Around much of the country, spring has sprung. The change in seasons has left some feeling amazing about everything they’ve accomplished so far this year, but others may not be sharing the love.
If you’re in the bucket of folks who started over super motivated in January but haven’t quite made the strides you wanted towards your goal setting and resolutions, take a deep breath and don’t stress.
Spring is known for being a time of rebirth, and it’s a seriously great time to refocus your efforts to have a killer rest of the year and achieve goals.
In the past, we’ve talked about goal setting, and how to set realistic, attainable, and challenging goals in different aspects of your life. We’ve even gone a bit in-depth specifically into fitness goals, because that’s kinda what we do here at FitnessHQ.
Now, we’re going to spend some time looking at a few ways to refocus your goals, reinvigorate your desire to achieve goals, and how to proactively make adjustments to help you be successful in achieving what you want in 2016.
3 Ways to Achieve Goals in 2016
1. REFOCUS
Setting goals on January 1st is all fine and well, but if you’ve lost sight of them over the past few months it might be time to ask yourself why.
- Did you set a large goal and then several smaller goals that supported your overall goal?
- Were your goals S.M.A.R.T?
- Were you tracking your progress and measuring your improvements?
- Did you ever even get started?
These are some of the most common reasons people don’t achieve their goals, but sometimes, the goals that we think that we want to achieve don’t support the life that we actually want to live.
Certified Professional Confidence Coach and USAT Level 1 Coach Kelsey Abbott works with her clients and athletes to identify goals that support not just their desires, but their desired emotional state.
One of her “go to” questions with all of her new athletes is simple:
How do you want to feel in 2016?
While it’s a simple question, the answer can really illuminate the types of goals an athlete should be working towards.
As a confidence and life coach, Abbott has met with clients who sometimes find that their goals don’t always align with how they want to feel in their day to day life. She’s found success with her athletes by first discovering how they want to feel, and then helping them explore actionable goals that match those feelings.
As an example, someone who wants to feel relaxed, serene, or centered might have goals relating to yoga, daily meditation, or an activity that they find cathartic. Much like someone who wants to feel strong or powerful could have goals around weight lifting, CrossFit, or Olympic lifting.
For some, the goals you’ve set may match these criteria and you just need to reinvigorate your enthusiasm for them and start putting one foot in front of the other to achieve them. For others, you may need to revise your goals slightly to match what you truly want for your life in 2016.
2. REINVIGORATE
If, after you’ve taken some time to assess your goals, you decide that you are right on the money with what you want to achieve in 2016, it’s time to get excited about your goals again.
It’s important to do a little soul searching to determine why you haven’t been successful so far.
Were your “baby steps” too lofty? Did you miss a target and just never get back on track?
Understanding why we’ve struggled up until this point is an important piece in moving forward. Once you understand your pains, it’s time to turn them into gains — see what I did there?
In this article in Forbes magazine, they give advice to professionals looking to build and further their careers who are struggling with seeing the big picture.
The first question they suggest that you ask yourself is:
Why am I doing what I’m doing?
It’s a common phrase in the motivational speaking world — “find your why,” but truly, your personal “why” is the driving force in every action you take, resulting in every goal you do or do not reach.
One of the best ways to renew your excitement for your goals is to spend some time revisiting your “why.” I’m a writer, so making lists and journaling does the trick for me. I love writing out not just what I want to accomplish and how I’m going to do it, but how it will make me feel when I do.
Try it. Open up a new Word document or pick up and pen and paper, and just let the words flow. What will it look like when you achieve your big goal? What will you be wearing? Who will be there to celebrate it with you? How will you feel? How will your life change once you do?
Spending just a bit of time daily remembering the driving force behind why you want to achieve your goals can go a long way towards helping you achieve them.
3. REVISE
If you’re in the other camp- the camp of those who reexamined your 2016 goals and realized that maybe they weren’t what you actually wanted for your life this year — it’s time to revise.
Just because the goals you originally set weren’t the right ones for you, doesn’t mean that you don’t have other things that you want to achieve this year, this month, or even this week.
Remember, January 1st isn’t the only time to set a new goal. It’s a popular one, sure, but every day presents us with a new opportunity to do or be great.
Just this week, I set a new long-term goal for myself and spent some time laying out my short-term steps to get there.
If having a six pack by May 1st is no longer in the cards (sorry abs, but I really REALLY love cake) spend some time determining what IS, and make it a reality.
Abbot coaches her athletes to “embrace lives filled with possibilities,” and we can all get in on that action at any time. Why not start today?