---
title: "Why Some Goals Don't Gain Traction: The Seed, Soil and Cycle Pairings"
description: "For anyone who starts the year in fits and sprints and then loses steam."
author: "Rahim Rasul"
type: "Podcast episode"
series: "Halftime Talks"
episode: 150
published: "2018-01-03"
duration: "13 min"
theme: "Goals and process"
tags: "goals, habits, new year, systems, patience"
audio: "https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/rahimrasul/HTT150_WhySomeGoalsDontGainTraction.mp3?dest-id=175061"
url: "https://iloveprocess.com/halftime/why-some-goals-dont-gain-traction/"
site: "I Love Process"
---

# Why Some Goals Don't Gain Traction: The Seed, Soil and Cycle Pairings

_For anyone who starts the year in fits and sprints and then loses steam._

**The question:** Have you ever asked yourself the question, why only a percentage of your New Year's goals get accomplished?

Listen: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/rahimrasul/HTT150_WhySomeGoalsDontGainTraction.mp3?dest-id=175061

## Before you listen

This was the first episode of 2018, on why some goals don't gain the traction we anticipated, and our own part in why that initial force dissipates. The number one reason is the assumption that declaring a goal is enough to set it in motion.

That is like a farmer grabbing a packet of seeds and insisting the earth be the right soil. The seed, the soil and the season have to line up. If the gym is foreign to you and full of equipment you don't know how to use, every choice adds cognitive fatigue, and without early results we quit and feel like failures. Before you could make an egg, cheese and chorizo taco, you first had to learn to scramble eggs.

Listen for the line I have been saying to friends and family about time and change, and for the quote ascribed to Bill Gates on overestimating a year and underestimating ten. The close asks you to start from the humble place you are.

## From the talk

> The number one reason why goals fail is because there's an assumption that the declaration of the goal is enough to set the things in motion that will yield the results and the fulfillment that we're looking for.
>
> It's not the time that creates the change. It's not time that heals all wounds, it's our engagement in that time.
>
> Recognize you are where you are, and right here is the perfect place that positions you toward everything you want.

## Sit with this

- How are the systems that support your goals?
- If you don't have the habits already ingrained, how do you expect to make it to the gym?
- Does it matter if you get there, if you discover the light of your life on the way?

## Transcript

Welcome to another episode of Halftime Talks. My name is Rahim Rasul, and you're listening to the podcast that recognizes that in the middle of your game of life, whether you're up by 10 or down by 20, we all need halftime talks to uplift us, inspire us and challenge us to bring that level of performance it's going to take to win the game.

Halftime talks 2018 we're in full effect, and I don't think there's any reason why we should switch up the format. I'm so glad you guys are here. But you know, we begin with a little bit of appreciation. Today, I want to take some time to appreciate the givers. In our world, there's two classes of people. You have the givers and the takers, and today, I want to appreciate the people who are willing to not only open their heart, open their mind, open their resources, open their pockets, because they see a world where the inclusion of what they can give can make it more bountiful. We need those people.

We have those people in our lives. So recognize those people, appreciate those people, and tell those people, especially if you're a taker, how much they mean to you, and that is appreciation. Have you ever asked yourself the question, why only a percentage of your New Year's goals get accomplished? Have you ever just felt that frustration not understanding what it's going to take to get you over the hump? Do you ever just lose steam on the way to the creating and then something more enticing and intoxicating jumps up and grabs your attention. Well, there's a reason why most goals fail, and in today's episode, what we're going to be talking about are the dynamics that contribute to why goals often fail.

It's easy to set your mind ablaze with imagination and incepting ideas, but why do they fail? And that's what we're going to talk about. So strapping your seat belts, get prepared, open your mind, open up your pad for some notes or whatever you might have to do, and prepare for not only the first episode of the year, but it will ultimately also be the best episode of the year, so let's get at it.

Welcome to 2018 man. Can you believe it? You remember when it was the year 2000 and now Welcome to 2018 man. Can you believe it? You remember when it was the year 2000 and now we're sitting here at the beginning of another year that represents so much potential and possibility. Typically, we close the year out on a holiday note. We have Christmas you have New Year's, and in this new year's period, we coalesce around our goals, the things that we want to accomplish for the given year. If you've stuck around and listened to a few episodes of halftime talks. You also acknowledge that this idea of goal manufacturing is not something that should be relegated for the fourth quarter, first quarter of the year.

It's something that we need to practice all year long, and sometimes we realize that we start out in in fits and sprints, and then we lose a bit of steam. So this this episode, this episode is dedicated to understanding why some of your goals fail, and how to build the robust structure around them so it gives you the highest opportunity to take off. The number one reason why goals fail is because there's an assumption that the declaration of the goal is enough to set the things in motion that will yield the results and the fulfillment that we're looking for. That will be like a farmer grabbing a packet of seeds and insisting that this earth be the right type of soil for this flower, this plant, this food, to grow, we know that's wrong, because there needs to be a interrelationship between the seed, the thing that we want to hold in our hands at the end of the day, the product that we want to create, the time of year, the timing, the season we're playing.

