Why Having Goals Can Sometimes Be Negative

I thought I would have this topic as my first blog post of 2013 because it's so fitting. Across the globe people have spent the past week thinking about their goals for the year and what they can do to achieve them. They may write them down in a list or just have them floating around in their head. They may talk constantly of them or speak a word to no one.

Having a goal to focus on is great but sometimes the goal itself can get in the way of actually achieving it. You may become obsessed about what it is you want to achieve and over analyse it. Your goal is so big that you waste all your energy just solely thinking about it. Your thoughts are like a washing machine full of socks, turning around in your head over and over again.

You stop achieving your dreams because you think about them too much.

What a waste of emotion!

Here's a classic example of what I mean by this.

While I'm writing, I'm obsessed with my word count. It affects me so much that I spend more time counting words than I do actually writing them. Keeping track of my word count significantly slows down my writing instead of speeding it up. You may think I'm encouraged if I effortlessly type out eight hundred words in an hour but I've always got one eye on my word count.

Instead I have found that I work much better under a time limit. Having goals is one thing but make sure you give yourself ample time to reach them.