Why Goal Setting Fails
Feb 20, 2026Summary
Have you ever set a goal with total excitement, only to have it crash and burn within two weeks? Most of us look at our failed goals and think, "I just don't have enough willpower." But the truth is much deeper. In this episode of the Arise, Women of God podcast, host Tamara K. Anderson joins Kari Anjewierden and Tiffany Fletcher to answer the question: Why goal setting fails (and how to align with God’s plan instead).
We move from the frustration of setting the wrong goals to the peace of following a divine roadmap. We discuss the "Lofty Trap"—why trying to jump from 0 to 100 is a recipe for disaster—and the crucial difference between building a "Cottage" (your vision) vs. a "Mansion" (God's vision). Tiffany shares her personal journey of overcoming the fear of starting a podcast by simply hitting record (baby steps!), while Tamara reveals the specific ways the adversary tries to "dam" your progress. If you are tired of constant failure, this episode will equip you with a "Don't Quit Emergency Kit" to cast out discouragement and find your momentum again.
Episode Takeaways
- The Lofty Trap: Failure often comes from trying to jump from 0 to 100 mph (e.g., working out 6 days a week when you currently do 0). Success is found in incremental growth—going from 0 to 5, then 5 to 10.
- Cottage vs. Mansion: Kari shares a powerful insight: "My vision is a cottage, but God's vision is a mansion." If your blueprints don't match God's, you will feel constant friction. Make God the CEO of your goals to ensure you aren't building the wrong thing.
- Momentum is Key: Tiffany overcame the overwhelming goal of "Starting a Podcast" by breaking it down to just "hit record." Action creates momentum. You don't need to know the whole path; you just need to take the next baby step.
- The Adversary's Dam: Discouragement isn't just an emotion; it's a tactic. The adversary wants to "dam" (stop) your progress. When you feel the mental battle of "you can't do this," use the specific protocol to cast him out and invite light back in.
Resources
Do you need a plan for when you want to quit? Download our FREE Guide to Goal Setting. It features the "Don't Quit Emergency Kit"—a specific protocol to help you cast out the adversary and get back on track. 👉 Download the Guide Here: https://www.womenwarriorsoflight.com/offers/WyaLn2gS/checkout
Need accountability? Check out our Women Warriors Accountability Group for free for two weeks! https://www.womenwarriorsoflight.com/join-now
Reflection Questions
- Look at a goal you recently failed. Did you try to go from 0 to 100? How could you break that down into a 0-to-5 step?
- Are you building a cottage or a mansion? Ask God today: "Are my blueprints aligned with Yours?"
- When discouragement hits, do you view it as a personal failure or as a spiritual attack? How does changing that perspective help you fight back?
- What is one "baby step" you can take today to build momentum (like Tiffany hitting record)?
Transcript
Tamara K. Anderson
00:00:00.320 - 00:02:32.430
Have you ever set a goal with total excitement only to have it crash and burn within two weeks? Most of us look at our failed goals and think, I just don't have enough willpower. The truth is actually much deeper.
Today we're asking the question why goal setting fails. And by the end of the episode, you will understand how to distinguish between small vision and God's grand blueprint.
We're going to help you solve the pain of constant failure by teaching you how to build a don't quit emergency kit. We're moving from the frustration of setting the wrong goals to the peace of following a divine roadmap. Stay tuned.
Ordinary women Extraordinary faith. When God calls, we say yes. The Arise Women of God Podcast hello, and welcome to another episode of the Arise Women of God podcast.
I'm your host, Tamara K. Anderson, and joining me today are Kari Anjewierden and Tiffany Fletcher of our Women warriors of Light Advisory Board. And today we're going to do a deep dive on why we get stuck.
First, we'll talk about the lofty trap, why trying to jump from 0 to 100 is a recipe for disaster. Second, we'll share the mansion versus the cottage principle, how to make sure you're not building a shack when God has a palace in mind.
