EP 213 What to do when your goals are not on track
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Sara Mayer: [00:00:00] Welcome to the bold goal crusher podcast for anyone looking to stop letting life get in the way and start crushing bold goals. I'm your host, Sara Mayer, and I'm thrilled to navigate this journey with you because it's time to start boldly achieving without working double time. So let's dive in.
Happy New Year, bold goal crushers. I'm super excited. We are in the middle of our New Year party. And if you haven't jumped onto the New Year party, it's one of my favorite things that I do every year. I host a New Year party that lasts for 15 days. You can start whenever you would like. And it includes some really cool stuff like five days worth of goal setting activities.
Sara Mayer: And then all these speakers [00:01:00] who provide some grab and go workshops to help you really crush your goals this year, but set goals that will actually stick. So if you haven't jumped into the new year party, I'll drop the link in this description if you're watching on YouTube or on the podcast channel. HaPpy New Year.
Sara Mayer: I know many people are super motivated at the beginning of the year and the gyms are packed and all those fun things. But there's also people out there, and this may be you, where you may be not so motivated. I know I've been there where the beginning of the year rolls around and everyone is posting their resolutions, they're posting their goals, their words, their themes.
Sara Mayer: And I'm just not there yet, or I'm not really excited about what I accomplished the year before. I've been there where I set some big goals and I didn't get any closer to achieving them. The year got away [00:02:00] from me. Everything just seemed to snowball and I wasn't able to crush my goals and that impacted me as I rolled into the next year.
Sara Mayer: So if you are sitting here and you're just not sure where you want to go with your goals or you're not sure how to move forward because maybe you weren't able to accomplish goals in the past, just know that's okay. It's normal. It's yeah, it's normal to be disappointed. It's normal to not know how to move forward.
Sara Mayer: Do you continue setting goals, even though it didn't work last year, you may be thinking about all these different things. And many times. It's difficult to get back on track. It's easier to go through life, cleaning the house, checking your email, marking off the things that aren't really [00:03:00] important rather than sitting down and addressing how you might get back on track with your goals and how you actually might be able to achieve them.
Sara Mayer: So there are some common setbacks and reasons that you may not be achieving your goals. And the first one is. You might not be setting the time in your calendar to actually do them. There are. So many studies out there about the psychological effects of setbacks and their impact on future motivation. So when you do encounter a setback with your goals, it is hard to get back on track and on that wagon, if you will.
Sara Mayer: So many people talk about getting started as being one of the big challenges when actually one of the biggest challenges is what happens when you aren't having success. So you have those first [00:04:00] five days where you drink more water and then day six, what happens? And so it's important to really continue the process of self reflection and understand the root causes of your setbacks when you're not, or those obstacles that you're encountering when you're not achieving goals.
Sara Mayer: Is it because you don't know how to move forward? Is it because you're afraid of what people might think? Is it because you're just terrified to go live on Instagram or whatever the task may be? But it's really important to do the inner work and figure out why you're not moving forward. Are you choosing to do something easy?
Sara Mayer: Do you have too much on your plate? So it's just. Overwhelming to even get started. Are you having problems managing your calendar? What are the setbacks that are causing you to fall into this trap of not achieving your goals? And that's really an important learning journey, [00:05:00] a discovery of that. And then it's important to embrace failure has that learning opportunity.
Sara Mayer: So changing the perspective on failure, it's so many things, the things that are so important in life are not easy. And we need to practice in order to get to the point where they are easy. The things that are really worth achieving the first time you do it, you're going to need to be a beginner. And it's okay to be a beginner, but many times we don't like to be a beginner.
Sara Mayer: We don't like to feel like we don't know what we're doing. And so I always think back to the first day on a job, how you get those jitters or maybe your first day of school. If you can remember back to that, you get those jitters because you don't know what to expect and you're nervous about being a beginner.
Sara Mayer: And you may end up drinking from the fire hose with all the information and all these [00:06:00] things, but eventually you learned how to do those things. And you may eventually become the person in your company or your business that. People go to, to help them do those things. So being a beginner is okay. I think it's important to remember that learning comes from failures, but it also comes from putting yourself out there and resilience and perseverance.
Sara Mayer: On achieving long term goals is the key. These, your long term goals should be marathons, not sprints. And they shouldn't necessarily be easy because the things that stretch you, the things that are really worth achieving should stretch you. So I think it's important to. Make sure that you are embracing the lessons in the obstacles, the road bumps, the, all the stuff, it's really important [00:07:00] that you embrace those so that you are able to learn and grow from them.
Sara Mayer: Now let's talk about adjusting goals. So sometimes the goals may be not realistic, or they may not be achievable in a year. And. I always hesitate to tell people to dial their goals down. I think your goals should be dialed up, but the steps to get there and the milestones along the way should be what you're measuring and celebrating.
Sara Mayer: So you should reassess and modify your outcomes and your steps based on current circumstances. Maybe you need to take two steps back in order to make five steps forward. And there is this phenomenon, there's a lot of people out there, especially high achievers, where they will stick to the path, maybe not the goal, the path.
Sara Mayer: Even though [00:08:00] they should have abandoned that long ago because they have a high completion drive. And so I think it's important to really go back to that reflection and talk about the path to the goal. Is this the right path? Are these the right steps to get to this goal? And I think that's why it's so important.
