Reclaiming Your Goals
The end of the year is approaching! If you're like me, you are thinking about how amazingly fast the year flew by. Now I am sure that at the beginning of the year, you set goals for yourself. You were glammed up at the beginning of the year, your Instagram Story was popping with footage from the gym, and you were glowing with the excitement of the New Year. Now that it is the fourth quarter, it may not look like anything that you envisioned your year to be. Suddenly the hashtag “Taking No Ls” (#takingnoLs) mantra is a joke. You are heavier now than what you were when the year started. So now that all looks bleak, you are just counting down the days until the New Year for a clean slate. Well, before the year is completely over there are a few ideas that I want you to consider.
One: Plot Twist….. The Year is Not Over
We are so close to the end but still have time to accomplish of our goals. I want you a look at your New Year’s resolutions/goals that you set at the beginning of the year. No matter if your list consists of having Teyana Taylor as your body goals muse, financial freedom ambitions like Jay Z, or to become a newly inducted member of the Everyday Globetrotter travel club. Ask yourself if it is something that would like only in this year or is it something that you would like for years to come. Ask yourself if your current goals align with the overall lifestyle you want to create. If you are really about that life(style) change then just know there is no time to give up after three weeks after the new year. Yes, you missed going to the gym and went back to eating a lot of carbs. So what, start over the year it is not over yet nor is the opportunity to go after your goals. You are trying to create a better lifestyle as known as the day to day operation to continuously make you bomb! There are no days off and waiting for the New Year to start over is not an option.
It is time for a mindset shift! Just consider every day you wake up as a clean slate. Consider every day as a new opportunity to make a decision that will allow you to get you closer to your goals and life that will make you happier. In your efforts, there will be ups and downs that will occur that will try to stop you from being great. I will be the first to tell you that life does not always work out how you imagine or even how you plan. Life can unfold in a way that is not under your control. No matter what happens, you have to keep pushing. So stop waiting for the year to start over to tackle your goals. You have the permission to make a new beginning even at the end of the year. While you’re waiting for a New Year to your tackle goals, trust me the New Year is not waiting for you.
In this shift, be kind and patient with yourself. When you are on a personal quest to achieve greatness by making creating new habits for a better lifestyle it may take time. They say on average it takes more than two months (66 days to be exact) to form a new behavior before it becomes automatic. It could take anywhere from 18 days to 254 days for people to form a new habit. So when it comes to our goals, we shouldn’t give up so quickly and decide to try again Next Year. Go hard because it is too much on the line to go home! So if you are starting over, there are 60 days to make this new habit work towards your ultimate goal. So, I am starting over as well! Not only do I have my 10-year high school reunion next year; I have life goals set up that requires me to continuously glow up! We are in this together!
How to Help: Aaliyah said it best, “If at first, you don’t succeed, you can dust yourself off and try again.”
In efforts to reclaim your goals for the rest of this year, disconnect from the background noise. The best thing that you can do at this point is taking a moment to readjust. Sit down with your honest thoughts and figure out what you can do to produce better results. The key is finding a new approach to an old goal. Don't waste time beating yourself up about not accomplishing your goal. Invest your energy in evaluating yourself to figure out what you can do to produce better results. In other words, once you figured out what works best for you, can better assess and then achieve the goal that you have set. For example, say your goal was to wake up every morning before work for a quick 30-minute workout so that you can be ready to the catwalk at the beach in Miami or turn heads at your 10-year high school reunion. However, you found yourself not being able to make that commitment, so you just quit and figure I will start over next year. Well, when you take the time to figure out what works best for you, you can readjust so that you can get better results.
So, maybe you assessed that you are not a morning person, however, you still want to be fit. You could then seek alternatives like working out during your hour lunch using 30 minutes to workout and 30 minutes to eat. Trying something different could save your ambitions and keep you within your goals. Now even if it took you 11 months to figure it out, listen it is ok. The good news is that you now know what you need to do to ultimately produce quality results. Now, this is just one example of how you can make an adjustment based off of what best suits you. I am just shedding light to work smarter and not harder by finding what works for us. I believe that doing what works best for yourself will help us to stop comparing ourselves to others people's stories of successful methods then quit calling ourselves losers. However, some of your goals will require you to push yourself outside of your comfort zone or sacrifice things. Whatever you have to do to accomplish your goals, let's finish this year strong. Let's not worry about could've, would've, or should've and laser focus on we are actively doing to accomplish our goals.
Two: New Year Mindset
Get ready to make a list of goals to accomplish for the upcoming year and beyond! It is never too early to get a head start. It’s the mindset shift of staying ready, so you never have to get ready. Set yourself up for future success; the time is now! This way, you will have time to seek out the resources that you need to carry out your goals. You can start your travel planning, build an action plan to save, start research for that career shift that you’ve been putting off. You can seek out the property that you want to buy or seek what you need to even qualify for the home. No matter what your ambitions are, create the mindset to discipline yourself for the things that you want. It’s a season of preparation! The holidays are approaching quickly. Before the end of the year festivities begins, take this time write down goals for the next year. You will never get to the destination if you don’t know where you want to go. We don’t want to just roll through life without direction because it will place us further from where we want to be. We will end up around the corner when our destination was next door. So, if we can map out a plan to get there in advance, why don’t we?
How to Help: A Tribe called Quest?
Ok, so your tribe may not be called Quest, however, you need to acknowledge your tribe. Now, I am currently working on strengthening my tribe. It has been a never-ending learning journey for me to understand that you cannot get through life alone. There isn’t a single successful individual that purely did everything themselves. They linked with liked minded, trusted goal getting teams that strive for greatness. You can’t do everything by your lonesome. Even if you are a natural born leader, peer, and self-motivator like myself, every now and again you need a person to support you. My wonder woman game is strong however even still I become overwhelmed. It is in my overwhelmed stage where I have to remind myself that I do not have to do everything myself. I have bomb people in my life that could be a part of my tribe! I have to remind myself to become better with linking up with my tribe. Your tribe is all about support, balance, and to keep you accountable. Establish your tribe and thrive together.
Ending Reclaiming your Goals Thoughts:
The beauty of starting over is the unapologetic rebellion to quitting. Starting over is the notion, that you have the right to take a new approach to an old dream or simply give energy to a new one. Either choice is yours to make because when you are on your time, you can reclaim YOUR goals. I have made a ton of mistakes, however, I know every day I have the opportunity to get it right. Every day I strive to become a better version of myself.
New beginnings will bring colorful emotions. It can bring feelings o excitement, fear, happiness, power, sadness, energy, and the list could go on. Although you don't know what starting a new can bring it is nothing less than a blessing. What helps my journey, is choosing to speak life into new beginnings whether it is the first of January or the first of November. I am learning to be patient and kind with myself.
Remember, every day is a new beginning granted with authority to reclaim the time that God has given you to make it dreams/goals happen. We are in this together. Let's get it!