It’s June! That means you are six months into the year. Are you still rocking your new year’s resolutions or goals? Did you give up or taper off? Well, if you did there is no reason why you cannot declare that it is half time and start again. Why the heck not?
There is a lot more to achieving any goal than just merely having the goal. That is only is a first step. It must be followed up by many other steps and part of those steps may be realizing that you lost your focus and need to rededicate yourself. Perhaps you wonder how some people seem so great at achieving their goals while other people aren’t so good at it. The goal achievers just don’t give up. They keep the goal in their mind and when they lose focus they accept it and get back on track as soon as they can. You only fail if you give up and stop trying. Create a new schedule of action to actually work toward achieving your goals. And don’t beat yourself up about getting off track…you can be the tortoise in this race rather than the hare. Here are 5 ways to get back in the goal game pronto!
1. Craft Clear, Specific and Doable Goals
For any goal to be achievable it must first be very clear and very specific. It also has be achievable. I am in some fitness oriented groups on Facebook and every week it seems someone joins with the idea they can lose 50 pounds in two months. That is just not possible for most people! You do want to challenge yourself a bit, and set the goal high, but you want to ensure that any goal you set is possible. Therefore, you will need to do a little research in order to set a goal.
If it is your ultimate goal is to lose 50 pounds realize that it is not realistic or healthy to expect to meet this goal in two months. That is an unreasonable goal. Instead, a more reasonable and doable goal is to state “I want to lose 50 pounds in 30 weeks.” This is in line with health recommendations not to lose more than two pounds per week, and gives you a little cushion for plateaus and other issues. Then set a smaller goal to lose 20 pounds in two months.
2. Each Goal Needs a Set of Actionable Tasks
Any goal that you really want to meet needs to have the “why” and the “how” included with the “what” of the goal. The why needs to be pretty big…bigger than your “but”. As in you need to see where your goal will take you and envision it so perfectly that it becomes more powerful than any hardships that may come along on your journey. In the example above you want to lose 50 pounds in 30 weeks, which will be a little less than two pounds per week. You’ll need to look at your diet, compute the number of calories you should consume and the amount of exercise you need to see those results.
Thankfully, today there are online calculators to help you determine this easily, but let’s say that you determine that if you consumed 1800 calories a day, and walked for 20 minutes each day, you would achieve your goal that you set within the time limit. So, now you need to include planning your meals and fitting in the exercise necessary to reach your goal. But because of the research you did, you know exactly what is needed to be successful with the goal you set. You can see a clear path to success just by going further and adding these actionable tasks:
* Eat 1800 calories a day
* Walk fast for 20 minutes per day
Seeing that in black and white you can see that it’s very doable and achievable. But, there are a few more steps necessary to achieve your goals.
3. Schedule Everything
Do not leave anything to chance. Instead, schedule in the work necessary to reach your goals into a real calendar. Writing a list isn’t good enough – you need to schedule in everything so that you don’t miss a single day due to losing track of your schedule. You’ll need time to eat healthier, which requires more food prep and cooking, and you’ll need time to fit in the exercise, which is going to really take more than 20 minutes due to prep time and recovery time. You need to be realistic about how long each thing will take and schedule them into your day properly. This may mean you skip TV after dinner and spend 20 minutes walking your neighborhood instead. Or it may mean you get up 30 minutes earlier in the morning to take that same walk. Either way they are on the schedule and not negotiable.
4. Take Action
No goal will ever be achieved if regular action isn’t taken each day. Each morning, look at your calendar and follow through on the plans that you’ve made. All you have to do is the minimum necessary each day to reach your goal. When you get through each day having done the minimum, you’re a success – each and every single day. There is nothing else that can be the result of daily action other than success when you think of it this way. And once you get that ball rolling…ie working out every day then you don’t want to lose momentum. It becomes a challenge to keep going and not break your record.
5. Repeat
Finally, you’ll need to repeat these steps every single day. When you make very specific and clear goals with very specific steps to achieving the goal, based on reality, you will soon discover the secret to success that seems to escape so many people. The real secret is in the doing. It’s like going on a long hike – if you take one step at a time, moving in the direction of the map that you’ve planned out for yourself, you will get to the end and reach the goal.
Reaching your big goals is just a matter of setting reasonable and realistic smaller goals, and then setting up a schedule of actionable tasks and steps that bring about the end result you want. You can start today to achieve your goals, or restart if you lost focus this year. It’s only half time baby! You’ve got plenty of year left! Get out there and get busy.
