It is important to push to reach your goals though you encounter roadblocks and distractions along the way. By the time the second month of the year rolls around people are struggling to keep on track with new goals. It’s easy to feel discouraged and to think that you will not reach your goals because so much has happened in the first month to threaten to derail you. When I think of my own situation, I am amazed that I am able to accomplish anything. So many curve balls were thrown my way in January. They have created delays. They have caused thoughts of failure to creep into my mind. I know my experience is not unique. If you can relate to this fear of not reaching your goals, I want to tell you it’s not over. The year is still young and there is an opportunity to reset. Here are five steps you can take to help you push through to reach your goals.

1. Peel Down Your List to Bite Size Pieces

Focus on one or two goals over a specific period of time. A month may be a reasonable time for you, depending on the size of the goal. Or if it is something pretty sizable, then select two of the steps. Let this be the area that you will focus on to complete during the next block of time period you determine. Additionally, set aside one hour in your daily routine that you will dedicate to working on the step(s). It is tempting to think that you will give it four or five hours on the weekend. But if you have tried that and it has not worked, try allocating smaller portions of time, like an hour, each day so you can push to reach your goals.

2. Get an Accountability Partner

Pushing to reach your goals in secret, without the support of others, makes your journey so much harder and so much longer. “No one is an island”. Have you heard this phrase before? We need to be connected and to have a sense of community. Identify someone in your network who you can approach to help you stay on track with a particular goal. It would be great if this person already has some success in the area that you are focusing on. This ‘buddy’ can serve as your sounding board, or the one who checks in to see your weekly progress. It’s the person who cheers you on and encourages you when you feel that there are too many life’s distractions. You can potentially reap very good results from having an accountability partner. The key lesson here; do not go it alone, take advantage of the people in your network to help you push to reach your goals.

3. Understand Your Rhythm

An important part of your push to reach your goals is understanding how your mind and body works. This applies to your daily personal life and also to life on the job. If you don’t already know when it is that you have most mental and physical energy, then take some time to observe yourself and figure it out. I am an early riser and personally early in the morning, in the quiet of dawn, is when I am more productive at completing activities such as writing. Sometime I have fooled myself and hopped on to the computer at night, in the hustle and bustle of family life, to try to whip up an article. That rarely turns out to be successful. So if it means going to bed earlier and rising earlier, then that’s an adjustment you may need to consider. Remember this quote? “Insanity is doing the same thing and getting the same results. If you want different results, examine how you have been using your time and identify the changes that you need to make to help you push to reach your goals.

4. Protect Your Space

Allocate enough space tor you to push to reach your goals. If people and circumstances keep ‘invading’ your space, then you will have very little room to accomplish the goals you set out to achieve. When your mental and emotional space is crowded by others, it drains and saps both physical and mental energy. This leaves you with little left to work with. This links to what I referred to above as knowing your rhythm. So budget your mental and physical energy and make sure you have enough set aside to use to reach your goals. There are a number of circumstances that create avenues to deplete your energy. A demanding job is one of them. You have to create the boundaries between your job and personal life and vice versa in order to meet goals in either area of your life. Demanding family members is another. Help household members to understand that you need time out to work on goals you have set for yourself. Demanding friends is another circumstance that you have to manage. You may need to let your friends know that you are investing time to reach certain goals and that this means you may not be as available over a certain period of time.

5. Celebrate Your Wins

To help build momentum, acknowledge each little step you make as you push to reach your goals. Highlight your progress and minimize the attention you give to the challenges that seem to be working against you. Positive thoughts have a way of generating energy and motivation. If you can focus on small achievements, this will help motivate you to work towards another achievement. One way of focusing on the goals that you actually achieve is to write them down. Create a system where you actually write a description of what you have achieved. In that note include the actions you took that helped you to be successful. You can refer to these notes to help you plan further action that helps you to reach other goals.

Conclusion

Successfully reaching your goals is an ongoing journey. Writing down goals on paper and pasting it on your mirror is only the beginning. Staying focused and fighting off distraction is action you have to commit to take. You have to resist discouragement every day. I like to remind myself often of this saying. “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. When you feel overwhelmed and the things you want to achieve are looming like big mountains, just keep taking single steps, and be sure to include the five steps above  if you truly want to push to reach your goals.