Taking the time to review your goals can help you make sure you are still on the right track.
Many of us spend time setting goals for what we want to accomplish at the beginning of the year. They were important enough for us to write them down and plan for how to reach them.
As the year gets going, it is easy to forget or lose sight of our goals in day-to-day life. Life happens, things get busy or chaotic, and before we know it, summer is here, and our plans may have drifted to the realm of out of sight, out of mind.
Taking time to review your goals throughout the year will not only help keep them from getting forgotten but will also help ensure you are working towards goals that matter to you.
HOW TO REVIEW YOUR GOALS?
A goal review does not have to be complicated or even take a lot of time. You can go through them as quickly as you like. I like to set aside an hour for this kind of task or plan it for an evening or afternoon when I know I do not have anything else going on.
It gives me the freedom to take as little or as much time as I need.
- Mark Progress
- Evaluate
- Adjust
- Celebrate
All you need for a review is a copy of your goals and your writing tools of choice.
MARK YOUR PROGRESS FOR EACH GOAL!
A review of your goals begins with figuring out where you are at with each plan. You can start by looking over the goals you set and crossing off any steps, milestones, and mini goals you have reached.
Then take a few minutes to reflect on each goal. How are you doing with the plan? Are you on track? Behind a little? Or did you forget about it?
There are no wrong answers here. You are just taking stock of where you stand with the goals you set at the beginning of the year.
EVALUATE YOUR GOALS.
This step is the most time-consuming. Once you know your progress for your goals, you need to evaluate them. To do this, ask yourself the following questions about each plan.
- Is this goal still important or relevant to your life right now?
- What is working to help you achieve this goal?
- What is not working?
- Are there any changes you need to make to this goal to make it fit your life better?
- What changes or steps can you take to make it easier to reach this goal?
It is essential to give yourself some time to really reflect on these questions and answer truthfully, especially that first question. Make notes about your answers so you have something to reference when you get to the next step.
Life is fluid, and it changes constantly. Sometimes the goals we think are essential no longer fit with where we are in life. There is no point in giving your time and attention to something that is not relevant to you anymore. That is why it is so important to take time to review your goals now and then.
MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO YOUR GOALS.
Sometimes we need to make a few adjustments to our goals to help them better fit our lives. Use your answers from the evaluation step to determine if your goals need adjustments and what those adjustments might be.
The first and most effortless adjustment is to decide if the goal is worth your time and effort to keep pursuing. It is ok to decide to stop working towards a goal. You can set it aside for later or get rid of it together. Letting go of a plan is not always easy. But you know what happens when you let go of or set aside a goal not working for you? You make room to work on ones that matter more.
Once you know which goals you will keep and which (if any) you are letting go of, use your answers about what is not working to figure out how to adjust your goal to change that.
It might mean changing the steps or milestones. Maybe you need to give yourself more dedicated time to work on your goal. You might decide you need to ask for some help or delegate some tasks to others.
Write down your adjustments. Sometimes I like to write out my goals on a fresh sheet when I get to this step, but you could write them wherever you have your goals written down or use sticky notes to add them to your pages.
CELEBRATE YOUR SUCCESS WITH YOUR GOALS.
No matter how small your progress or whether you think you have come far enough, you need to make time to mark your success. Progress is still progress, and that is a success.
Even if your progress is throwing out all the goals, you set at the beginning of the year and making new ones.
Celebrate!
You know what you no longer need or want. That is a success!
Maybe you have only made the first step towards your goals.
Celebrate!
You are still moving forward. Baby steps are still momentum. You set goals at the beginning of the year and then forgot about them until right now.
Celebrate!
Planning your goals is a significant action.
It deserves recognition.
Life happens to us all. You know what your next step is, and you can get started at any time.
It is so easy to look at what we have not done and feel like we are falling behind or not measuring up. We need to take the time to celebrate all our most minor victories just as much as we need to celebrate the big ones. It helps to motivate us to move forward, and it emphasized the positive.
Keep reading the mindful blogs to elevate your fitness journey- https://fns360.com/category/mindset/.
