you fight for it, or did you let it go without much resistance? How often did that happen? Sitting with those questions honestly will tell you a lot about where your goal actually sits in your order of priorities.
Your goal is competing with another one
This is closely tied to the last point. If something higher on your value list also comes with its own urgent goal, you'll naturally put your energy there, and that's not a failure, that's just how priorities work.
It doesn't mean your other goal is dead. But you do need to put them on a scale. If your current situation genuinely demands most of your attention, it may be worth pushing the other goal to a time when you have more bandwidth. And when you do return to it, give it a longer timeline and expect more friction along the way. Having that realistic expectation from the start changes how you see the whole thing; instead of a failing goal, you'll see slow but steady progress, which is still progress.
Your goal was too vague, which made it hard to visualise the outcome
We usually start with something that sounds good: "I want to be healthier," "I want to grow my business," "I want to become a better version of myself." And then we stop there. In our heads we can picture that future person - more confident, more successful - but it's really just an emotional image we're idealising. Do you actually know what that person does differently day by day? What they've specifically achieved? Or is it just a feeling?
Vague goals almost never survive. They exist in your head as a direction but never fully materialise. The best way to fix this is to run your goal through the SMARTER framework; Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound, with Evaluation and Reward built in (more on those last two below). Give your goal a concrete deadline, a clear measurement system, and a specific outcome you can picture and work toward. When you have all of that, it stops being a dream and starts being a plan. I have another post that walks through how to turn a vague goal into a SMARTER one with a real example if you want to go deeper on this.
Your goal is too big
This is a little different from having a vague goal. Let's say you've done the work; your goal is aligned with your values, and you've made it SMARTER. So what's still getting in the way?
Sometimes the goal itself is just very large. Maybe it's something like owning a home, where the timeline is inherently long and you set a deadline that's starting to feel out of reach. Or maybe it's a goal made up of many components you don't fully have yet. Say you're a Data Researcher and you want to move into Frontend Development. To get there you need to learn engineering fundamentals, pick up coding practice, get familiar with different libraries and patterns, study UI design, possibly enroll in a course; and each of those is practically a goal in its own right.
The problem with big goals is that you often can't accurately estimate how long they'll take, which means you lose track of time and eventually lose motivation too. A better approach is to break it down. If the goal takes longer than a year, or longer than you can realistically stay focused without feeling lost, identify the subgoals or components you need to work through first. Think of it like building a puzzle. It's far more satisfying to complete one section, feel that sense of progress, and move to the next, rather than staring at thousands of loose pieces wondering if you'll ever finish.
No structure or plan was created for the goal
Are you the kind of person who wakes up each morning wondering what you should do today to move your goal forward, or just doing whatever feels right in the moment? Starting every single day by figuring out your next step is exhausting, and eventually you'll stop bothering because you run out of obvious things to do.
It's a bit like leaving the lunch question to the last minute every day. You open the fridge, realise you're missing something, have to go shopping, lose half an hour, and just order takeaway instead. Whereas if you'd done a quick meal plan on Sunday, the week runs itself. Goals work the same way.
If you skipped the planning phase, now's the time to go back and do it. Start with your SMARTER goal in hand.
First, think about your timeline. How long can you genuinely stay focused on something before you lose the thread? Work within that. If the goal needs more time than that, set the real deadline but create milestones along the way. These work like mini-subgoals and give you something closer to aim at. If your endurance is short, make more milestones. You can always space them out later once you've built some momentum. The key thing here: only plan your action steps for the first milestone. Planning the whole thing upfront leads to overthinking and over-engineering. Test what works first.
For the action plan itself, start small and build consistency through daily habits. Give yourself a timebox; 30 minutes is a great starting point. Decide exactly what you're going to do in that time, and define what "done" looks like so you're not guessing at the end of it. Once that daily habit feels effortless, like something you just do without thinking, you can layer in more. Maybe add a second task, or something you do three times a week. But add slowly, test as you go, and don't overload the system before it's had a chance to settle.
Not reviewing or reflecting on progress made
Can you list the wins you've had along the way, even the small ones? Have you paused to acknowledge when you hit a milestone, stayed consistent for a stretch, or pushed through a difficult moment? If not, that's worth looking at.
Reviewing your progress at key points like when you hit a milestone or when you feel stuck, is how you course-correct. It helps you understand what's working, what isn't, and what to do differently in the next phase. But don't try to do this in your head. Thoughts collide, you'll overthink it, and let's be honest, you'll end up doing it in fragments between school runs and household tasks and nothing useful will come of it.
Set aside proper time for it, and write things down. Most of us think more clearly on paper, it forces structure, slows the noise down, and lets you actually see what you think rather than just feel it. And when you do review and see real progress, even small progress, reward yourself. Something you've been wanting, somewhere you've been meaning to go, anything that genuinely makes you happy. Acknowledging progress is part of what keeps you going.
I hope something in here felt familiar, and that you're walking away with a clearer idea of what to do next. If you decide to let a goal go, please don't feel guilty about it. It just means it's not the right priority right now, and that's a valid and honest conclusion to reach. This isn't really about discipline or consistency. If something truly matters to you, you'll find a way to make room for it.
And if you're staying with your goal, go back through whatever you skipped the first time and give it the foundation it deserves. You've still got plenty of time to make something happen.
If this post helped you in any way, or if you hit a wall for a reason I didn't cover here, I'd love to hear about it. Reach out, I read and reply to every email.
