Why you're losing sight of your goals
I’'m doing something different this year. Instead of doing a mid-year and end-of-year reflection like I did in 2018, I’m taking the time to reassess my goals, successes, failures, and opportunities on a monthly basis. The idea is to help me identify where I’m slacking off earlier so I can make the necessary adjustments to my behavior and “get back on track” with what I’ve set out to do this year.
I wrote on my personal Instagram page that January “was a lost month for me” but that “I knew this would be the case coming in and had come to terms with that beforehand”. With our wedding in the middle of the month, I was consumed with planning the final details from afar & had very little time for my own things. After the wedding, I took two weeks to recover; I went to work, read, and wrote a lot, but not much else.
Now that that chapter is closed, a new month has started, I feel well rested and organized, it’s time to reintroduce activities I love again, like writing here :) Since by now many people have lost interest in their New Year's Resolutions, it seems fitting to share some thoughts on goal-setting and accomplishing from someone who’s experienced both major successes and blatant failures with her goals recently. “Why You’re Not Accomplishing Anything” is my list of lessons learned on why I failed at meeting my own expectations.
1
Your goals aren’t SMART
First and foremost, if your goals don’t meet the SMART criteria, it’s nearly impossible to track progress objectively. That, in turn, forces you to be subjective with your goal monitoring, and behavioral psychology data constantly shows that people are usually very inaccurate in their self-evaluation. Before you commit to vague goals, think about the ultimate reason you want to do what you want to do, and from there, start branching out specifics for those goals to SMART-proof them.
There are great resources to help you formulate SMART goals, like this one.
2
You don’t have a plan to make your goals happen
Failing to plan is planning to fail. Simply enough, it won’t matter how time-based, realistic, or measurable your goals are if you don’t have an execution plan and a means to track progress. I've found very few things more rewarding than laying out a plan, developing it in detail, and executing it as prescribed. Because this is what I do as a full-time project engineer/project manager, it’s become part of my modus operandi in the past year or so, and it’s worked excellently to either plan a wedding, orchestrate a solo trip to the Middle East, write an endurance training plan for more difficult pursuits, and many other activities I’ve successfully completed.
My top 3 suggestions to start building a plan for goal accomplishments are to:
Clearly define SMART goal(s) for whatever it is you want to do
Specify the must-do tasks
make yourself accountable by adhering to due dates and follow-ups
3
You don’t want to pay for help
Obviously, I get it. I’ve been there. I wanted to try something new, or save money, or just YOLO, so I ignored my inexperience and did things my way. Depending on the type of goals you have, this may be an OK strategy; experimentation is key to learning. But there are times when you need to be as efficient as possible with your execution, which is why you need the right support system to help you get to where you want to be. This means outsourcing tasks: hiring a personal trainer to help you map out an effective workout plan, or a travel planner to help you plan that 3-week solo trip to Asia you’re thinking about.
I didn’t want to pay for help, and I end up paying a higher price in the end… wasted time and no progress. Don’t let that be you.
4
You’re spreading yourself out too thin
One of my favorite lessons learned from last year was “putting something down to pick something else up”. By mid-year in 2018, I was starting to feel burnt out. I had just started a new position at work, doing grad school at night, working out about 10 hours per week and traveling every weekend for races or other planned events, writing on this blog religiously once a week, wedding planning, etc. I had goals for all of those things, I had plans, I tried to outsource the stuff I could outsource, and I was still a mess.
It was hard for me to put the pen down and put some goals on hold. I take pride in doing a lot, and doing well in all, but I knew I had reached a point of diminishing returns. Therefore, this blog was silent for a long time, and I didn’t do grad school during the fall semester. It took some trial and error, but prioritizing my goals and “must-do” things kept me honest and focused.
5
You are not intentional
If anybody owes you the truth, it’s yourself.
Don’t pretend that a certain achievement is important to you if you’re not willing to put in the work to make it happen. On the flip side, don’t drown yourself in mindless things to do if they do not help you reach your goals. In the age of social media, it’s very easy to adopt goals that aren’t your own. News Flash: You have to do you. Everyone else that is intentional of their goals or where they want to end up are also doing themselves.
Intention is my mantra for 2019, and it should be yours too. After putting a little too much on my plate last year, I made a promise to myself to seek intention behind everything I do this year. Anything that does not serve to achieve one of my goals will be mental noise, and treated as such. For someone who suffers from the “shiny object syndrome”, it’s a work in progress, but so far, it’s made me incredibly more productive.
A personal example: a few weeks ago I was looking at flights to Moscow, Russia. I want to go to Russia to climb a certain mountain, but unfortunately I don’t have the flexibility to include such a long trip into my travel schedule in the near future. I also have a plan to start tackling mountains in a systematic manner, and forcing a trip to Russia would be bypassing the plan out of impulse in order to cut my way to a goal that needs prior work. Regardless, I spent over two hours trying to figure out how I could make it happen.
At one point I questioned out loud: What is your intention with this?
Immediately, I realized I was wasting my time and proceeded to close the Google Flights tab.
How will you tune out the noise of the non-essentials in your life?
If at least one person reads this list and thinks “man, that’s me right there”, then my job has been done well. I’m all for self-love, accepting your flaws, knowing your worth… but sometimes you need to be honest with yourself and say out loud “I am sabotaging my own accomplishments”. It’s never too late to steer the ship around, but the early you do so, the better. Time is, after all, our most valuable asset, one we try to utilize to its maximum potential.
If you need help with setting a plan for your goals, have something to say about this post, or would like to say hi/give me suggestions for later ones, don’t hesitate to reach out to me at ownyouradventure.sola@gmail.com