The fifth of the 7 things not to do to achieve your goals is to ignore your past performance.

1. Don’t include “shoulds” – do things because you have an appreciation for the benefit to be gained or the pain to be avoided that is associated with the goal
2. Don’t obsess over the bull’s eye – give yourself a range to shoot for instead of a single point.  In addition to the target, identify a lesser amount that you would be pleased with.  At the same time establish what you would consider a stretch goal.
3. Don’t “try” anything -  write your goals in a way that identifies the actions you will take, not what you will try to do.  In the words of the wise Jedi master, Yoda, “Do or do not … there is no try.”
4. Don’t focus on other people – if your goal is dependent upon others, re-write it to only include the action you can directly control.

5. Don’t ignore your past performance

   While every day is a new start and you are not a slave to your past, understanding and acknowledging your past performance can prove very valuable in understanding the probability of achieving your new goals.  If, in the past, you have been able to consistently excel in the area in which you are setting your goal, then maybe it’s time to do a little stretching. Pick a target that is more challenging than you normally would.

   If, on the other hand, you have not had much success in a particular area in the past, then it makes more sense to be conservative with your goal.  Let’s take blogging for example.  If you have set social media goals in the past and have not been able to Tweet or write an article more than once every other week, it is not realistic to set a goal to write a daily blog post.  Weekly posting may be a more realistic goal.  Once you can do that consistently, then revise your goal to do it more frequently.

   The rest of the list

6. Don’t forget who you are
7. Don’t be vague