picking up goals

Picking Up Goals Where You Left Them

I confess… I had lofty goals at the beginning of the year, and I failed. I lasted a month and stopped dead in my tracks. I know I am not alone. If you are reading this, you are probably in this same boat. You had this great idea for a goal. You were totally into it! You made plans, you told people about them, you got excited!!!!

…And you lost momentum and you stop working toward it… and the goal fades away.

Not today people, NOT TODAY!!!

We got this. We can pick up our goals, dust them off, and start right where we left off in the new year!

I love the Chinese Proverb: “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

WE ARE IN THE NOW! We can’t change the fact that we lost our way, but we can pick up our goals and dust them off today.

 

3 STEPS TO ACHIEVING YOUR GOALS:

1) Forgiveness
You must forgive yourself before you can move on. This may sound silly or pointless, but the truth is if you hold on to the guilt of your past failings, they will weigh you down and cause you to repeat the failure. For real. I am a therapist and I know these things. If we tie a negative emotion to the goal, such as our guilt over not following through the first time (or 3rd or 5th time), it will haunt us and cause us to believe we really can’t complete the goal.

There is power in positive thinking, as well as negative thinking. Where do you want to focus your energy? I say let’s forgive ourselves, we are only human after all. All humans make mistakes, we learn from them and we move on.

2) Reorient yourself to your goal
After you forgive yourself and decide you are ready to move forward with your goal, you have to take it out, inspect it, and dust it off.

Ask yourself some questions such as, “Do you remember your goal?” or “What are you working toward?” Is the goal still important to you, do you need to reformulate anything? What went wrong and what went right as you were working on it before? Think about how to can avoid or less what went wrong, and how you can increase and replicate what went right. This goal is YOUR goal, make it fit you today.

3) Flush out what was/is motivating or demotivating
Motivation is key to completing your goal! It can be internal or external motivation. On our pathway to goal completion sometimes we are the driver and sometimes we need a lift. Motivation of all forms puts us in motion. Demotivation detours us.

Make a list (What is helpful and harmful to you reaching your goal?):

  • Is there anything you can do to increase your motivation and likelihood of reaching your goal? If so, DO IT!!!
  • What is demotivating, and what has steered you away from completing your goals in the past? If you can, avoid these detours. If they can’t be avoided, plan for what you can do so that the detours will have less of an impact on what you are trying to accomplish.

 

You are in charge of YOU and your goals, no one else. Goals give us power over our lives. They are the tools we need to get to where we want to be in the future. Let’s plant our seed of success today and look back 20 years from now on all that we have accomplished. You got this! WE GOT THIS!

Sending love and well wishes.