I started the year happy and with high hopes. I have all these plans outlined for the year and I'm sure everyone starts the new year with this new type of energy. It's a new year so we're so pumped. We have all these expectations and plans for the year. From goals to resolutions, wishes, and plans, we itemized them–sometimes going as far as sticking them where we can see them. There is also that slogan, "new year new me" so we all want to keep it that way.
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But what if it's already halfway through the year and I'm not able to achieve the goals I set for myself for the year? What if all of my efforts do not yield any results? What will I do? Nobody asks themselves this question and I never thought of this when writing my goals before.
You'd agree with me that New Year's resolutions are notoriously difficult to keep. Most people abandon them within the first few months of the year, let's say from January to March, while a small amount of people stick with them until the 31st of December.
I know that it can be frustrating and discouraging when things don't go as planned. I sometimes feel tempted to just give up, but giving up would not help. That's why I've decided that I'd rather do these seven things if that happens:
The first thing I'll do is review my goals and check if it is SMART. Are they realistic? Then I'd revamp my goals and make adjustments where I'm supposed to and even rewrite it if necessary.
The second thing I'd do is assess the progress I've made from the beginning of the year to that point. I'll also recognize the efforts I've put in and the things I was able to achieve no matter how small. This way I'm motivated and not beat myself up too much.
The third thing I'll do is to search and specify things that hindered me from smashing my goals. What are the precise reasons my goals are receiving uninspiring results? This will help me develop strategies to help me overcome them and see where to do things differently.
The fourth thing I'll do is I'll stop doing things the same way I always do it and expect different results because that will be deceiving myself. I'll change my strategy since my current strategy isn't giving me the desired results.
The fifth thing I'll do is try to stay encouraged and relentless which may be difficult. I'll make sure to remind myself of the reasons I set those goals and what I want to achieve from them. Then I'll break them down into smaller and more manageable tasks that I'll be able to deal with quickly. I'll also celebrate each milestone I cross to keep my motivation level high.
The sixth thing I'll do is to be more adaptable. I'll be adaptable with my choices and be open to adjusting my goals and plans when needed because sometimes new principles can lead to better outcomes than what we expect.
The seventh thing is I'll seek direction from others more experienced than I am to get new views, strategies, and wisdom to help me achieve my goals. I'd also share my challenges with some of my friends and family members because sometimes talking about them brings clarity and solutions.
We need to consider these things as another year goes. We have a lot of time to smash those goals. We've taken the first action by writing our goals and resolutions for the year, we know how to go about achieving them.
But most of the time we don't consider what happens if things don't go as planned. We have such high hopes for the year that we think it'll go just as we envisage and if it doesn't we usually see it as a sign of failure, which ought not to be. We should see these challenges as opportunities to improvise and learn.
We shouldn't wait till the end of the year before we evaluate if we are achieving our goals. We should set out a time to do that, it can be quarterly. This helps us achieve our goals.