Did you enter 2019 with new goals, amped up motivation, and the “clean slate” mentality? Now, only to find that three weeks into January, your plan may have had some holes in it that has led you back to square one – – – a place of feeling disappointed, unaccomplished, frustrated, and ready to throw everything into the chuck-it bucket until 2020 rolls around?
Give me just a few minutes of your time to breakdown my five tips to getting you back on track and headed in the direction you want to be going. You don’t have to hit the reset button again and again, instead, remember these key components to building and keeping a successful plan for yourself, your goals, and your life.
1. STAY REALISTIC
You guys, I can’t stress this enough. When setting goals, always keep them realistic. This means giving yourself the time and focus that you deserve to be successful. Don’t create short and stressful deadlines for things that can’t be accomplished in that given period of time. By giving yourself a realistic outlook, you can better prepare and execute in getting there. There is no need to get overwhelmed, bogged down, or obsessively consumed. Build a game plan that takes LIFE into account – – remember, things are going to come up, good and bad stuff will happen, and you can always count on the saying, “expect the unexpected”.
2. GET BACK TO THE BASICS
This one is pretty easy to explain, when you fall off track and are working on getting back into the groove, stick to what you know. Instead of hunting out the next quick-fix and trying to foolproof where you failed the last time, just let that ish go. It can be tempting to do too much too quickly, especially when you are determined to get back to where you were at, but the key here is simple. Strip the complexity from what you are trying to do and get back to the basics of where it began, focus on what was working and stop drilling yourself about what didn’t.
3. IDENTIFY THE ROOT CAUSE
The first step to correcting any problem, whether it is a first time occurrence or an ongoing issue, is to identify and address ‘why’ it happened. If you fell off track or continue to, the first place you should begin is narrowing down trigger categories, such as:
- Your emotional state
- Stress/stressors
- Boredom
- Relationships (i.e. dating/family/children/co-workers/friends)
- Change in environment (i.e. vacation/moving/work travel)
- Taking on too much at once
- Injury/illness
Once you recognize and identify common triggers that are causing you to fail, you can begin to strategize and build a plan to better handle these when they present themselves.
4. HAVE A PLAN
The power of creating and keeping to a plan cannot be overstated! If you aren’t able to prioritize and stick to a schedule that is shaped and specific, for you and your goals, I strongly encourage you to sit down and rethink what you are working towards. Sometimes we have to get selfish – – not in a bad and greedy way – – but when it comes to proper self care (mental-emotional-and physical health), yes, we should be putting ourselves first to some degree, and this is why.
If you spend every waking moment of your life working, taking care of others, running errands, cleaning, cooking, so on and so forth, you aren’t prioritizing yourself. If you can’t take care of you, how can you expect to take care of everyone around you? When you have a plan, no matter how simple or how regimen, you have a priority and commitment to yourself. With a plan, you know exactly what, where and when you will be taking action next, allowing you to take care of yourself and others. Get greedy and prioritize this time because it is equally as important as any other commitments in your life.
Remember, it is YOUR life, and YOU are important.
5. FOLLOW THROUGH + REWARD
The final piece to getting back on track is following through and rewarding yourself for your successes. Once you have identified triggers and have a plan in place for moving forward, you have to put it all together. This means doing what you have set out to do, take action. This is such a huge component to what makes or breaks personal success because it is the biggest stepping stone toward change. If you say you are going to do something, do it. Even if it seems impossible, try. If you fail, follow all these steps, and try again. If you succeed, reward yourself. Yes, pat yourself on the back and treat yourself to something that makes you feel good, because hard work deserves that. Reward is what teaches us and establishes long-term habits. Overtime, as we plan-follow through-fail-plan-follow through-succeed-reward, we learn exactly why this cycle is so important, the value is in the lesson.