Mid-semester goal check-in

The beginning of the year gets a lot of hype for being the time to set goals. Then when February hits and you’re back to your old ways, you have to wait until next year to start again. But that mindset is completely untrue. Not only can you start a goal whenever you want, but falling off target doesn’t mean you should give up. Instead, it’s an opportunity for you to reevaluate the goals you set, and modify them to fit your current state.

Gauge your progress

Look at it this way: to have failed at a goal, you had to have started. Look back at what you did accomplish, even if it was just determining your goal. The point of your goals should be to make progress. Remember that baby steps still move you forward. Realizing that you have a goal or need to accomplish something is the first step, so don’t laugh off a goal that didn’t get off the ground yet.

If you got started but ran into hurdles along the way, highlight those blockages in your mind. How could you have handled them better and what can you do next time to overcome or remove them? This is the first step to setting up your game plan to reach your goal on the next go-round.

Embrace failure

Failing to reach a goal can actually be a good thing if you think about it in the right way. Failure can teach you a lot of things, and many people consider it to be an important stepping stone to success. Failure can help you grow, get more creative and think about things differently. It can help you embrace a growth mindset by recognizing that you’re just not where you want to be … yet.

Check in with your priorities

There are some goals that fail not because you couldn’t reach them, but because they’re no longer as important to you as they once were. Before you sweep them under the rug, try to determine what made them important to you when you first set them, then evaluate whether you still want to achieve the same goal now.

Once you’ve determined what you want to achieve, lay out a plan for your ideal future and isolate the stepping stones to get you there. Try building a goal pyramid if you get stuck.