Third, we're going to discuss the mental battle, the specific ways the adversary tries to dam or stop your progress. And finally, we'll reveal the printed map strategy for when your internal GPS fails. But let's kick it off by talking about capacity and momentum.
I know that often when I have goals that fail, sometimes it's because I've set too lofty of a goal. You know, it's like I'm trying to jump from 0 to 100 miles an hour instead of 0 to 5, and then 5 to 10 and 10 to 20.
You know, so incrementally growing and saying, I'm not exercising at all, and I'm going to go to six days a week and I'm going to exercise an hour every day. No. So be wise to make sure that whatever goal you're setting is achievable, that you're not trying to go beyond your capacity.
What other tip would you give Tiffany.
Tiffany Fletcher
00:02:32.430 - 00:03:44.950
If we ask him to just break it down? Okay, what does this look like? What would it look like for this grand goal?
What are the baby step details that I need to do that will lead up to this goal? And then we can start making those little goals, right?
Like, for example, God's given me the grand goal of starting a podcast that is very overwhelming for me and I've sat on it for a very long time. But thanks to Tamara, who gave me some really great advice. She's like, just start recording.
That made all the difference because what it did is it gave me momentum. And then because I started recording, now I have these podcasts that I know I need to get out there. So now I can say, okay, I'm recording podcasts.
This is what I'm doing. I have a goal of doing so many a week and then now I need to edit them. That's the next goal. And just taking it one step at a time.
Okay, what's my next right step that I need to take in order to make this grand goal come to pass? And then not being afraid of the grand goals, I think we get really afraid of those. I didn't know how to do podcasts.
I asked Tamara, took her class, learned how to do a podcast. God gives us people to help us do those grand goals that can help us break em down so that we can achieve them.
So I think that's what's important is, is find the people that can help you and just get started. Just do it one step at a time.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:03:45.190 - 00:04:05.090
It's all about those baby steps, ladies. If we don't break the vision down, we get lost in the weeds and simply give up.
But there's another reason we times we're working off the wrong set of blueprints. Kari is now going to share a powerful realization she had about the difference between our vision and God's vision.
Kari Anjewierden
00:04:05.490 - 00:05:06.310
But my vision is a cottage and God's vision is a mansion. And those are two very different blueprints. If you're setting goals, if you're trying to do something, they're going to look vastly different.
So if my goals are taking me towards a cottage, I'm not helping God achieve his mansion. So making sure he's the overseer, the CEO in things, is very helpful.
But making sure that I have the right blueprints, that I have the right pattern for me individually, what he wants for me, not what he wants for Tamara or for Tiffany, but what he wants for me, and then following a map, having some structure to it, not just writing it down and saying this is what I want to do, but having a structure, having it detailed, making sure that you will be successful in the long run in our goal setting as well, just to make sure that we are taking out anything that is going to impede our progress.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:05:07.110 - 00:07:47.370
We just have to make sure that God is the CEO of our blueprints. If we're building towards a cottage and he wants a mansion, we'll always feel a sense of friction.
And that friction is exact where the adversary likes to step in. He wants to turn our misstep into a spiral downward.
I'm going to also address the elephant in the room here, because often the thing that holds us back from succeeding and reaching our goals is that mental battle, the discouragement that we battle inside our mind. The little voice that says, you can't do it, you're not capable, you're not worthy.
And those are the whisperings of the adversary, because God is all about our growth and progress and progressing towards those mansions on high. And the adversary is all about stopping our progress. And so when those times come, and.
They always will, to have a plan in place, what am I going to do when this happens? When perhaps I don't reach the goal that I set that week because something happens?
The other thing is to know how to cast out the adversary when he is bugging us. That feels like discouragement. That feels like a heavy sadness that might be weighing on us because we are comparing ourselves to other people.
We are called to do it God's way and do it God strong. I'm not called to do it Tiffany's way, and Tiffany's not going to do it my way, and I'm not doing gonna do it Carrie's way.
