Get to Your Goals — Ending the year powerful and proud.

If you are anything like most people (myself included) you might be going into the Fall thinking: ah, yeah, I did not do all the things I wanted to do this year.

Perhaps you are close to meeting that huge milestone you set for yourself or, maybe you are realizing that you need to get in gear (now!) because you can’t and won’t let another year go by without kicking off that big project, leaving that job, or prioritizing taking care of yourself.

To be fair, getting to our goals is hard. Deciding what to take on, committing, crafting the plan, and making the time to actually work on our goals can all take a herculean effort.

Sprinkle on top, the reality that life happens, priorities shift, that things take longer than expected and are often more cumbersome than we presume at the get-go and we can very quickly find ourselves way off our well-intentioned path to achieving the things that we most want.

All the roadblocks and challenges we face in reaching our goals can make us feel discouraged, doubtful, and disappointed. Worst of all, they can cause us to think: if it is going to be so hard, maybe we should not bother with the goals we set out to achieve anyway?

I like to say that it is okay to take a break from your goals, but, it is not okay to quit on them.

Now is the time!

Now is the perfect time to get reconnected with what you most want to accomplish especially if you hit setbacks in the first half of the year (or even, if you have not yet started working towards your goals).

Commencing the reflective process now means you will have enough time to restrategize, take action and even close the gap before the clock strikes midnight on 1/1. Wouldn’t that make you feel proud and powerful?

There is something about the start of Fall that is ripe for momentum. Collectively we are focused on being back: back to school, back to work, back to basics.

Why not be back at getting on track with our goals?

The truth about success…

We determine if we are or are not successful by comparing what we have accomplished, acquired and experienced to what we set out to create. If things align we are happy — we feel proud and successful. If they don’t, well then many not-so-pleasant feelings arise, including feelings of inadequacy unworthiness, and unluckiness.

Successful people know that the key to feeling good (confident and proud) lies in their ability to not get derailed by internal or external circumstances.

They also know that success is a system.

The system’s components? A set of practices and strategies that help them cultivate courage, consistency, and discipline. Most of us need a little help from time to time in these areas.

In order to get to our goals, we need to create the environment and the conditions to help us deliver on them. Yes, that means that we have to be clear on what we want. But, it also means that we need to be committed to reworking, reassessing, and reprioritizing our goals when necessary.

To help keep my clients moving toward what they want, I take them through the following 4 Step Goal Resetting Process. I specifically like to do this exercise during this time of year because it helps put things into focus and it helps us create a “let’s end the year powerful and proud” game plan. I share them with you to help you get to your goals once and for all.

1. Reevaluate your goals:

Sometimes, what we thought we wanted, we don’t want anymore. Other times what we thought was possible to take on is too much and we need to start smaller. This step of the process allows clients to reassess and tell the truth about what they can really commit to.

2. Redefine the micro:

The micro is all about the what. What exactly are you doing on a daily and weekly basis to get to your goals? Redefining what you need to do, when you need to do it, and how often you need to do it is key to getting to where you want to go.

3. Reestablish your routines:

Routines create order and sustain productivity. They also allow you to operationalize and calendarize all the micro steps you need to complete to get to the goals that you want to achieve.

4. Recreate your rituals:

Often overlooked in goal setting, rituals allow us to manage our emotional state and the experience we have in our day to day. Always needing to hustle, dealing with too many demands, and feelings of overwhelm can lead to us giving up on our goals and even burnout. Getting to our goals is as much about the journey as it is about the destination. Creating rituals allows us to prioritize and plan for pause moments that keep us happy and grounded.