Making progress on your goals

Summary

This is to some degree a reminder to myself, as well could also help you on your goals.

Table of Contents

What is your current goal? You may have a professional, or personal one.

Some people choose to let their goals lead their life and what they do, or you may do something because you want to. If you have goals, have you reevaluated them recently? Or have you completed them but forgot about it?

The past

You may look back at your completed goals and be proud of them. It can be helpful to know why you completed a certain goal, and what you can do with a current goal to make it more likely to complete.

What about a past goal that you either regret or wish happened differently? Many people look back at those goals all the time, and while the past can’t be changed, it can be helpful to write down what you wish you did different. Then look at your current goals and see how you can take what you know now, into your current goals.

Timeframe

Do you want to complete a goal within a certain timeframe? What will happen if you don’t? There are some goals that are flexible and can be changed, but there are others that can’t.

For some people, having a goal written down with the timeframe can help dedicate time towards it.

Change

Do you want to make a change? Changes may not happen right away, and it’s ok, where applicable, to take time and find what’s best for you. It may take some time and slight change of the goal to be in a place where you feel in the right place and know you can do it.

Sharing

Have you shared your goal with someone else? They can help you figure out how to get towards that goal and cheer you on.

How do you find someone to talk about your goal? It depends on the goal and who in that part of your life do you trust, will work with you, and knows how to complete that goal. They can check in with you and know how they can support you.

One small step at a time

Steps towards a goal can be broken down, that way it will be easier to figure out the one step at a time you need to take.

No step is too small, if you have a goal about writing a book, one step could be to write out all the characters on a separate page so that you can glance at it when you are writing. This is still making progress towards your goal, and it’s one step that can make it easier to continue.

Some say completing one small step can make it easier to continue working towards that goal, and while it’s true for many, there may be circumstances that prohibit you from continuing right now.

Take a break

It’s ok to take a break from your goal, you don’t need to spend all your time focused on it.

How long that break is, it’s up to you. Take as long or as short as you feel is needed. Don’t forget about the goal.

Find a group that can help

It can be isolating to work on a goal alone, what if there were other people who were trying to reach a similar goal together in a supportive manner? There may be a group that can help you. Where, when, how the club meets and works is up to the club, and what works for you.

It’s ok to abandon a goal

Sometimes we make progress towards a goal, and later realize it isn’t what we want, or it isn’t the right time in our life to achieve that goal. It’s ok to decide to abandon that goal and work on another one.

What’s the difference between abandoning and taking a break? Taking a break is knowing you will come back to it at some point, abandoning is completely stopping and deciding never to move forward with it. That is, unless something changes.

Why?

Why are you taking on this goal? It can narrow down the actual goal, help you prioritize it, and help you understand how it fits into your life.

Procrastinating

There are things we all put off doing, it’s not quite taking a break or quitting on the goal, but instead putting it off. I would say it’s putting it off without formally doing so. Do you find yourself not working on your goal, and instead doing literally anything else?

For example, I’ve procrastinated while working on this blog post. Why? Because there were other things that weren’t as monotone or easier to do. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t work on, everyone has their own ways to get over procrastinating, and it may be a short period of procrastination or long.

Distractions

Do you want to work on that goal, but find other people or things are causing you to not be able to? Those are distractions, which for some people are hard to get away from. This may be emails, meetings, or anything that takes time away from the goal.

How you get less or get rid of those distractions depends on many things. From what environment is your goal taking place in, what changes have you already made, what changes do you think can be made but needs approval from others, and how would these changes help. I know it’s a lot to think about, if you are trying to make progress on a personal goal, then getting rid of the distractions can be made quicker.

You may have to make changes to things to lessen the distractions, and you may have to try multiple things. Don’t give up, as I’m sure there is something you can do to lessen the distractions, and if nothing else, then make it a goal to find a workplace or whatever environment that supports having less distractions.