Revamping and Refreshing Your Goals
Or maybe, reviving your goals. Hey, no judgement here! I still have goals from 2008 that I have yet to achieve. Anyhoo! It’s JUNE! I’m guessing if you opened this article, this is you at the moment: You set a goal in January or the December before, all excited for the new year and a new you. You have these grand ideas of eating healthier, meditating every day, doing yoga and being more mindful of your water consumption (#globalwarming). Now it’s June, and some of your goals, or worse yet, none of them have taken off beyond the act of writing them on the first page of your planner. And you’re wondering “What happened?” Or maybe you look at the goals and think “That’s not who I want to be”. Let me just start by saying it’s completely natural, you don’t have to kick yourself for it or feel awful. A lot can happen in even a week that shifts us from who we were when we set those goals. The thing about goals is that they preface action. So, if no form of action has happened, then it’s time for your goals to be re-examined. And in my experience, goals don’t get started for the following reasons.
1. Overthinking and/or fear of results
Be it failure or sometimes even success, some of us don’t start on a certain goal because we are afraid of the results. Or we get caught up in our thoughts, question, re-question and then question things even more.
2. Missing the discipline/commitment/etc. to see the goal through
This is pretty self-explanatory right? You vow to wake up at 5am in 2018, and every morning you just hit the snooze button. Now it’s June and you’re still waking up at 9am.
3. The goal wasn’t SMART
Meaning, the goal wasn’t Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. Your goal for 2018 was “go to the gym”. You did! Twice! In the last six months – once to get your membership and then the very next day because you were motivated from getting your membership.
4. There simply were too many goals
Too many doesn’t mean you had 25 goals you wanted to achieve in 2018. Sometimes even if you just had two goals, one of them could have many sub-goals that demand a lot of attention and effort from you, that you don’t have the resources for the other goal.
If you ask me, the above reasonings are completely human. But if you are feeling a little antsy and want to revamp and refresh your goals for the remaining half of the year, here’s some tips on how you can do just that. These are numerically paired to the above reasonings, but you can take an overall approach!
1. Conquer your thoughts
If overthinking is an issue, practice some mindfulness. Like I always say, you don’t have to meditate to achieve that, though it might be helpful. You can journal or set aside some time to think about all the ways you see your goal going south or too scarily, north say during your commute. Try to do some positive framing that works for you. Are you someone who looks back at events and takes a mental note of your learning experience? Then try identifying the potential learning points. Are you someone who needs logic and reasoning to motivate you? Come up with a logical rationale for yourself.
2. Cushion yourself with motivation
Clearly 9am to 5am is a huge jump but you thought you could rely on willpower and that if you got up 5am 5 days in a row, you will soon make it a habit. While you do need an element of discipline to get your goal going, you should know why something is your goal. Is it for the fresh air or the quiet surroundings or because it gives you an extra hour to exercise? Use these as motivators. Or, if it was something like eating healthier or going to the gym, find a group setting so you’re surrounded by like-minded people. Vision boards, Pinterest boards are all wonderful ways to constantly look at what you want to achieve too.
3. Make the goal SMART or SMART-er
If your goal was as ambiguous as “go to the gym”, it’s not helpful because you can’t track or commit yourself to the goal. Set up a SMART goal: “Starting June 5th, I will go to do the gym at 9am twice a week to do an hour long cardio session”. If your goal was SMART, then look at why it didn’t work and change it up. Maybe you want to go to the gym at 6pm after work instead. Maybe the cardio wasn’t giving you the results you wanted so switch it up with weights.
4. Ditch the other goal(s)!
Seriously, it’s fine if you do. The point with goals is to make progress in your life. If you’re making progress with Goal A, honour that progress. You don’t have to force yourself to make progress in ALL the elements of your life simultaneously with Goal A, Goal B, Goal C AND Goal D. Otherwise, your goals could become more of a chore that you have to do, so you resent them and do them for the sake of getting them done rather than make progress. Or, you could even crash with the weight of handling all the goals. We don’t want that.
There are two other generic ways you can revamp and refresh your goals! One is to look at the goals that you did achieve or are making significant progress in. Why did they work? Are there similar techniques you can use to apply to the other goals? Maybe Goal A was to eat healthier and you have been killing it because you have been meal-prepping. Goal B was to get up earlier, but you haven’t done as good of a job in it. Are there ways you can be prepared for the mornings? The other way is to examine if your goal had an endpoint? Now, this can work both ways. If your goal was a habit, you wouldn’t need one. Say, your goal was to lose weight, but you wanted it to happen by Karen’s wedding in March. Now that it’s over, you’re kinda back to your old habits of eating too much French fries. Try removing end-points to goals such as these and take an everyday, lifestyle approach towards them. Certain goals such as “I want to save more” would need an endpoint. What does it mean for you to have money saved up? For retirement? To afford a trip to Portugal? A specific amount set aside for rainy days? Frame an “achieve” point so you can make the goal achievable.
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