Trending SMART Goal Mistakes That Derail Your Progress (And Simple Fixes)

So you wrote the perfect SMART goal. Specific. Measurable. Time-bound. Yup, yup, yup, all of it. You probably even used a cute pen!

And then three weeks later... where'd it go?

Hmmmmm…

I bet that your goal was probably great. Like, really well-written. The problem is what happens after you write it down and close your planner. Because nobody really talks about that part, do they?

If you've been following along with my goal-setting series, you already know how to create a solid goal. So now I want to cover the piece that makes or breaks your goal.

Ready? I am!

Think of it like a road trip. You know that feeling you get when you sit down and map out a brand new goal (or road trip)? It's so exciting. You've got the vision, you've got the timeline, maybe you even color-coded something.

Planning a goal gives you a feeling of satisfaction because in your mind it’s almost like you’ve already accomplished it. Which is awesome…for about five minutes! And then kind of becomes a problem.

Because that planning momentum wears off pretty fast.

And if all you had was the plan, you're standing in the middle of your goal with no map and no snacks (and who wants to go on a road trip with no map and no snacks)?

No thanks!

I like to call it the messy middle. And it’s a reason that so many SMART goals fizzle out.

Week one is exciting. You're fired up. You're checking boxes. You might even tell your friends about it. Woohoo!

Week six? That's a different story. All that excitement is gone. Life stuff starts piling up. Your family needs things. Work gets hectic. Your car makes a weird noise that costs $400 you didn't budget for.

You miss one day. Then two. Then you just... stop mentioning the goal altogether and hope nobody asks about it.

Ugh.

The thing I finally realized (after a slightly embarrassing number of abandoned goals) is that I always had a solid starting plan. What I never had was a plan for the messy middle. And the middle is where all the work lives.

Instead of setting the goal and grinding it out until the deadline, I started adding in mini checkpoints along the way.

I mean weekly. Sometimes even twice weekly.

What did I do this week toward this goal?

What got in the way?

What's one thing I can do in the next 7 days?

It only takes a couple of minutes. Maybe while you're waiting in the school pickup line or drinking your morning coffee (aww yeah) before the house wakes up.

I know, it seems almost too simple! But those little check-ins turn a big 90-day goal into tons of small accomplishments. Which leads to momentum. Which keeps you moving even when that initial excitement is long gone.

I’m going to make a wild guess. You're busy. You're probably juggling a million things and your to-do list regenerates every day. Adding one more “thing to do” makes you want to take a (well-deserved) nap.

That's why I'm a huge fan of habit stacking. You take something you already do every single day and attach your goal work to it.

Here are a few examples…

Morning coffee + 10-minute goal review. You're already making the coffee (iced or hot, you pick). Sit with it for an extra few minutes and glance at your goal card or journal.

School pickup line + voice memo check-in. You're sitting there anyway. Talk into your phone for 60 seconds about where you're at this week.

Winding down at night + 5 minutes of planning. Before you get on your phone, take a few minutes and set an intention for tomorrow (not the rest of the week). Something you'll do toward your goal.

What you're basically doing is borrowing time you're already spending and giving it a little purpose. See? No extra hours needed.

If you’ve been around my blog for a while, you’ll know that I love me some SMART goals. BUT…a SMART goal is a plan. Yes, a really good plan. But it's a plan.

Life happens and sometimes (more often than not) the timeline needs to stretch a little, and THAT’S FINE.

Please know that there's a huge difference between quitting on a goal and tweaking it. Quitting is, "Forget it, this was dumb." Tweaking is, "Ok, the deadline moved back a month, but I'm still going for it."

One of those keeps you in the game. The other one sends you back to square one feeling crummy about yourself. So give yourself permission to pivot when you need to. The goal still counts even if the path looks a little different than you originally planned.

Now I want to get into the sneaky stuff that creeps in during the messy middle. Because it WILL show up.

You're three months into a goal (amazing!), making slow and steady progress. And then you see someone on social media who apparently hit the same milestone in three weeks. While also training for a marathon….and meal prepping for a family of five.

Cool. Good for her! But her timeline has absolutely nothing to do with yours. You don't know her starting point, her resources, or what's happening off-camera. Your “slow progress” is still progress. Period.

This one gets SO many of us. Waiting for perfect. The perfect Monday. The perfect morning routine. The perfect mood to start. You get the point…

But “done” at 70% is better than “perfect” at 0% every single time. Lower the bar just enough to keep on going. You can polish things later.

The "I Don't Wanna " Days

Yes, they're coming. You will have days where you really don’t want to work on your goal. And on those days, motivation is nowhere to be found.

So here's what I do. I pick the tiniest possible action. Like, embarrassingly small.

• Do two minutes of the thing. Only two.
• Write out the topic for my next blog post in a 2-3 words.
• Look at my goal so it at least stays at the top of my mind.

Most of the time, once I start, I keep going. And even when I don't? I still did something!

Here are a few real-life scenarios to show you exactly what I mean.

You said you'd work out five days a week. You're averaging two. That's still two more than no days. Maybe you adjust to three days and stick to it consistently.

The savings goal

You wanted $5,000 saved by December. It's September and you're at $1,800. The old you might scrap the whole thing. The new you adjusts the deadline, keeps the automatic transfers going, and continues to save.

The personal growth goal

You committed to reading two books a month. You've read three in four months. Ok. So perhaps one book a month is more realistic right now. You're still reading more than you were before!

In each scenario, the answer is the same. Don't abandon the goal, make a bridge through the middle.

If you take one thing away from this post, I hope it’s this. You already know how to set a great SMART goal.

The piece that was missing was a follow-through system for the weeks when it gets boring and hard and life-y. Now you have one.

So here's your homework! Don’t worry, I'm keeping it super simple for you:

• Pick one goal (not two or three) you've been working on
• Schedule one weekly check-in with yourself
• Stack it onto something you already do

Then revisit the goals you've already set and look at them with fresh eyes. You might surprise yourself with how close you really are.