Adjust your course

We're one quarter of the way through 2019. Are you making progress on your goals? Does the way you spend your time match up with your priorities? If the answer isn't a resounding yes, you're not alone.

For all the efforts I put in to live a positive and productive life, I slip up daily. I set goals I don't achieve. I make mistakes. Sometimes I make the same ones I've made before. I go negative. I spend my time in ways that don't make me happier or healthier. Reading through old journals, I see that I still haven't mastered some of the habits I was trying to develop five or even ten years ago.

But I'm determined to seek progress, not perfection. And I know I'm in a much better place than I'd be if I hadn't tried to improve at all.

If at first you don't succeed...you've got a lot of options.

• Decide how much you really want it. I have had "Learn to play the guitar" on my bucket list for well over a decade. But yet even with a friend who's more than willing to teach me, I have no interest in actually practicing. It turns out I want to play the guitar, but I don't want it enough to do the work it requires. So maybe this isn't a goal for me after all.

• Realign your expectations. Sometimes we learn partway through that something is harder than we thought. If you thought you would read a dozen books this year, and you haven't read any, that doesn't mean you should abandon your goal altogether. Rather, consider setting a goal to read six books. Or three. Both are still better than zero.

• Set new goals. For a really long time I had a goal weight in mind. It was a pre-pregnancy and probably pre-marriage weight. It was completely unreasonable. Then a few years ago I realized it wasn't about the number (anymore). So now I have goals around feeling strong and fit. No scale required.

• Figure out what went well and what didn't. Chances are, you didn't fail entirely. Acknowledge what didn't go well, but give yourself credit for what went well. Learn from both. And speaking of learning...

• Learn from people who've done it before. I am trying to master Facebook Live. I started recording a series in February and flamed out mid-month. I asked a Facebook group for advice. I learned from some members and am getting ready to try again.

Not achieving your goals the way you hoped? Adjust your course and try again.

Photo by fer gomez on Unsplash