Think back to the frigid morning of January 1, 2023: What New Year’s resolution or goal did you create for yourself? Did you plan to gain better control of your finances, set aside more time for your family, create and stick to an exercise plan, or do something else? If you have forgotten about your resolution or weren’t as successful as you had hoped, you’re not alone.
In a previous blog, we mentioned that nine out of every ten people who make resolutions break them before the end of January. If you fall into that category, there’s no need to feel powerless and beat yourself up for it. Instead, take a step back, be honest with yourself, review your goals, and make a plan moving forward.
Why Re-Evaluating Your Goal Is Essential
Whether you are on the right track to reaching your goal or have yet to make any progress, re-assessing your objective is essential to long-term success. We should all take the time to discover what is and is not working for us. Why? To determine if our goals should be amended or if we need to find a way to re-motivate ourselves.
Your goal should be the perfect combination of challenging and obtainable. If it’s too easy, how much real progress are you making? If it’s unreachable, you may feel frustrated and give up.
Quick note: It’s okay if re-examining your New Year’s resolution makes you feel uncomfortable. Remind yourself that you are being faithful to the process of creating a better version of yourself, and celebrate that small victory.
“Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty.” – Theodore Roosevelt
How to Review Your New Year’s Resolution and Goals
You should never feel like a failure when re-assessing your resolution. Doing so means that you are dedicated to achieving your goals! So, what’s the best way to re-evaluate?
First, grab a piece of paper and jot down your original goal. Then, write down your progress and any thoughts that come to mind.
Did the goal feel too easy? Unrealistic? Were there roadblocks that hindered your success? Did you lack the correct mindset strategies to help you achieve your objective? Simply writing down this information will go a long way in holding yourself accountable and determining if you’re on your way to achieving that goal.
Here are a few more things to think about when reviewing your New Year’s resolution or goal:
- Ask yourself if you’ve let excuses get in the way of reaching your goal.
- Ensure your goal is measurable. For instance, instead of simply stating you want to lose weight, create a goal of losing twenty pounds by Thanksgiving.
- Next, ask yourself if the original goal was achievable. If your goal was to work out more, you probably shouldn’t set an unrealistic goal of spending six hours in the gym daily.
- Check to see if your goal came from you and if you are passionate about achieving it. Don’t make goals based on what someone else wants you to do.
- Ensure you didn’t set too many goals at once. Instead, choose one or two important resolutions and give them all you’ve got.
- Lastly, if you didn’t create milestones and set a deadline with your resolution, add those in now. You will never know how far you’ve truly come until you have a way to chart your progress.
A More Efficient Goal Check-In Process
If you set your New Year’s resolution, worked hard for a few weeks, then slacked off, you may be curious about how to follow a more efficient goal review process in the future. Well, I’ve got great news – it’s pretty simple!
Create a plan ahead of time for reviewing your progress. Goals and resolutions aren’t meant to be a set-it-and-forget-it type thing. Instead, we should make re-examination a part of our goal-setting process.
So, how often should we review our goals? Well, it depends on your specific goal. Long-term goals (such as paying off your mortgage in the next ten years) should be reviewed quarterly or biannually. However, short-term goals (like increasing the number of loans you close in Q1) should be examined weekly or biweekly.
When re-evaluation is a part of the process from the beginning, your goal gets the attention it deserves, leading to a greater chance for success.
It’s Never Too Late to Create New Goals
If you didn’t make a 2023 New Year’s resolution, failed to keep it, or have never been a successful goal-setter, it’s not too late – you can start today!
In chapter three of my book, Thriving in the Storm: Nine Principles to Help You Overcome Any Adversity, I dissect five can’t-miss tips for creating an effective goal implementation plan:
- Declare
- Record
- Focus
- Visualize
- Do
Check out the book (or a few of my free resources) for help with your goal-setting today!
Do you have an amazing goal that Thriving in the Storm: Nine Principles to Help You Overcome Any Adversity helped you achieve? If so, I’d love to hear from you – please use this form to reach out to me today.