How to Recognize When It's Time to Reevaluate Your Goals

Very often, goals are stretching us out of our comfort zone and we are learning new skills to make that dream come true.  This also means that as you learn and grow, you will find yourself needing to reevaluate from time to time.  In my last blog post, I talked about when you should quit your goals and within that I talked about reevaluating your goals. I thought that it was important enough to have reevaluating your goals be its own post.  Because here is the thing - almost every goal requires reevaluation.  If it doesn’t, your goal is probably too easy and not pushing you outside of your comfort zone.  So let’s talk about some reasons you might need to reevaluate your goal and how to do that.

Here are the reasons you might need to reevaluate your goal:

1. You are experiencing a lot of turmoil in other areas of your life as a result of the time, energy and sacrifices you are putting into your goal.  This was the case for me on numerous occasions.  I would love to say that I learned from my mistakes the first time, but really I didn’t.  If you are going all in on your goal at the detriment of your relationships and other responsibilities, you’ve got to pause and reevaluate your goal.  Trust me on this one.  
2. You’ve been working at your goal for a while and haven’t made any progress.  If this is you, it’s a good time to reevaluate.  Sometimes we get in our head about having to do something just one way and there may actually be a better way for you.  Not making progress doesn’t need to mean giving up, but you may need to come at your goal from a different angle.
3. Your life circumstances have changed.  You may have started out working on your goal and then learned you're pregnant or got a new job or started a new relationship or you are moving across the country.  The reasons could be numerous here, but if your life circumstances have changed, it’s a good time to look at your goal and see if it is still practical for your life or if it needs to change a bit.
4. You learned new information which is clashing against your goal.  This one is unique, but as we learn and grow sometimes the things we once wanted we just don’t want anymore.  Let’s say you started out on a health journey using calorie counting then you learned about hormones and you realized your calorie counting might be having a negative effect on hormones.  This doesn’t mean you abandon your health goal, probably quite the contrary.  But it does mean you will likely be reevaluating the way you go after your goal!
5. Your finances have changed so you need to find a different way.  This could be looped in with life circumstances but it also could be unrelated.  For example, I saved up money for a certain program and I knew the date that money would run out.  I knew once I could no longer afford the help, I needed to pivot and find a different way.  Remember, your goals are not an excuse for you to be financially irresponsible.
6. You're feeling resentful toward your goal.  If you are annoyed by your goal, you just might not be doing the right thing anymore.  We are ever learning and ever changing beings, as we change, our goals may also change.  Resentment will sabotage your goal altogether and ensure that you are just going to give up.  Instead, let’s reevaluate! 

If you are feeling any resistance at all with your goal, meaning you just aren’t feeling aligned with what you are doing, going after your goal feels like a struggle everyday, you have no joy in pursuing this goal anymore, it is time to reevaluate.  Your goal isn’t always going to be rainbows and butterflies.  There will be hard times, there will be struggle and there will be sacrifice.  But there is a difference between momentary struggles and long lasting lack of alignment and constant struggle.

Here is how to reevaluate your goal.

First, make sure your goal is not too big!  If your goal is too big it is going to be difficult to stay with it for the long haul.  We all have those big goals, but we need to break them down into smaller steps so that they are doable for our brains and our life!  If we make the goal too big, our brain will disconnect itself from the thrill of the chase as a way to protect ourselves from that big overwhelming, scary task.  If your goal is to lose 100lbs, what if we just start with 5lbs and grow from there?  That is going to feel way more doable and way less scary.  Once you lose 5lbs you can replicate to lose 5 more.  Once you feel confident in your rhythm, then you can start to create slightly larger goals.  

If you are struggling to start at all - try just doing the smallest thing you can think of.  Add in just 8oz more of water a day, go for one 60 second walk or run, reach out to one potential new client.  Start small!!

Next, you need to identify why exactly you are struggling.  I would suggest doing a 30 minute, distraction free journaling session to really iron out what it is you are struggling with.  It likely will fall into one of the 6 categories I mentioned above. 

Once you have identified what the problem is, journal about what the possible solutions are.  Write them all down, uncensored.  Don’t throw out ideas because you can’t afford them or you don’t like them.  This exercise is just about writing them all down.  Once they are all on paper you can find what resonates with you the most and eliminate the ones that don’t.  Your brain needs to feel safe to flow out any and all ideas, so allowing yourself this uncensored brain storm session is priceless. 

Now armed with this information, you can reformulate your goal so that it mitigates the struggle and still helps accomplish your end goal AND it feels good to you.  If you are at peace and/or excited with the new plan, you know you are on track!  Remember earlier when I said I could no longer afford the extra help?  Well, that didn’t mean that I gave up on that goal, it just meant that I created a new plan.  Once I had the plan in place, I had a great deal of peace about it.  And I was even feeling excited for this new plan.  I felt really strongly that this was the right next step for me.  I had learned so much from when I first started toward this goal and I knew I could take this new information and incorporate it into my plan moving forward.  This is also a great example of how every step we take toward our goals is a learning experience and we will take that learning into the new versions of our lives and into our new and improved goals.

Another thing you can do is reassess your why.  It might be time to reconnect with your goal.  Why are you doing this?  What does it mean to you?  This exercise is something that I encourage everyone to do when they are setting their goals and I think it is important to continuously remember this.  So when you are reevaluating your goals, make sure you also go into your why.  It may be the same, or it may have changed since you first started out.  Remember to dig deep and visualize your future self.  What does that person want, do, like, feel, smell?  Now align the new version of your goal with your future self. 

Another thing you can do when reevaluating your goals is ask for help.  A professional in the area of your goal can be a total game changer for you.  Sometimes you just need someone to talk it out with or offer a different perspective.  This is a highly effective way to work through some struggles.  You can utilize a friend as well but most friends are going to offer their opinions where a professional coach will be more likely to help you work through what you want versus just giving an opinion that may or may not be aligned with what you want for your life.  

Now that you have reevaluated your goal, make sure you set a specific and measurable goal and you have a new action plan in place.  After the first 30 days of your new plan give yourself a chance to pause and reflect on how it is going.  Continual reflection on your goals is a great way to monitor and measure progress and make sure you don’t get too far down a path you don’t really want to be on!

Need help setting or reevaluating your goal?  Schedule a goal clarity call with me today.  It is a free 30 minute session with me where we dig into your goal and your why - you will leave the session with a clear goal, clear action plan and you’ll be FIRED UP to get started!  Book today!