Because we're each unique and our missions are unique, and what God is calling us to do is unique. So, yeah, we can draw little principles from what other people do.
But ultimately, the best person to help us be successful is asking God, teach me how I am supposed to do this. But one of the great things we have as a resource on our Women warriors of Light website is this new a guide to goal setting.
Free download A strategic roadmap for Christian women. And one of the amazing things in here is a page that I call the Don't Quit Emergency Kit. And this is going to help you. On those times when you are feeling.
Down and just feeling overwhelmed. And it kind of walks you through step by step, some amazing hacks.
When you are battling the adversary, when things are hard and tough and you're like, I want to give up. So be sure to download that.
We'll drop the link in the show notes below, but that will give you some amazing tips and tricks as well as casting out the adversary, bringing light back in so that you can be successful.
Tiffany Fletcher
00:07:47.690 - 00:09:19.490
I think that that's important. That's an important key to talk about.
Like when we cast Satan out because let's be honest, he's the one that's always going to be the one that keeps us stop our goals. Whether he puts something physical in our way or whether he mentally blocks us, it's him that's doing it.
So we need to cast him out, bring light back in like that. That's.
So when we can, when we can focus back on the Savior, focus back on Heavenly Father and, and say, okay, Heavenly Father, this is the goal. Right now I have this block. Help me move through this block so that I can get to where I need to go.
Help me know the lessons in it so that I can keep going and kind of return and report to your Heavenly Father. That's what goals is about, right? Like being a co creator with him and saying, okay, this is what I need to do.
Help me co create so that you can return a report at night and say, God, I wasn't able to do this because of this. Please help me know how to realign things so that I can continue to do what you need me to do.
I think that that's such an important thing is keeping him in the loop of communication. And sometimes when we get discouraged and depressed, we just don't even go to him at all. And then we stop moving forward.
But with when we keep him in the loop, when we cast Satan out, when we bring light back in and strengthen our resolve that we can do it and we're going to do it, then we can take the lessons that we need from the blocks that come and we can use them as stepping stones instead of something that's going to stop us, but as stepping stones to teach us the lessons we need to become the person that God needs us to be and to share the message that he needs us to share. As we continue to make those roadblocks into stepping stones and move upward and onward for Him.
Kari Anjewierden
00:09:19.970 - 00:09:44.770
Well, and then again, just bringing in the right people, praying for the right people, pray that God will bring to you those people that can help you be successful in what you're trying to do. Because it really does make a difference to have a support group around you.
And when you have that support group, the fear and the different things, the discouragements are a lot less, they're easier hurdles to get over.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:09:45.249 - 00:10:07.350
Roadblocks are just stepping stones in disguise, my friends. When we bring God into the loop, the shame disappears and the momentum returns. As we wrap up today, I want to leave you with one final thought.
Failure and is never the end of the story. Let's listen. As Kari and Tiffany discuss this powerful principle.
Kari Anjewierden
00:10:07.750 - 00:10:35.130
Don't be afraid of failure. It is our best teacher. And I know for me, this last year, one of the things that I worked on the most was changing my mindset around, oh, I failed.
I didn't do that thing into, okay, I didn't do that the way that I wanted to. What did I learn, and how can I build on that learning to make me more successful the next time I try something like that?
Tiffany Fletcher
00:10:35.370 - 00:10:58.420
I just wanted to say, don't be afraid to try. Making that first step gives you the momentum to keep moving forward. So don't sit on it. Just do it.
And then once you do it, God will help give you the momentum to keep doing it over and over and over again the way he needs you to do it. So do what God asks, and. And he'll help with the rest. You just got to get started.
Tamara K. Anderson
00:10:58.900 - 00:11:28.210
So why does goal setting fail?
It fails when we leave God out of the blueprints and the adversary in our head. But today, you have tools to change that.
And if you want to walk this path with a community of women who will help you turn your failures into learning, go check out our Women warriors accountability group. The links are in the description. Go take your right foot. First step today and until next time, may you arise. Do it God's way. God strong.
