How to Assess Your Goals

Can I chime in with everyone else and just moan about the fact that summer is over and it’s already the autumn season? I associate August and September to new beginnings even though it’s half way through the year. It was always the start of the new academic year for me and therefore, I would list a series of goals, tasks and hopeful achievements. Since graduating and finishing up graduate school, I now use this time of the year to fully assess my goals of the year. August/September is a good halfway point to get back into the grind after the summer holidays. People have asked me how I keep myself motivated throughout the year when I have a list of year-long lofty goals and it’s really just all about sitting down acknowledging your progress by accessing your goals and it’s all done in three simple steps on how to assess your goals.

Check Your Progress

This first step, in my opinion, is one of the most important things to do when you assess your goals and the key thing that turn you away from the ability to assess your goals and achieving what they hoped for is the feeling that they are not getting anywhere. I always take out a fresh sheet in a notebook or on a word document, title it with the goal I want to achieve by the end of the year, then write down what all I have done so far to get closer to achieving it. Even if you’re not making tangible progress, seeing your work written in front of you will make it feel alright.

A good and simple example is that I want to get to 12,000 followers on Instagram by the end of the year. I hit 10,000 at the end of last year and have been very active and diligent towards getting to 12,000. Unfortunately, I don’t think I will be achieving this goal, but seeing my active effort makes me feel as if I am being productive. As much as it’s aggravating, seeing my progress doesn’t make me feel like I’m not actively trying to achieve my goals. I have grown since the beginning of the year, but while assessing my goals, I found that I have grown a stronger community of followers!

A second goal is that I want to make sure I’m looking after myself more. I started the year quite weak and that was exemplified by my poor health. Today, however, I find that I am so much happier with my life and the balance that I have compared to earlier in the year and last year! That shows progress and should always be the first thing on how to assess your goals

Evaluate Technique

Of course you can’t assess your goals without evaluating how the process is going. You should spend the most time evaluating the technique when it comes to assessing your goals. Are you completing your sub-tasks in a timely manner? Are halfway to achieving your goals? Is there something you could change? Is there something you should consider? Are there environmental/structural/logistical concerns that are holding you back? How do you overcome those? Should you slightly alter your goal?

When it comes to the Instagram goal, outlined above, I know I have been commenting and engaging a lot with the accounts I follow. I use the best possible hashtags and continue to engage with my own community as well. Though, I have only grown about 100 followers since the beginning of the year. I know I need to evaluate my technique though because the algorithm holds me back quite a bit. When I look at the state of my Instagram today, I notice that I have built a really great community of followers that are engaged and very happy with my work and so I have altered my goal to steadily grow {without worrying too much about numbers} and focus on establishing a REALLY strong community of followers. I’m going to focus on quality rather than quantity of followers.

For my personal wellbeing goal, I have integrated tech-free weekends {well, all day Saturday and 75% of Sunday} and that has made a huge difference in my well-being. I noticed, however, that I was still overworking myself to the point that my brain is fried. So I’m deciding to integrate tech-free bed time, where I leave my phone-laptop-tablet in the living room and just get into bed with a good book at 10:30pm.

Adjust Timeline

The final step is probably the most tedious job you will do. After determining my progress, I adjust my timeline if I need to rethink my overall deadline or changed up when I will complete sub-tasks.

For my Instagram goal example, my ultimate goal of wanting to reach 12,000 no longer really exists because there are variables that are preventing me from hitting that goal. So I altered my goal to wanting to create an incredible, engaged community. So by the end of the year, I want to have confidence in my community. This means I’m changing my deadlines and the timelines on sub-tasks.

For my self-care example, I heard that it takes roughly 21 days turn something into a habit. So I want to make it a habit to turn my self-care bits into a norm. It took me a few months to turn my tech-free weekend into something that felt productive instead of neglectful. It is a slow process, but every few months I try to incorporate another self-care method to help me with my work-life balance. So by the end of the year, it is something I can naturally incorporate into my daily life.

Now that we’re halfway through the year, I urge you to take advantage of the busy season and take time to assess your goals. I bet you’re making headway, so use it as motivation to get you through the year!

Don’t Compare Yourself to Others

Remember that the magnitude of our goals are so different from one another. Even if your goal is similar to someone else’s that doesn’t mean you will yield the same results doing the same thing. Don’t get discouraged and if you need a little pep talk from me then be sure to read my tips on how to stop comparing yourself to others! Try to enjoy the journey of working towards your goal and be mindful of the great courage, resilience, and strength it’s taking you to get there!