The calendar officially flipped to March and here we are already over 8 weeks into 2024. For many of our 2024 goals, reality has hit, and motivation has slowly crept away. Now, we’re simply left staring at 2024 goals with a key question, am I done with these goals or am I ready to build consistent behaviors to accomplish these feats?
It’s natural each endeavor we embark on that the spirit and energy is high in the honeymoon phase of seeking a goal we care about. The honeymoon phase will end at some point, and it becomes a test of how much this goal means to you. Only you can answer but before the quit button is hit, look at exploring these 3 questions to challenge yourself to keep the journey moving forward:
- What made you write down this goal for 2024? Reflect on if priorities shifted where this goal is no longer of high importance or whether this goal remains a priority for who you’re striving to become. If it’s still a priority, take time to visualize what success will look like if you remain diligent on the path you’ve set. Use visualization to explore clips of what success will look like when you have the courage to take on the challenges ahead and mentally keep hold to who you’re striving to become. These clips of success through visualization can be key to resetting your focus back to why you started this journey.
- What story am I telling myself? When our story is one of limitations and excuses, the quit button becomes all too readily available. There will always be setbacks, hurdles, struggles, questions of whether it’s worth it. You can argue that’s a requirement for anything worthwhile. So when these setbacks and struggles take place, expect it. It’s normal and all a part of the process to grow yourself each day in the journey to the goal ahead. These setbacks aren’t here to tell you to stop – they’re here to challenge you to become stronger for tomorrow. Make sure the right perspective is brought to the story in your mind.
- What accelerators can I bring into my journey? I’m a believer that we must challenge ourselves to find strength and perseverance within for our long-term journey to be successful. While the inner dynamic is critical to success, I’m also a believer we need to build our awareness to bring in more things around us that can propel us forward on our journey. These are Accelerators. Think of someone you know that will be honest and challenge you to strive for something better. Think of the resources right around you that can help improve your daily habits for success. Accelerators are all around us – up your awareness game and leverage what will propel you forward.
I get it – there’s always reasons why the goal wasn’t attainable or is more of something to be accomplished next year. But failure can only occur when we give up so while 8 weeks have most likely been challenging, keep hold of who you’re striving to become. Expect the setbacks, embrace the path of continuous growth, and enjoy picking up accelerators along the way to help propel you to a great end of 2024.
Take your step: start with 1 goal you’ve set in 2024 (or have considered setting). Work through the 3 questions above. First, use visualization to focus on who you’re striving to become. Second, accepting setbacks must be part of the path to growth and open the mindset to expecting challenges. Last, take time to create awareness of accelerators all around you and leverage the boost they can provide.