1. Fear of success and/or failure
Some teenagers are afraid they will fail or, even worse, that they may actually succeed. As such, they don’t even bother trying to attain a goal. Such people lack belief in themselves and in their potential. In their mind, if they fail, everyone will think negatively of them. And if they succeed, people will be envious and think negatively of them. So it becomes a lose-lose situation no matter how they look at it.
2. Lack of understanding about the goal-setting process
Many teenagers mistakenly believe that goal setting simply means putting a goal on paper, setting a date for completion, marking off checkpoints as they occur and then starting all over again. Such a mentality hinders teens from success.
3. Lack of commitment to the goal
Even though teenagers state they want to achieve a certain goal, in truth, they’re really not committed to it. Because of this lack of commitment, they don’t give the act of goal attainment their full effort.