It’s officially half way through the year and if you’re like most people, that means you haven’t even thought of your new years goals for like 5 months…
But you’re not like most people. You’re an ambitious, fierce girl boss and that’s why you clicked on this post. You’ve made progress, but not as much as you’d like, or you’re starting to hit a motivational wall and you need a lift to get over it.
Either way, you’ve come to the right place.
This has been the first year that I have actually stuck to my goals and made progress on them every single month. Most years, I get slow patches where I don’t get much of anything done, then I panic when I think of all the time I wasted… Not a great way to spend the year.
But this year, I’ve stayed on track and have made considerable progress on my goals and I’m happy to say that I am more than half way done what I was hoping to achieve this year.
Woo-hoo!
So, how does this help you? Well, I can narrow down what has made all the difference for me this year and you can apply what I’ve learned to help you make crazy progress in your own life for the second half of the year.
But first, there’s one important thing we need to get out of the way:
It’s not over ‘till it’s over
Yes, it’s been six months since you set your goals, and maybe you’re a little upset by the lack of progress you’ve made since then, but we’re only half way through. You still have loads of time to accomplish something this year.
Think about it like this: when you have an assignment due and you have a month to complete it, how long does it take you to complete it? A month. But what if you totally forgot about the assignment for three and a half weeks and all of the sudden it’s due in three days? How long does it take you to finish the assignment? Three days.
Now, I’m not saying this is ideal, but what I am saying is that if you gave yourself a year to do something it’s likely going to take you all dang year to do it, but if you gave yourself 3 months, you’d actually have to work on it regularly and you’d end up wasting a whole lot less time.
We are capable of much more than we give ourselves credit for and a big part of our problem is actually setting our New Years goals. Let me explain:
1. Your New Years goals are getting in your way of you achieving anything
When you sit down in January and write up your New Years goals, what are you really doing? You are deciding how your entire year is going to go in one sitting.
But here’s the thing, we are human, we are changing and evolving every day. We make goals in January then wonder why we haven’t accomplished them by December but often times, our focus has changed and evolved a dozen times since then. Unforeseeable things happen in 356 days. That’s a fact of life.
So my point is: it’s great to set a direction for your year in January, but don’t write anything in stone. You’re goals list is a living document. You need to update and change it as often as necessary. How often? That leads me to my next point.
2. Revisit your goals each Month
My opinion is that you should be revisiting your goals each month. Every month I sit down and consider my goals and decide if that’s still the direction I want to go, if it’s still the most important thing right now, and if it’s still something I want to achieve.
Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t. But sitting down each month to consider this will make sure that you are always headed in the right direction.
And while you’re sitting there, make sure you are breaking that ultimate goal down into monthly bite-sized pieces. Every single month this year I’ve sat down ahead of time and wrote out goals for the month. This gives me something to work towards that’s achievable in a short amount of time.
Thinking about a long term goal can be daunting and cause us to procrastinate, but thinking about a goal that can be accomplished in 4 weeks or less keeps us hungry and motivated.
Another thing I’ve started doing is making weekly goals. This keeps me more on track because it basically breaks down what I need to do each day to achieve my weekly goals. And if I achieve my weekly goals, that means I’ll achieve my monthly goals. See how this all works out?
3. Estimate what you can do, then add 10%
When you’re assessing what you think you can accomplish in a month, my advice is to add 10%.
Here’s the truth about my goals: I love crossing things off my goals list, but most months there’s one or two things that don’t get done. Am I devastated? Does it bring me down? Heck no! It makes me hungrier.
How much can you actually achieve in a month? I don’t think you know until you try. So if you estimate you can get ‘xyz’ done in a month, and you do, how do you know you couldn’t have gotten more done? Isn’t the point of life to always be growing and improving?
So I say, challenge yourself. Add 10% more to your monthly goals and see how much more you can accomplish when you push yourself.
There is one very important aspect of this however and that is: you can’t punish yourself if you don’t get everything done. In fact, expect that you might not, then celebrate when you do! Anything that doesn’t get done this month can be put on next month’s list.
4. P-R-I-O-R-I-T-I-Z-E
There's no point in getting a ton of stuff done if it doesn’t bring you hella closer to your ultimate goal, right?
Ever hear the expression “don’t be busy, be productive”? Well, this should be words you live by.
When you’re making your monthly goals please, please, please take a minute to consider if these are the most important things to get done.
Always do the most productive thing first. No matter what.
Don’t be afraid to cross off things that aren’t as important. This is how you works smarter instead of harder.
If you always do the most productive thing, than you will see incredible progress in your goals, especially if you’re working on a side hustle.
Following these four simple concepts will get you back on track, and propel you in the direction of your goals.
Just remember, it’s only July, you still have 6 MONTHS to make progress and achieve your goals.
Think about how you’d like to feel in December? Do you want to be grateful that you stepped up and started chasing your goals, or do you want to feel like 2018 was another year wasted? It’s up to you!