How often do you review your goals?

The other day someone made the comment that she sets goals, but never achieves them. Does this sound familiar?  This is actually a common problem. Here are some possible reasons you aren’t achieving your goal or goals.
​

1. You aren’t clear on what your goal is.
2. Your deadline is unrealistic for the goal you want to achieve.
3. You aren’t working your plan.
4. You need a better plan.
5. You aren’t reviewing your goals often enough to know what you need to be doing and to keep yourself motivated.
6. Your goal isn't important enough to you to make the sacrifices you need to make.
   
   

 So how do you make clear goals? Look at your life in general. Are you happy with every aspect of it? Here are some examples of what to look at, you can substitute areas that are more relevant to your life.

1. Spiritual.
2. Significant other.
3.  Career.
4.  Finance.
5.  Family and friends.
6.  Personal growth.
7. Fun and recreation. 
8. Physical environment. 
9. Health.

Rate each area from zero to ten, with zero being totally lacking and ten couldn’t be better.  Now, which areas do you want to improve and why? How will achieving your goal or goals make your life different?  If you’re ambiguous on why you want to make a change, you probably won’t be very motivated to achieve it.
 
Now make a list of all the things you want to work on. Rate your goals from the most important to the least important. When would you like to achieve these goals by? Date each one accordingly. Try to be realistic, if you’re making $30,000 a year now, is it realistic to expect to make $3,000,000 by the end of this year?

Depending on what’s involved to achieve each goal, pick one, or possibly two of the most important goals you want to work on first. If you try to work on everything at once, you’ll get frustrated and not work on any of them!
 
Now make a plan of the steps you need to take to achieve your goal. Maybe you want to improve your health. What do you need to do? 

• Do you need to lose or gain weight? How much and by when? Make sure you break the long-term goal into manageable short-term goals!
• Do you need to exercise? What type? When will you start? How often and how long? What equipment do you need? Are you going to join a gym? When will you join? When will you go?  Are you going to work out alone or with a friend?
• Do you need to change your diet? What will you eat for meals and snacks? When will you eat? When will you plan out your meals? When will you prepare your meals?
• Do you need to see a doctor for a physical? When?
• How will you reward yourself? 
  
  

Be very specific on what you need to do. The more questions you ask and answer the better your plan will be. These are your action steps and if you don’t think about them and write them down beforehand, you’re liable to get side-tracked and not do what you need to do.  
 
When creating your plan, schedule one to three action steps to work on each day, think about them like building blocks that will help you build the life you want! Start with the most important task. Work on one item at a time until it's completed and don't go on to the next one until the previous one is finished. 

Remember Newtown's third law? "For every reaction there's an equal and opposite reaction." Be willing to make sacrifices to achieve your goals. Every thing in life comes with a price. If you want to make changes in your life you will have to pay the price and that may mean giving something up. If you want to get healthy you probably need to give up eating a big bowl of ice cream every night. You can still treat yourself once in awhile, but eating it every night is not going to help your health! Even if you're unwilling to give up the ice cream and keep doing what you've always done, you're going to pay a price, weight gain and eventually poor health. It's you're choice!

If you want to make permanent changes in your life, whether its personal or professional review your goals and plan twice a day. 

1. Once in the morning, it sets the tone for the day. It will give you a better understanding of what you need to do and it will help to keep you motivated.  
2. Look at them again every night as a reminder of what you're working towards.
3. Review your day. How did it go?  What went well? What were your obstacles? How can you overcome them? What changes do you need to make? How can you use your time better?  Ask these questions without judgment, you’re looking to improve not condemn. Remember that you can’t change the past, you only have control over what you do now and going forward.
4. Be sure to reward yourself for when you've achieved your mini-goals and had a great day!
   
   

If you’re not reviewing your goals and plan daily how will you stay motivated? How will you know what to do next? Always ask yourself, "Will this action help me achieve my goal?" And most importantly be kind to yourself. If you have a bad day don't berate yourself, just figure out what you can do next. Life is a work in progress not a race, just keep moving toward your goals and dreams! Dale Carnegie said it best, "If you aren't in the process of becoming the person you want to be, you are automatically engaged in becoming the person you don't want to be." Choose to be the person you want to be!