As we turn the calendar to July, we enter the second half of the year. As you slow down to enjoy summer sunshine, it’s a great time to reflect on progress toward your goals. Did you write your goals down? If so, consult your goals list. If not, do you remember what your goals are? Are there goals that you have met? Are you making steady progress? Praise yourself for your efforts and successes! Take note of what you have done that has contributed to your success. Replicate what’s working
If you feel disappointment with your progress, don’t despair! You have half a year left to really make gains; that is, if it’s really important to you. Let’s review what might be getting in the way of progress toward your goals.
1. Your goal is vague, not written down, and success is hard to measure.
Research suggests that written and specific is the pathway to success. Even better, keep your written goals visible to you, so you are reminded daily about your commitments to yourself. This will help remind you to actively set an intention every day to take some action toward your goal.
2. You’re not really that committed to your goal.
Actions speak louder than words. If you’re not taking the action steps, it might be time to reflect on whether you really really want the thing you say you want. Perhaps it’s something you believe you’re supposed to want, but really don’t. Or perhaps you want it in theory, but not in practice. Perhaps you have other, higher priorities right now. If so, be honest with yourself and take it off your goals list. Stick to those things that are true priorities.
3. You started the year overly ambitious and have too many priorities.
Perhaps you set yourself up for failure by taking on too many goals, priorities, and projects. Changing behavior is hard. You may have tried to add or change too many things. Now that you’re reviewing your goals, set only one or two goals that are your top priority and redouble your efforts and focus on just those. Better to feel and experience progress and success on one or two key goals than to feel disappointment across many.
4. The painful truth is that goals require hard work. Have you honestly put in the time? Or, have you spent half the year telling yourself a story about starting tomorrow.
Time to be honest with yourself. Are you willing to do the hard work, take the time, put in the effort to make your goal happen? It’s human nature to choose the old, comfortable, familiar (if not necessarily good for you) habit in the moment. It takes mental energy to make the hard choice to turn towards a new behavior and goal rather than towards the thing that might feel more comfortable or desirable in the moment (the status quo). Those split second choices add up to progress or more of the same. Before you know it, it’s July and you don’t have much to show for yourself. Gulp. Sigh. Yeah. Now what?
[Tweet “”If you really really want to make a change, you must pause and ask yourself “what do I want more?””]
Ask yourself: “Do I want to feel good about making progress toward my exercise/savings/career/health goal or to feel comfortable sitting/eating/watching TV/spending/smoking?”
The former will be uncomfortable and require you to push yourself out of your comfort zone. The latter will allow you to stay comfortable in the moment, but will lead to long term disappointment. By staying comfortable in the moment, you deny yourself the opportunity to be challenged, to change, and to have a more satisfying version of your life. This is a tough choice. In the moment, the emotion brain will impulsively choose to feel comfortable right now. That part of the brain will not want you to take the risk or do the hard, uncomfortable thing. You need the assistance of the thinking part of your brain that cares about your future goals and that can imagine something better for yourself. You must pause in those critical choice points. Pause and think for a few moments about what you really want. There is no tomorrow. There is only today. Your goals will be built upon a series of todays. Today is the day to make the hard choice. There’s still plenty of time to build what you want for yourself. Make the most of the rest of the year. You will be glad that you did!
