Every January, Chidi does the same thing. He opens a fresh notebook-the kind with the inspiring quote on the cover-and writes down his goals for the year. This past January, like the three Januaries before it, “Improve my public speaking” made the list. So did “Network more effectively” and “Write more consistently.” He underlined them. He felt motivated. He imagined himself six months later: confident at the podium, expanding his professional circle, publishing articles that people actually read.
By March, the notebook was buried under a stack of files on his desk. By June, he couldn’t remember where he’d put it. By December, he was making the same resolutions all over again, wondering why nothing ever changed.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Communication goals are among the most commonly set and most frequently abandoned resolutions. Every year, thousands of professionals promise themselves they’ll become better speakers, more persuasive writers, more confident networkers. Every year, most of them fail. Not because they lack talent or intelligence, but because they’re approaching the problem in exactly the wrong way.
The Vagueness Problem
Let’s start with the most obvious issue: most communication goals are too vague to be useful. “Improve my public speaking” sounds like a goal, but it’s actually just a wish dressed up in goal language. What does “improve” mean? Speak at more events? Reduce your nervousness? Organize your thoughts more clearly? Engage your audience better? All of the above?
When your goal is vague, your brain has no idea what success looks like. You can’t measure progress because you haven’t defined what progress means. You can’t take action because you haven’t specified what action to take. You’re essentially telling yourself, “Be better at this thing,” and then wondering why you’re not magically better at it.
Amina, a mid-level manager at a tech company, spent two years telling herself she needed to “communicate more effectively with her team.” She felt frustrated that her instructions weren’t being followed, that meetings dragged on without resolution, that her team seemed confused about priorities. But “communicate more effectively” gave her nothing to work with. Was the problem her clarity? Her tone? Her timing? The medium she was using? She didn’t know, so she couldn’t fix it.
The vagueness problem extends to writing goals too. “Write more” is not a goal. Write more what? Blog posts? Reports? LinkedIn articles? Emails? How much more? Once a week? Once a day? For what purpose? To build your personal brand? To document your work? To clarify your thinking? Without specificity, “write more” becomes “feel guilty about not writing” and then eventually “stop thinking about writing altogether.”
The System Problem
Even when people manage to set specific communication goals, they usually fail to build systems to support them. They rely on motivation, which is the least reliable resource in the world. Motivation gets you started. Systems keep you going.
Consider Tunde, who decided he wanted to expand his professional network. His goal was specific enough: “Connect with five new people in my industry every month.” But he had no system for making it happen. He didn’t block time in his calendar for networking activities. He didn’t identify which events to attend or which online communities to join. He didn’t create a process for following up with new contacts. He just hoped that opportunities would present themselves and that he’d have the energy to pursue them when they did.
Predictably, January was great. He was motivated. He attended two events and connected with seven people. February was okay. He managed three connections. By March, other priorities had taken over. His networking goal died quietly, unmourned and unremembered.
The same pattern plays out with public speaking goals. People say they want to speak more, but they don’t create a system for finding speaking opportunities. They don’t join Toastmasters or volunteer to present at team meetings. They don’t pitch themselves to conference organizers or offer to lead workshops. They just wait to be invited, and then they wonder why invitations never come.
Systems beat motivation every single time. If you want to write consistently, you need a system: a specific time, a specific place, a specific word count or time commitment. If you want to improve your presentation skills, you need a system: a regular practice schedule, a feedback mechanism, a way to track your progress. Without systems, your goals are just wishes with deadlines.
The Unrealistic Expectations Problem
Then there’s the problem of unrealistic expectations. People set communication goals as if communication skills are light switches that can be flipped from “off” to “on.” They expect dramatic transformation in unrealistic timeframes. They want to go from nervous speaker to confident presenter in three months.
They want to go from awkward networker to smooth connector in six weeks. They want to become compelling writers by the end of the quarter.
It doesn’t work that way. Communication skills are built through repetition, feedback, and incremental improvement. You don’t become a good public speaker by giving one great speech. You become a good public speaker by giving fifty mediocre speeches and learning from each one. You don’t become a strong writer by publishing one viral article. You become a strong writer by writing a hundred articles that nobody reads and figuring out what works.
But most people aren’t willing to be bad at something long enough to get good at it. They give their first presentation, it doesn’t go perfectly, and they conclude they’re “not good at public speaking.” They write three blog posts that get minimal engagement, and they decide they’re “not cut out for writing.” They attend one networking event where the conversations feel forced, and they tell themselves they’re “just not a networking person.”
The unrealistic expectation isn’t just about speed. It’s also about perfection. People expect their communication to be polished from the start. They expect to speak without filler words, write without editing, network without awkwardness. When reality doesn’t match this fantasy, they give up.
The Accountability Problem
Finally, there’s the accountability problem. Most people set communication goals privately and pursue them alone. There’s no one checking in on their progress. No one asking whether they’ve practiced their presentation. No one reading their drafts. No one noticing whether they’ve followed up with that contact from last month’s conference.
Without accountability, it’s easy to let things slide. You skip one week of writing practice, then two, then four. You postpone that speaking opportunity because you’re “not quite ready yet.” You tell yourself you’ll reach out to that potential mentor “when things calm down.” And because no one else knows about your goal, no one calls you out on these excuses.
Obioma set a goal to improve her email communication. She wanted to write clearer, more concise emails that got faster responses. It was a good goal. It was specific. But she told no one about it. She had no accountability partner, no one reviewing her emails, no mechanism for tracking whether her communication was actually improving. Six months later, she was still writing the same rambling emails she’d always written, because there was no external pressure to change and no feedback loop to guide her improvement.
The Pattern
Here’s what typically happens: Someone sets a vague communication goal without a supporting system, expects unrealistic progress, has no accountability, and then blames themselves when nothing changes. They conclude they’re “just not good at communication” or “not a natural speaker” or “not a strong writer.” They internalize the failure as a character flaw rather than recognizing it as a process flaw.
The problem isn’t you. The problem is how you’re approaching the goal.
Communication skills are learnable. Public speaking can be mastered. Writing can be improved. Networking can become natural. But not through vague resolutions and wishful thinking. Not through motivation alone. Not through expecting overnight transformation.
If you want 2026 to be different-if you want to actually achieve your communication goals instead of recycling them year after year-you need a different approach. You need clarity instead of vagueness. You need systems instead of motivation. You need realistic expectations instead of perfectionism. You need accountability instead of isolation.
The good news is that all of this is fixable. The even better news is that once you understand why your communication goals keep failing, you can design goals that actually work.
Next week: How to Set Communication Goals That Actually Stick-A Practical Framework for 2026
The post Why Your Communication Goals Keep Failing (And What to Do in 2026), by Ruth Oji appeared first on Vanguard News.
