What to do when you haven’t achieved your goals

As the year is coming to a close, we often check in with our goals and see where we are at. Most of us forgot about our New Years resolution by June, but hopefully you have some glimpse of other goals you set for yourself. However, as life throws us twists and turns, we don’t always achieve our goals when we said we would, or to the standard we had hoped for. So what do we do when we’ve missed the mark on our goals?

Firstly, let’s think about why

Not to make excuses but to understand what you can work around going forward. Some reasons may include:

• Circumstance (Life happens!)
• Lack of self-confidence
• Lack of self-discipline
• Inconsistency
• Your goals weren’t specific enough
• You didn’t have access to the right tools
• Lack of focus
• Mindset

When you can determine what is the cause you can accept, take responsibility and move forward knowing what’s done is done and what you can do better going forward. If the reason was completely out of your control, it is often easier to accept and move forward with more determination. Just make sure to keep a ‘can-do’ attitude.

Secondly, don’t give yourself a hard time

Life and professional goals can often be fluid and flexible, you have to understand that sometimes the goalposts will move. Plans don’t always remain the same as when you first made them, in fact they often change! And this is okay, as long as you continue on the journey of working towards the goal.

Thirdly, celebrate your wins

You may not have completed all your goals, but you’ve probably made great strides along the way. Celebrate them and your hard work.

Lastly, re-plan

Change your original plans to suit you and adjust your goals if necessary. Here are some tips on re-setting your goals:

• Make sure to they are specific
• Define your own level of success
• Account for the mistakes or interruptions that may occur (think about the things that stopped you the first time around)
• Get yourself into a positive mindset
• Understand the skills you need to achieve your goals
• Understand the tools you will need
• Promise yourself to be consistent
• Be confident that you can do what you set your mind to