It’s great to set goals and define your milestones. But life gets busy. It’s equally critical to review your progress towards your goals, or they can easily get lost in the hurry of everyday life.
Many people get really excited about setting goals, writing down their milestones, and even breaking their milestones down into process goals. But then they neglect to sit down once a week or so and measure how far they’ve come. It’s imperative you take that time for weekly reflection — to ask what’s working, what’s not, and what you can do instead.
Key questions for your reflection
Here are some questions to ask yourself during your weekly reflection:
- What progress have I made this week towards my ultimate, long-term goal? Be sure to celebrate even small, incremental progress.
- How far away am I from my next milestone?
- What worked this week?
- Where did I fall short?
- Why did I fall short? What got in my way?
Then, think about what you need to do to achieve your next milestone faster or more efficiently. Start by asking yourself these questions:
- What do I need to stop doing next week in order to achieve this milestone? Example: perhaps you need to stop watching Netflix late at night so that you can wake up on time in the morning in order to hit the gym.
- What do I need to start doing next week in order to achieve this milestone? Example: start tracking your calories daily, so that you know you are eating the right number of calories for weight loss.
- What do I need to continue doing next week in order to achieve this milestone? Example: continue walking every night for 30 minutes because that helps you burn an extra 100 calories and puts you in the right state of mind to go to bed early.
- What do I need to do more of this week to get to my goals faster? Example: ramp up your cardio training, and decrease your resistance training, in order to lose weight faster.
- What do I need to do less of this week to get to my goals faster? Example: eat fewer carbs this week in order to accelerate your weight loss.
Here’s the key: Schedule time in your calendar to review your goals every single week so that you can stay on track and make adjustments as needed.
To avoid this feeling like an unpleasant obligation, keep it short and focused, and schedule it at a time that will generally be free of schedule conflicts or distractions. For example, if you have a regular weekday work schedule, you might look at 15 minutes first thing on a Friday morning, when you rarely have meetings. Or if you’re a stay-at-home dad, you might plan on a few minutes every Sunday night, after the kids are in bed.
Now, don’t beat yourself up if you miss a particular week. Life happens. Just reset, and return to the reflection questions the following week. As long as you’re reviewing your goals, milestones, and actions consistently, you’ll see dramatically improved progress over time.
Post in the comments when you plan to sit down to do your first goal review so you have a concrete plan for getting started…
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