Sara Mayer: Your goals shouldn't be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound in the smart format. Because your goals need to be big and bold, but they also have to have the ability for you to modify the steps along the way. So let me use an example. I can set a very specific goal to own a four bedroom house on a five acre property by June 2026 in Colorado.
Sara Mayer: And that's smart, but the reality is my life may [00:09:00] change after I set that. And now that goal is just toss out the window because I can't achieve that. It's not measurable. It's not achievable or I may have a setback with I need to do six things in order to qualify. Because when I met with the loan officer, they said, I need to do these six.
Sara Mayer: things. And so I don't love smart goals. What I love is. A goal being dreamy, but bold and your steps to get there being specific, measurable and achievable. So the goal might be in my format would be to own a property that allows me to build my homestead and create a life for my family that allows freedom, peace, and the ability to grow my own crops.
Sara Mayer: It's dreamy. It's exciting. When I look at that, I might reframe it a little. I might be [00:10:00] able to put that on my vision board, but that excites me. And then the step breaking that goal down into steps would be step one, meet with somebody to figure out what I need to do in order to qualify for a property like that.
Sara Mayer: Do research by Tuesday. On properties in these five states, those are the steps, and those need to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound so that you can measure that progress towards those goals. If you have. Not achieved your goals. If you're sitting here yeah I set a goal last year and it didn't happen.
Sara Mayer: It's probably because of the way you created or structured that goal. So I hope you're in the New Year party because we're talking all about this. But I want you to take back, take a step back and look at that goal. Is it dreamy? Is it bold? Is it big? And then step two, do you [00:11:00] have a step by step action plan on what to do?
Sara Mayer: And I'm not talking about all the steps from A to Z. If your goal is to write a book, you don't need to know all the steps from writing a book. You need to know the first five. What's my next big step? What's the next big step? And sometimes the next big step is to learn from somebody. Sometimes The next best step is to do research, and sometimes the next best step is to connect with somebody who's done this before.
Sara Mayer: So that's, what's really critical. When you are crushing these goals or doing something big, you may not share the big dreamy goal. Like I want to own a huge property and do all these things with it. I want to. Author 30 books. That may be the big, bold goal, but you should share your steps. Hey, I'm working on becoming a better writer because someday I want to write a [00:12:00] book.
Sara Mayer: Can you help me? And asking for help. For example, I had somebody the other day put on Facebook, I'm putting this out into the universe. I'm looking for speaking opportunities. Who can you connect me with? Who do you know? That is really a great way to find people to support you in your goals. And next it's all about implementing positive habits.
Sara Mayer: So when you start to look at your goals, there are probably a couple reasons you are not achieving them. One, they're not exciting. They're not dreamy. Two, you don't have the steps laid out. And then three, you don't have habits that inject your goal into your daily. Routine and as habits take a long time to build and to become from something you do to becoming a habit and.
Sara Mayer: When you don't have things in your daily routine that [00:13:00] lead you to achieve a goal, you are going to miss out on achieving that goal because life's going to get in the way. So it's all about incorporating those positive habits that align with your goals. And so when you start to look at why you maybe are not.
Sara Mayer: Achieving your goals, it's important to ask yourself how much time in my calendar was dedicated towards goal activities, or some people will call them needle moving activities. But that's what's really critical. You also maybe have allowed procrastination and distractions to set in. You maybe are a starter, you've started things, but you have a hard time staying focused.
Sara Mayer: And I find that happens to me when something is really difficult. When something is difficult and I'm having a problem moving forward, that is one of the ways that it can cause me not to achieve my goals. [00:14:00] The other thing is it's really hard to stay motivated about the big, bold goal when it may seem so far away.
Sara Mayer: Maybe it's going to take you years to do it. And I think it's really important to build in and acknowledge your progress and your wins. And remembering that your bold goals, if they're worth it, are a long game. And that's easier said than done, but those wins contribute to the overall attainment of the goal.
Sara Mayer: And when you are able to attain that goal, it's going to be so rewarding. So make those your little mini. Mini celebrations when you meet them. All right, bold goal crushers. It happens to everyone. We fall off the goal train or track, and it's time to really analyze what is keeping your train from moving forward to achieving the goals.
Sara Mayer: Is it your [00:15:00] goals aren't exciting? Is it that you don't have a proper roadmap? Is it that life is getting in the way? Or are you procrastinating and falling prey to distractions? That all comes from reflection. I can't answer that for you, in your heart, why you are not achieving your goals.
Sara Mayer: And if you're in a funk, it's okay. Take a day, throw yourself a pity party, do whatever you need to do, but come back tomorrow and regroup. Come back tomorrow and breathe some life into those goals that you truly want to accomplish, because you're worth it. It's worth it. All right, bold goal crushers. It's time to crush your goals and everything that gets in the way because you do not have to work double time.
Sara Mayer: So let's get to it.
Sara Mayer: Thank you for tuning into the bold goal crusher podcast where we crush goals and everything that gets in the way. I always love to [00:16:00] support my community.
Sara Mayer: I look forward to seeing you crush your goals this year.
