5 Reasons We Stink at Setting Goals

You've heard it a million times: you have to set goals to get anywhere in life, goals help you stay focused, goals are important, blah blah blah. I've even spouted that stuff at you by trying to tell you how to set better goals and how to improve your focus on those goals. Yet it still seems difficult, if not impossible, for many of us to actually get around to nailing down our goals. Why?

Gina Trapani over at Lifehacker posits five reasons that goal-setting makes you cringe.

1. Life goals are highly personal, even embarrassing. If people ask you what you want to do with your life, or where you see yourself in five years, you'd probably prefer to run and hide instead of reply.
2. There's a paradox of choice. We hear so much about people doing amazing and wonderful things. And with so much greener grass out there, choosing one thing can feel like you're not choosing a million others.
3. Fear of failure. Yep, that old specter. You hate falling flat on your face. Worse, you hate people witnessing that fall.
4. Procrastination. Why do something today when you can always do it tomorrow?
5. Delusions of immortality. You have a sense that you'll live forever. There's no rush; you can decide on your goals tomorrow. Or next year. Or someday.

How about you? What's keeping you from setting, and reaching, your goals?

(image by Kamal H. via Flickr, CC 2.0)