5 SIMPLE WAYS TO POWER THROUGH YOUR GOALS IN 2021

It’s the middle of the year already! 

During this time, I usually pause to think about how much of my goals I have achieved for the year. Like others, I sometimes feel disappointed when it seems like I haven’t achieved much. The good news is, there are still six months left in the year for you to power through your goals. I say this confidently because there are some practices I adopt to make this possible in my personal life.

Here are a few of them:

Celebrate small wins

I got a planner in February, which has been very helpful, as penning down my thoughts and plans helped me be more organised and achieve my daily goals. But even at that, I kept taking mental notes of the things I could have done better until it dawned on me that there were actually things I’d done that were worthy of celebration. This made me start celebrating my small wins, and in some funny way, I found myself doing more.

I understand the temptation to often dismiss small accomplishments, but that’s counterproductive and can sap you of gratitude and motivation. When you acknowledge and celebrate those seemingly trivial accomplishments, they become the motivation you need to achieve your bigger goals.

Break Your Goals into Smaller Chunks

One of the most important practices that will help you power through your goals is breaking the goals down into smaller, digestible chunks.

Whenever I break them down that way, they provide me with appreciable milestones that help me measure my progress on my goals at every turn. They also make my goals more achievable and less vague or ambiguous. 

For example, there’s a difference between just saying you want to travel to Spain and going further to have a checklist that looks like this:

1. Get a visa.
2. Book a ticket.
3. Book a hotel or call relatives in Spain. 
4. Pack a holiday bag, etc. 

By breaking down this travel goal into smaller parts, you would have reduced the likelihood of becoming overwhelmed by the overall goal of traveling to Spain. This helped me during my trip to Zanzibar. You can apply this principle to any of the goals you have for the year—starting a business, finishing an MBA, or going skydiving. 

Don’t let the magnitude of your financial, career or any other goals hold you back from taking daily steps to get ahead. Instead, ask yourself, what are those first simple steps I can take and then work your way from there. 

Measure Your Progress

When I break my goals into small chunks, it’s so much easier to measure my progress, see how far I’ve come and how far I still have to go.

By allotting a specific time frame to my goals, I learnt that I could measure how long it would take to achieve them. Now, I add specific details like time, date, and places just so I can easily measure my progress in detail.

If you’re struggling with your goals, you might want to start measuring the impact of those little things you do every day. 

If your goal is to get a promotion at work, start measuring how your work contributes to your company’s bottom line. That way, you will be able to appreciate your contribution to your company beyond something you just do for a pay-cheque.

Readjust Your Approach to Achieving Those Goals

There are times things won’t go as planned (that’s life), which is why you need to learn how to readjust your approach when there is a need for it.

There are times I have worked towards a savings goal, only to find that I had to spend my savings on some unplanned expenses. I could let that hinder my savings goals or steal my joy, but I don’t. What I do instead is to review and readjust my approach to meeting that goal.

Sometimes, this means shifting the goalpost a bit further, making compromises on how long it will take to achieve that goal. Whatever the case, be flexible enough to make changes if the approach you have adopted is not working for you.

Give Your Goals Your Best Shot 

The good thing about the mid-year is the opportunity it brings for assessment and makes things right. 

It’s a second chance to reboot and power through your goals going forward. If you’re not happy about your progress, cease to complain, worry or feel embittered, choosing to do nothing. Instead, learn to put in more effort than you did in the first half of the year.

Know what worked and do more of it, while doing less of those things that don’t take you closer to your goals.

Quit dilly-dallying about your goals or making excuses about why you haven’t achieved them yet. Others probably have the same excuses that you do, but the people who will come out of this year better than they entered it are those who will take responsibility and choose to act better.

There you have it—the five simple tips to power through your goals this second half of 2021. With these, I believe you can still achieve your goals, no matter what they are. Time to get to work!