How to get back on track with your goals
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Have you ever written down your goals for the year, stuck them in a notebook and never revisited them for weeks? You wrote them down and forgot about them and now you are wondering about getting back on track with your goals. That is exactly what happened to me.
At the beginning of the year you have all kinds of excitement about your goals. You have dreams of losing weight, or getting a new job, or going on a trip.
I pulled out my vision board the other day and my goals for the year to get a pulse on how the year was progressing. I was mortified to realize that I hadn’t looked at these goals in 12 weeks! I have a confession, some of my goals I don’t know if I’m going to hit!
After I wrote my goals down, I didn’t look at them any further. I put them in my blogging binder and left them there. My original intention was to read them every single day so I could visualize the goals. Whoopsie, that didn’t happen.
Get Back On Track with your Goals
Ya know, that’s the whole point of goals. When you write them down you want to be able to visualize them. So they become part of your thought process which then becomes part of your life. Because you put ACTION behind them.
The goals in my binder were awesome goals. There were business goals, health goals and financial goals. But they were just ideas on paper without any action.
As I sat on my couch with my goals in hand, I pondered if I could STILL make these work for this year, or if I needed to set a new goal.
To my amazement, I saw that almost all 5 goals were still achievable for the year. But I did assess them.
Assessment
These are the questions I asked:
- Is this still my mission and morals?
- Am I still driven to accomplish this goal? Why or why not?
- Are the steps I wrote down still enough action or do I need to adjust?
- Is this goal meant to be achieved in 1 or 2 years?
- How will this impact my family if I let it go?
- How will I feel if I let it go?
- Do I have too many goals?
- Am I willing to put in the work to achieve the goal in a shorter timeframe?
That last question was the kicker for me. I was basically asking myself if I wanted to work that hard. I don’t know about you but I work better under pressure.
Accountability
I decided I needed some accountability if I was going to accomplish these goals this year. I posted them on my white board, I posted them on my closet door, I posted them on the kitchen cabinet. My family knows all of my goals. I think my kids can even recite them to you.
I also decided it was time for me to quit feeling sorry for myself and be accountable to myself for my goals too. I went back to my daily check lists on my post-it notes and started getting it done. I wrote a post about how I use sticky notes to organize my day, you can read about it by clicking here.
Action
Realizing that my first mistake was NOT taking action. By allowing myself and excusing myself from my lack of action was just enabling me to feel sorry for myself. As I thought about it further, I realized I was teaching my kids it was okay to not put action behind your goals, that they would be accomplished at some point in my life. That thought was NOT okay with me.
I took action and decided I wasn’t going to just sit back and watch another year go by and I didn’t have anything to show for myself. I took action and decided I was going to be the role model my kids deserve. And I took action and decided to double down and go after those goals that I now have 9 months to accomplish.
New Season
At the time of this writing, spring arrived on the calendar. It has shown it’s pretty face with some nice weather a few times, but in reality it’s still very cold outside. Needless to say, the anticipation of a new season always helps me to focus in on my goals more.
With spring comes fresh flowers and green grass and being outside. It also brings the realization that summer is coming and my kids will be home with me. Which means I will have less time to focus on my business. This gives me more motivation to get it done before they get home.
Secret Sauce
I would be lying if I told you I didn’t pray about my goals. As I assessed them, I asked God for guidance as to what I should do. I felt like I was still supposed to give all my goals a go for the year and work really hard now and see what happens.
The Challenge
If you are still reading this, I have a challenge for you! I want you to go grab your goals from January and check in with them. Are you on target for hitting them? Or did they land in a pile of paperwork and you haven’t looked at them in weeks?
Look at your goals. Decide you are going to take some action and you are going to accomplish those goals.
Don’t forget to leave me a comment and tell me what you decided to do! I can’t wait to hear how this post motivated you to get back up and take the step forward to getting back on track with your goals.

Stephanie has been blogging at Sticky Note Mom for 4 years. Before starting her blog she worked in the finance industry working on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade to working for major financial institutions with personal financial planning and the mortgage industry. Now she shares all she has learned about frugal living to help others learn how to stop spending and start saving more.