There are plenty of non-psychological reasons why it might be hard to stick to your goals:
- Maybe you want to commit to six months of couples therapy to strengthen your marriage but your spouse is flaky about attending…
- Or maybe you want to restart your old photography hobby but you can’t afford new gear…
But for most of us — most of the time — the reasons we have trouble sticking to goals and commitments is psychological in the sense that it’s some combination of thoughts, beliefs, and emotions that derail us.
For example:
- You make it for two months working out at the gym consistently.
- But then you start having thoughts that you’re not losing weight as fast as you should be.
- Pretty soon you’re comparing yourself to other regulars at the gym — all of whom seem to be making more progress than you.
- Eventually, you start missing workouts because you increasingly don’t feel motivated and even a bit ashamed.
In every area of life, from finance to romance, your ability to stick with your goals usually comes down to psychology — how you manage difficult moods, emotions, thoughts, and beliefs.
In the rest of this article, we’ll look at three of the most common psychological reasons people don’t stick with their goals.