5 Tips to help you get Back on Track with your Goals!
How are your New Year resolutions coming along?
*Cue the awkward silence while the tumbleweed blows past……..
If your New Year resolutions have already fallen by the wayside, I’m here to encourage you that you don’t have to be embarrassed and you don’t have to feel like you are hopeless when it comes to achieving your goals. After all, here’s a fun fact for you: the majority of people have given up on their resolutions by 11th of January! You are not alone – hey, I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve been in that position many a time over the years – however you and I are not going to give up trying this year – right?
“Giving up is the only sure way to fail.” – Gena Showalter
Sometimes, getting back on track with your goals means taking a step back to reassess things before you try again. Going through this process myself, plus having worked with numerous women throughout the years – has given me some insights, so read on for my 5 Tips to help get you back on Track OR head over to YouTube and tune in HERE, or scroll to the bottom or click HERE to listen to the podcast episode on your favourite audio platform.
1. Review and reflect.
This is a critical exercise to do at the end of each year and if you skip doing it, you run the risk of repeating past behaviours over and over.
- What worked for you?
- What didn’t work?
- What did you learn?
- What would you do differently?
Just taking the time to do this exercise alone, could be a game-changer in helping you following through and reaching your goals this time.
2. Ask yourself “what if?”
- What if you took that class?
- What if you joined that gym?
- What if you booked that holiday?
- What if you started that side hustle?
- What if you went back to school and retrained?
What are all of the “what ifs ” you’ve been too scared to ask yourself?
Taking the time to do this exercise might surprise you, as once you voice these questions, you can start finding answers for them – and the answers might be way less challenging than you expected.
3. Goal setting
What exactly are you’re aiming for? It may well be that the resolution or goal you didn’t stick with was too vague. Maybe it didn’t clearly articulate what you really wanted to achieve?
It’s difficult to reach a goal when you can’t define what that goal actually is!
For example, during the years that I worked as a personal trainer, I would ask people what their goals were, and at least 80% would say “to get fit.”
Unfortunately though, “get fit” was too vague a goal, and those people generally disappeared once the cooler mornings rolled around, or life got in the way. Those who were more specific however, were the ones who usually keep going with their training. Their goal of “running a half marathon” in a certain time, or “increasing their bench press by 10%,” or even of entering a class in a body building competition at a certain bodyfat %, gave them a clear picture of their end goal. This clear picture then enabled me to write the personalised, targeted programs they needed to follow to achieve their goals.
A clearly defined goal will give you the target to aim for and help you create the blueprint you need to get there.
4. Start Decluttering
This one is a biggie. So much so, that I write about it in all of my 21 Hacks books (You can read more about them HERE.) It’s not just about physical clutter however, although obviously that’s a huge issue. Clutter – be it digital, emotional, mental or physical – is something that can distract you from achieving your goal.
Clutter catches your attention and breaks your focus, and if that’s happening constantly – be that due to your cluttered surrounds, due to your self-talk or due to constant noise – you’ll struggle to make progress towards your goal. What’s more, the negative self-talk will worsen as you beat yourself up for not achieving your goals yet again.
The good news however, is that once you become aware of the clutter in your life and start intentionally removing it, you will be amazed at how wonderful you start to feel. You’ll find that you are able to start dreaming again, and who knows what incredible things that will lead to! (You can read other posts about clutter HERE and HERE.)
5. Take intentional action
You hear people saying you need to “take action” all the time. Unfortunately though,”taking action” will rarely help you reach a specific goal. Instead, you need to be taking intentional action.
Let’s say that your goal is to enter a half marathon and complete it within a certain time. While “taking action” by getting your gym gear ready each night so that you don’t miss a session is a great idea – it’s not going to ensure that you achieve your goal. You need to be far more intentional in what action you take. For instance, instead of just getting your gym gear ready, make sure that you have a stop watch, that you’ve booked a trainer who specialises in this kind of training and that you have your training log to measure your progress. These intentional actions will give you the very best chance of reaching your goal.
So there you have it. 5 simple tips which can help you get back on track with those goals you were so passionate about just a short while ago. Which one resonates most with you? Let me know in a comment below and I’d love to hear any tips of yours that could be added to this list!
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It is so critical to set goals up in a way we can attain them and measure them… you are so spot on when you call out “getting fit” as not really a good choice for a goal? How do you measure that? It takes a while to get there… and not having tangible measurable goals like “i want to run a 10k” or “walk a mile without stopping” makes in near impossible to achieve.
Thanks Jack, and you are so right. If a goal can’t be measured, it is highly unlikely that it will ever be reached!
What if are two very regretful words to live by. You have given us many wonderful choices to eliminate all the obstacles and excuses. Thanks for the inspiration.
Thanks Nancy and yes indeed to your comment about “what if!”
This is very inspiring and I am actually going to take notes from your blog post. To be honest I hardly ever have new years resolutions but I seem to ‘linger’ over when I start with my goals throughout the year.
I’m glad that you’ve been prompted to take notes 🙂 I really think that when we take the pressure off having to have things all sorted by Dec 31st, and instead, treat every week as an opportunity to set or work towards goals, we don’t get “stuck” any more worried about how much of the year has gone by.