So You Didn’t Achieve Your Goals, What Now?
July represents different periods depending on the person - the start of the summer, the mark of the half of the year, swimsuit season. For me, July represents Mid-Year Check-In time - a time to review my progress toward my goals.
July also represented a deadline for some goals that went unmet due to deadline extension, life events, and other circumstances. Regardless of the reason, this mid-year check-in required me to revisit, reevaluate, and redefine my goals to help me understand why I fell short of reaching my goals and how best to move forward. Read on for four steps to take when you fall short of achieving your goals.
Treat Your Failure As Feedback
The best way to handle failure is to treat it as an opportunity for feedback.
This will require you to be brutally honest with yourself. For example, did you fall short of your goal due to a lack of discipline, resources, skillset, or was there was simply a flaw in the plan, and things got a bit derailed because of it. For example. for one of my goals, I overestimated my ability to get fit in a short amount of time.
After you fail to meet a goal and are ready to treat it as an opportunity for feedback, ask yourself the below questions:
Were my actions sufficient to get the result I wanted?
Will I get the results I want with the actions I'm putting forward?
Did I prioritize something else over my goals?
If and how your actions aren't aligned with your goals can tell you what went wrong. Use this feedback as an opportunity to avoid the same mistakes. Be sure to be as honest and as specific as possible to help you continue and create new goals in the future.
Decide if your goal(s)or your intention(s) have changed?
One of my goals this year was to become debt-free by July 2021. However, in February, I decided to purchase a car which unsurprisingly impacted my finances. This purchase forced me to update my debt-free goals' timeline.
Another one of my goals was to lose 20lbs by July. As I exercised throughout the year, I realized my weight loss goal shifted to other intentions. I wanted to become stronger, healthier, fitter and design a workout routine to fit in my busy schedule. So instead of being focused on the scale, my goals shifted to running a mile in a shorter amount of time, getting veggies in for every meal, and more that would better align with my new intentions.
When you fail to meet a goals and after you critique yourself, decide which goals/intentions are no longer aligned to you or have shifted. Decide which goals you need to rework vs. abandon.
Write Down How The Goal/Intention Will Change Your Life
Now it is time for you to reignite your desire with your goal. Answering how will your life change will help you decide how much you are invested in each goal/intention and help boost your motivation.
Often when we set a goal, we are not as invested as we believe. This time around. give yourself compelling reasons to act by answering how your life will change if you achieve the goals/intentions you have set. Be sure to write down your reasons - make it compelling, make it passionate, make it indestructible. Give yourself no excuse, but reasons to go forward.
Determine Next Steps to Reboot and Restart Your Goals/Intentions?
In the final step, you are now ready to decide how you are going to reach for that goal again or achieve your new goals. Do you need to set a new goal or extend the time frame to achieve the goals? How can you change your approach and plan for each goal?
Using the above the steps, you will be more likely to reach your goal because you have identified what went wrong, revised your list/deadlines, and tied each goal/intention to a purpose.
Failure to reach your goals can be super discouraging. However, failure does not have to be final. Before you give up, acknowledge that you can try again (if you want to) and there are other things you can do to help you reach that goal next time around!
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