Now here are some more specific reasons that plans fail. Knowing these pitfalls can help you avoid them and have success with your personal development plan.

• The Status Quo Is Okay – If you are okay with the way you are right now, then you are not ready to create a plan, nor are you ready to execute your plan. However, if you are dissatisfied enough with your current situation, then you can be motivated to make the changes necessary to develop and execute a successful personal development plan. So get started!
• You’re Not Serious About A Plan – If you are ‘kind of’ thinking about starting a plan, then you are not ready. Creating and executing a plan requires time, effort, and focus. Your plan needs to be written down so you can plan, execute, follow-up, evaluate, and give yourself credit for your successes.
• Your Plan is Too Simple or Too Difficult – Your plan needs to fit your ability and your environment. If you make the plan to hard, you will fail. If you don’t account for how other factors in your life will affect your plan, you will fail. If you make the plan too simple, you won’t accomplish much. You can always adjust your plan once you begin. If it’s too hard, adjust down slightly. If it’s too simple, ramp it up.
• Your Plan is Incomplete – Start with an outline of the goals you want to achieve. Then, under each goal, fill in the details. If it’s a work-out schedule you add where, when, and how much you will work-out. Also add how much you want to accomplish during each session. A detailed plan will give you realistic goals to shoot for and accomplish. You can always add more detail as you raise or increase your goals, but make sure your plan is detailed enough at the beginning so you can ensure your success.
• Narrow Your Focus – If you plan on improving several areas of your life, great! But start with one area first. Choose the area that is the most achievable and that will give you the most trackable success. Once you are well established in the first goal, or, you have accomplished the first goal, then set the next one. Having a clear, focused objective will help you achieve success, success that can propel you positively into your next goal.
• You Can’t Set Goals – Goal setting can be difficult. Where do I start? What tools do I need? How do I keep track of things? If you are unsure of how to set your goals, or if your goals aren’t clear or specific enough, seek help. All successful athletes have coaches. You can too. It could be a teacher, a mentor, a family member, a friend, or a former coach. It makes no difference. Just seek help or guidance to get you going and use that person to help you evaluate and stay on track. A bit of advice, first try to define the who, what, when, where, how, and why of every goal you have. Then add specifics to each category. But even if you do this, it doesn’t hurt to have a coach on your team.
• Don’t Expect Perfection – Being perfect is tough, especially when you are trying to make personal changes. So don’t get hung-up on the mistakes that you make along your journey. It’s better to make an imperfect action, than to not make any. too tied up in getting it all right before you start. Achieving your goal is the perfection you seek, but the journey itself does not need to be perfectly done.
• Wrong Place, Wrong Time – The environment you are in will greatly affect your success, so carefully consider the where and when of your plan. The where of your plan is the location, the room, the temperature of the room, and any distraction in that room. The when is the time. A time when you have no other obligations to distract you from your goal. There will be times when you need to adjust the where and the when, so make the change so you can accomplish your goal. Make sure you have the right place and the right time to succeed.