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Fizzled New Year Goals:

How many of you are starting to feel like the air has leaked out of your balloon and that the  high ideals and goals that had you so pumped up on Dec 31 or Jan 1  fizzle out pretty quickly?   How many of you are disappointed?  Even worse, are you beating yourselves up because you believe you have “failed” again.? Do you say to yourself, “Yoo hoo…Wake up! It’s already mid-January”?  Or maybe you made goals that you are looking back on as we approach the end of a current year? You are discouraged with how little progress you feel you have made all year, despite your earlier goal-setting.

You Are Not Alone!:

You are not alone at all. We often get so carried away setting our lofty goals.  Sometimes we forget to spend time thinking about how to create a workable plan that is easy to stick with.  The plan should also be one that includes rewards for even small achievements and gains, but most often, does not.

We spend a lot of time watching other people. We perceive that they are better, more efficient, more dedicated and more successful than we are. We focus on what we see as their results and wins. We forget they are as human, as vulnerable and as imperfect as are we. We don’t pay attention to the stumbles, setbacks and even the absolute disasters they experience before they get up and gingerly take a few more small steps and try anew. Instead, when we fall on our faces, we  feel sorry for ourselves. We get frightened and discouraged We blame ourselves more than anyone else could ever do.  We  then decide that our goals were unattainable and unrealistic and we should just give up. I am, not saying every one of us behaves this way, but a good percentage of people do.

Reexamine Goals Regularly:

I haven’t always done so fabulously either, with some of the  goals I have  set around the start of a new year.   As we know, the shoemaker’s children go barefoot and the coach must be reminded to “coach thyself!”.  This year I am working on some projects that are important to me, but there are only so many hours in a day.   As you well know, though,  the longer we procrastinate, the more formidable most tasks tend to become.  I have learned that I need to keep on “taking out” my goals and plans, looking at them and deciding if they are still my priorities, or if I need to change them. Otherwise I continue to work on things because I think I should.   I don’t recognize quickly enough that I have either lost interest, or need to move on to something else.

Blog posts are among the things I told myself I would write more of last year. I ended up deciding that they were not necessarily the best investment of my time.   I didn’t let myself feel that I failed because I didn’t end up writing them more often.   I concluded I was just too busy with other things I would rather be doing and that were usually more rewarding too.   Still, I  have spent time reading blogs of those I admire, learn from and enjoy.  I have sometimes scolded myself for not getting back on the horse and knocking off more posts and articles.    I guess I am, back on the horse. I wrote a paragraph earlier, came back to the computer, wrote another, and here I am.

Small Chunks of Time Can Make Big Dents:

What are some of your goals or projects you have put off?  Can you find a way to break them into smaller, more doable tasks? Can you make a commitment to spend 30 minutes a day doing something that has hung over your head and needs to be done?   You can still pick up those goals or resolutions that have fallen by the wayside and tackle them this way.

Can’t get to those 10,000 steps a day?  What can you do at first, that is more realistic for you?  How about making an extra trip up and down the steps when you carry something to your bedroom? Leave your package in the bedroom as you intended, go downstairs, walk up and down one extra time,  It will only take a minute or two more, but it will start you in the right direction and get you working on your goal. You will begin to build your endurance and start to feel less breathless, less stiff. Once you are up and moving, it is somehow easier to keep on doing it.

This works whether your task to tackle is cleaning out your basement, or creating a new marketing plan for your business.

I can think of five colleagues who have listed implementing a new marketing plan as a project to take on starting Jan 1st, but who haven’t gotten anywhere with it during the first two weeks of the year.

Just Get Started: 

Do you remember the first time you ever put on roller skates or ice skates and how gingerly you began moving? You were fearful and even insecure.  As you watched the other, more proficient skaters, you decided you would never be able to match their amazing skill. You held on to the railing, or to your companions, but eventually, you took an awkward step, maybe you fell, took another step and kept on going.  After a while you actually began having fun. Any task is doable and manageable,  if you do it incrementally, but you must get started. I can’t predict or promise you will have fun, but I can predict you will start accomplishing what you want and need to.  Take a step! Take another! Keep going. You will get better at whatever it is.

Look In the Mirror:

Well that sounds like a time-waster-all that looking in the mirror. How will that help get the basement clean, or the marketing plan created?  I mean look at yourself and what you want to do, and stop looking at everyone else to see what they seem to be accomplishing. It’s crucial to stop comparing ourselves to others.  Don’t worry about what anyone else is, or is not doing. It only makes our mountains harder to climb and makes us feel bad about ourselves, so we accomplish less.

I would be thrilled if you would consider sharing with me the goals you have set, but now feel discouraged with.  We can try to come up with some ways to get back in action.  Let’s do it together! Let’s design the steps you can begin to take. Even a few tentative steps will get you moving.

Contact me if you are ready to begin reinventing and transforming your life,  or your business, no matter what you’ve been through in the past.

ir**@vi*******************.com