Sensing in if you plan at the wrong time of year, good luck and the soil making sure all these three are aligned in the right way. So part of why a lot of goals fails because we just insist that it be the right time and our life is cultivated in the right space for anything to grow. What is rarely understood are the progressive realizations that need to take place, not only within ourselves, but the environment that create the right breeding ground for it to take off. Now you have some people who are so dedicated, so focused, so so so primed for success, that the sheer mention of the goal may be enough to set it in motion.

And I'll be honest with you, I'm not one of those people. And there's a few, there's a few things that don't require as much thought, thinking, planning and rigid accounting and measurement for the execution of it to take place. So what I'm talking about, how are the systems that support your goals? So if you don't have the self discipline, if you don't have the habits already ingrained. How do you expect to make it to the gym? First off, if the gym is something that is foreign to you, if the gym is something that there is a paradox of belief, something that you said, I don't want to go to this one day, if the gym is full of equipment that you do not know how to use, if you do not know which which weight is for your current level of strength, what we're talking about is an overwhelming environment of choices that have to be made, and the higher degree of choices, the higher degree of cognitive fatigue, and the higher degree of cognitive, cognitive fatigue if we're not immediately seeing those progressions, if we're not beginning to see those results in our own perceived dynamic of when it should be happening, the less likely for it to continue, similar to the seed the soil, and it's the cycle of the year, some of the dreams and some of the goals we have are not conducive to the environment that we're in.

Yet upon experiencing the perception of failure, we beat ourself up. We're we have these unrelenting standards without context to the environment for those standards to flourish. So I ask you, as you look through sometimes people have ridiculously long lists of all the things that they want to accomplish in a year. I ask you, which of those have you given a chance to flourish. One of my favorite quotes has been ascribed to Bill Gates is people tend to overestimate what they can get accomplished in a year and tend to underestimate what they can get accomplished in 10 years. So some of these goals are long term, and some of these things that we haven't even cultivated in place, the habits, the ability to wake up, the ability to carve that bit of time so we can devote the attention.

One of the things that I've said to a few of my friends recently and family members is that it's not the time that creates the change. It's not time that heals all wounds, it's our engagement in that time. And so look at how, look at how you've you've developed recipes before you can make that egg, cheese, chorizo, egg taco. You first had to learn how to scramble eggs. All the expectation was not placed upon you to make the final 10 stages down the line dish from the beginning, first, they say you have to walk before you run. It requires a level of humility to understand that the essential place that you are is where you are, and from here, we can build anything if we burden the system too early, if we burden the system too early with too high expectations, not only Will we experience what we perceive to be a failure, but we will feel and tie that feeling into our own perception of our ability, therefore feeling like a failure as well, only when we just didn't from the onset, understanding.

Understand all the moving dime dynamics that have led to future success. So look in your life. Look at all the humble places you began. Look at some of the things that you've learned along the way. And I want you to look back at that beginning point, that innocence, that that enthusiasm. I want you to look back at the curiosity that you held, to understand one day where you could be, and look at sometimes in those moments of beginning, those goals that you had more curiosity and enthusiasm than you had ability now recognize that you are in this space right now. You are in the space of developing the skills that support the entire mechanism before you can really fly.

You have to understand the first steps that go before it, and that's where we are. And so before we set up this elaborate menagerie of of goals, let's level set, let's focus, let's begin to understand the structures which hold them up. And the best part about it is that we have something at our disposal called collective intelligence, which allows us to curate the insights of the Masters who became came before us. The quicker we can eliminate our assumptions, the quicker we can get on the road toward the progressive realization of that goal. Be it taking one year, five years, 10 year. Does it matter if you get there, if you discover the light of your life on the way?

And so these are just a few things to think about when we talk about goal dynamics and overwhelming and overburdening a system with so much expectation when you haven't even cultivated the habit in the first place. So build that confidence one day at a time, one skill at a time, and then we can make it organic and complex and it can layer on top of itself, but until then, recognize you are where you are, and right here is the perfect place that positions you toward everything you want. Thank you. If you enjoyed this episode, you might want to also check out episode number three, resolution relapse, and also episode number 36 let's make this the best year of our life.

Our entire library is available on our website, halftimetalks.net as well as the iTunes podcast library. While you're on there, do us a favor, SUBSCRIBE and leave a review. Not only would we love it, but it would also make our podcast more findable, discoverable for other people, like you who can gain benefit from the podcast. So until next time, go out there in the second half of the game and play to win peace. You