Can you believe that it’s already June 30th, 2019.
Despite our best efforts, it’s always a surprise when June closes its doors and July walks in. We’ve made our way through six whole months and now have one-half of the calendar left. Historically, the last six months always go quicker than the first so it’s important that we evaluate our progress in order to better prepare for what’s ahead.
How to Start
For those of you that set intentions on January 1st for what you wanted to accomplish this year, take a look at the list you wrote down. In January, I had two primary focuses for the first half of the year. I wanted to create content and blog posts consistently for Daily Dose Of Goodness and increase my saving capacity. I specified “consistently” to mean posting daily on the Facebook page and once a week on the blog. I think it’s important to be specific and approach goals from a granular level in order to produce tangible results.
For those that did not write down any specific goals in January, fear not! There is no time like the present to pursue a goal. Take a few minutes to outline one or two things that you’d like to focus on in the next six months. Be specific and realistic. Saying you’d like to pay off $75,000 of debt while you have a husband and two kids to take care of is unrealistic. Writing down that you want to put $100 more each month towards your credit card debt may be a more tangible starting point.
At first glance, it may seem odd that I’m asking you to be realistic with a goal. After all, goals are meant to push you outside the confines of your comfort zone. I want you to be realistic with the first initial steps because that’s how you are going to gain traction. You need to see results before you can start setting loftier goals for yourself down the road.
Evaluate Your Current State
Now that you have a list of goals in front of you, ask yourself if you’ve consciously been working towards them or leaving progress up to chance. If you leave progress up to chance, you will arrive at December 31st, 2019 disappointed. You’ve agreed to be intentional about your choices which means going all in on the one or two goals you have outlined.
Why? Because you deserve it dangit! You deserve not to break this one promise to yourself. You are your most important priority.
Side Note: I was always the person with lofty goals in January. I pursued them feverishly through February and even kept pushing through the month of March. However, the progress was always short lived. Do you want to know what changed? I chose goals I actually cared about. It didn’t make them any less harder but I kept visualizing the woman I would be in December after having accomplished them. Envision who your future self could be and fight relentlessly for her.
Applaud the Progress
It’s very important to acknowledge and celebrate the steps you have taken towards your goal(s). If you totally killed it in January and the first part of February, acknowledge your success! If you’ve fallen off the tracks a bit since March, it’s okay. You can either look at the next six months as, “I only have six months left” or “I still have six more months”.
In the process of acknowledging the strides you took to get closer to your goal, I want you to write them down on paper. List each thing you did well in pursuit of the goal. For me, this looks like:
- I posted almost every day on DDOG’s Facebook page.
- I increased my Facebook following by 111 people.
- I wrote blog posts frequently the first two months of the year.
- I created separate saving accounts for the three areas in which I’m looking to save.
Acknowledge the Shortcomings
I’m sure you saw this coming. We must also identify the areas in which our efforts lacked over the last six months. Beyond that, we must understand why — this is crucial. It doesn’t matter if you fell short and don’t articulate what caused the shortcoming. Determine why you weren’t success so that you can design a plan that addresses this future road block.
I wasn’t as consistent in my saving habits because I forgot to put the money in my account every paycheck. In order to avoid this from happening again, I’ve set reminders on my phone every payday so that I transfer the money.
Schedule a Check-in
If you truly want success the next six months, I recommend that you check-in with yourself periodically. For me, this is most impactful if I do an overall diagnosis of my success/failures on a quarterly basis (every 3 months). If the last six months were a challenge for you, I recommend checking in sooner — perhaps you evaluate your progress again in another 4 weeks.
It can appear daunting to work on something for the next six months. If this thought overwhelms you, break it into bite-sized chunks. You are working on this goal for the next month. And once you’ve done that, you will work on the goal some more. Set your intention every day that you are going to take a step (or two or three) to work on your goal.
Small steps are what turn into miles. I don’t want sprints. I don’t care about your lightening speed. I want consistency. Because consistency compounds and it is with consistency, that goals are achieved.