The fourth quarter is in full swing and we are rapidly approaching the end of the year. How are you doing on reaching your goals for 2017? Wait, before you click away on to something else, just stick with me for a few minute. Chances are you will fall into one of a just a few categories:
Your killing it – You have been rocking this year. You created SMART goals at the start of the year and developed a plan to help you reach them. You have been consistently working your plan throughout the year. If any issues came up you just powered right through them. You are excited for the end of the year because you have experienced amazing growth and can’t wait to do it again next year.
You lost your way – There are a few goals that you set at the beginning of the year but didn’t really establish a plan on how to reach them. There really isn’t much progress happening towards reaching your goals, so you put them on the back burner.
You didn’t set goals – You gave up on setting goals (or “resolutions”) a long time ago. Why have a constant reminder that you are failing at doing what you were trying to do?
Where do you relate?
If you are like most people you see yourself in one of these scenarios. If you can identify with the first one and you are blowing your goals out of water in 2017, awesome! Keep going and look for ways to be an encouragement to others to do the same. Be cautious of two things:
- Burnout – Sometimes when we are working hard to hit our goals we fail to keep any balance in our lives. Then we hit burnout and everything comes to a screeching halt. Make sure you are keeping balance in life and making time for yourself, your family, and the things you enjoy.
- Getting overconfident – It’s easy when things are sailing along smoothly to get a little overconfident and stop trying so hard. The moment we do this we start slowly moving backward.
If you fall into the last two groups, don’t worry the year isn’t over yet! There are plenty of ways that you can set and accomplish goals or move closer to the goals you already set by the end of the year. And, if you avoid setting goals so you can avoid failing at reaching your goals you are not alone. Many people struggle with the fear of failing, so it seems easy. Don’t set goals and there is no way to fail at them. While that is true – sort of – it does not help you in the long run. Failure is not something that should be feared. It is something that should be embraced and used to move forward in a new way.
Finish strong or get yourself started
Before we know it we will be ringing in 2018, so, let’s make the most we can out of the remainder of 2017. Over the next several weeks we are going to work together to finish the year strong. If you “failed” (see how I used that word we fear) to set any goals for 2017, you will find the encouragement and tips here to get started. If you did set goals but have made little to no progress, you can use the information to analyze your goals and plan to start making some real progress. And, for those of you that are cruising along and checking off the boxes, stick with us to find the motivation you need to keep pushing through.
There is still plenty of time to turn this year around and finish it strong. I can’t wait for what the next several weeks are going to bring!
~Darren
