One of the keys to success in achieving any goal is to plan out how you will get there. Planning your week and reviewing it are important steps. Sometimes we set a big goal, have a vague idea of how to get there, and then we hope it will happen for us. Another challenge with goal setting is we sometimes sabotage ourselves. We start out with great intentions and as time goes by we start noticing all the ways we have blown it. I know from my own experience that this the time I start giving up. I want to share some of the ways that I have learned to plan better, celebrate small wins, and have my own back when I make mistakes instead of beating myself up.

As you go through your week you make thousands of decisions. Your brain gets tired of making decisions and then it becomes challenging to make a good decision. It’s how you might end up eating kettle corn for dinner because you just didn’t have the mental energy to come up with an idea for dinner. Did you know that even scrolling through social media causes decision fatigue? Each post or photo you scroll past forces your brain to make a decision about what to pay attention to.

The solution to decision fatigue is to make the important choices ahead of time. Calendar the activities that you need to practice each day that create wins for you. As you get small wins it increases your motivation. Take a weekly calendar and block out all the times that are committed to activities that are non-negotiable for you: your day job, carpooling kids, church, etc. The blank areas that are left are your opportunities to schedule the tasks moving you towards your goal. If you are working on a weight loss or fitness goal, look ahead. What days might pose a problem for you due to other commitments? Decide now how you will meet your goals despite the obstacles.

If you don’t already have a planner you can download a free printable weekly planner page with a habit tracker at the bottom of this post.

A weekly review is a vital step in the process of planning your week. It’s how you will learn from your wins and from your mistakes. The review is not about shaming yourself or shooting for perfection. It’s about seeing what worked and what didn’t and planning to get better over time.

Look over the past week at all the successes. What are the wins? What did you do well? Then look at the things you didn’t do and ask yourself why you didn’t do them. Sometimes there are legitimate reasons and sometimes there are just excuses. Look closely at times you may have just plain old quit on yourself. What can you work on in the coming week? Evaluate what goes back on the plan for next week. Only put things on the calendar that your are committed to doing.

Do you have a practice of setting goals?

Do you set New Year’s resolutions or goals for the coming year? I’m working on setting goals this year in a different way than I ever have before. I’m pushing towards making this a year that I get closer to being the absolute best version of myself. I want to stretch my sense of possibility and think much bigger than what I think that I can achieve. The thing about goals is it’s not really about achieving the goal in the end. It’s more about who you become in the process of pursuing it. So it benefits you to choose a goal that stretches you. In this post I will share the tactics I’m following for this year’s goals. I have been listening to Brian Johnson of Optimize.me and Brooke Castillo of The Life Coach School for guidance on goal setting.

The process:

I’m starting by evaluating what I want in 3 major areas of my life:

Energy –

Where do I get my energy to be a high performer? My energy comes from my spiritual practice, nutrition that fuels me, and exercise.

Family –

How do I cultivate my relationships with my family to be an exemplary wife, daughter, mom and Gammy? I have to be intentional about deepening relationships with those I love.

Service –

How am I using my gifts and talents in service to others? How do I show up in the world? Can I create value for others?

The next step is to brainstorm all my possible goals in these 3 areas. I wrote these down on paper and just let my brain flow. I do this over the span of a few days because the more I activate my mind the more ideas I come up with. Then I chose the ONE goal that helps me to achieve all the other goals. This will be my focus for the coming year.

Think Bigger

Next I am going to think bigger and move the target on that one goal to a level that I feel is impossible to achieve. I want to push myself out of my comfort zone and risk failure. That’s where the change happens. My plan is to fail early and fail often for the lessons that failure will provide for me.

We fear failure but in reality it is only in failing that we grow. If a baby was too afraid to fall he would never learn to walk. Each time he falls he fails in his attempt. But in getting up again his muscles become stronger and he becomes more practiced at walking. The falling and getting up again is actually what makes him stronger. Soon he is a master at walking and learns to run. As I’m writing this one of my favorite worship songs is running through my head.