What Went Wrong?

This season, wrapping up end of year goals has many professionals scrambling to tie up loose ends and finish projects before 2017 comes to a close. While we all hope to succeed both at an individual level and for the overall success for our organization, sometimes we simply can’t reach that light at the end of the tunnel. At the end of the day, when we fail to finish what we set out to accomplish, all we can do is brush ourselves off and try again.

An important first step in bouncing back when a goal is not met, is taking the time to understand the underlying issues as to why you didn’t reach the end result. There are various reasons why we fail to meet our goals, including: a lack of commitment to the objective, stagnation or inactivity, failing to effectively plan out steps towards reaching the goal, and failing to manage tasks and time.

When we understand the “why” behind what went wrong, we can move forward and take this setback as a teachable moment and an opportunity to learn and grow. Some of the deeper issues to the above reasons why goals may fail can be a lack of loyalty to the company, a lack of motivation, and an absence of a true destination or purpose.

While all of these problems are separate matters all together, as they pertain to goal setting and failing to reach a goal, it is all a matter of changing your approach. Failure is simply a way of telling us that something is wrong. View failure as a type of feedback, take a step back from the situation and review that feedback objectively, and clear your mind for a second attempt at the endeavor.

Be brutally honest with yourself when you’re reviewing what went wrong the first time around. If you were simply lazy when it came to doing the work, why were you not engaged? Are your actions enough to reach the end goal and if not, what do you need to do differently?

Finally, don’t be ashamed to ask for help and seek guidance. Part of learning and growing is to not be afraid of failure and to truly want to do better in the future. Reach out to your supervisor, your coach or mentor, or a coworker or colleague who you can talk with to obtain constructive advice and guidance as to what you can do differently to thrive.