The first quarter of the year is almost over. And if you are like me, you haven’t been keeping your New Year’s Resolutions. Of course we are all human and so far this year has been full of surprises and challenges for the entire country. These challenges often force us to take our eyes off of our goals. But in order to be successful in life, it is important to try and refocus even if it means revising our goals.
How do I refocus you might ask? The first thing I like to do is ask myself why I created the goal in the first place. Was it that important to me? Is the goal for myself or is it someone else’s goal. Let’s say that your goal was to stay within your budget. This is a personal goal and staying within your budget will be better for you financially. Therefore this is your own goal.
Another option is to revise your goal. Perhaps the goal was too broad. It can be helpful to revise the goal and break it down into smaller more achievable goals. If we use the budget example, you can try to break it down into smaller goals by first creating a list of all of your expenses. Then use an Excel spreadsheet to calculate the expenses and obtain a total. Another step would be to break out the expenses into categories such as variable and fixed expenses.
Lastly, once you have revised your goal, go ahead and set a new goal. Perhaps you can give yourself a shorter deadline. Using the budget example again, we revised the goal to stay within my budget for the variable expenses and review my budget quarterly. This is our new goal.
In summary, no matter what your goals were for 2010, do not lose sight of them because the first quarter of the year has been challenging. Revisit and refocus on your goals because the year is not yet over. There is always plenty of time to start over and make a fresh start.