Get back on track in the second half of 2021.
We are already in June.
Half of 2021 is almost gone.
Remember the things you wrote down in January, the things you wanted to achieve. Your goals. How are they going.
Well, it is time to have a look at them. How are you going with them?
Not good?
Well you are not alone. I am in the same boat. But guess what? There is still time. Each year, around this time, I review my goals and press the RESET button.
This year, I am doing it slightly differently. I am following my favourite artist’s Struthless’s method.
Follow along if you want to revisit your goals and still achieve them.
There is still time.
Empty your head
Write down all your thoughts on a page, preferably in a notebook if you own a diary or a journal to write in occasionally, even better.
Vomit out all your thoughts. Mine started like this.
“My life sucks. I am no good. I will never be able to achieve anything worthwhile…
Write three pages at least. Or until you have nothing more to say. Now that your head is empty, you are in the right “headspace” to process new information.
That’s right.
Our head is a processor like a computer, not a storage vault. A diary or a journal is a good place to store the crap occupying the prime real estate in our head.
Besides, once we put down our thoughts on paper, they miraculously disappear from our heads. Somehow thoughts can’t exist in two places at the same time. They can be either in our heads or on paper.
Now that you have a head like a clean slate, let’s go to the next step.
Create two lists
Move to a clean page and draw a line in the middle.
Dig out that piece of paper (or the diary or the computer file) where you wrote your goals at the start of the year. If you can’t find it, don’t worry, just write them from memory.
Write them out on the left-hand side of the line.
Place a tick against the one which you have already achieved or in the process of achieving. No need to panic if you haven’t achieved any. This whole exercise is to make sure that you do accomplish what you set out to at the start of the year.
Also, write down what you actually did in the first half of the year. You would have achieved things that you hadn’t written them down as goals. They are achievements too.
Now stare at the ones you haven’t achieved for a good minute or two. Think hard. Do you still want to achieve them?
Or were they written to make you feel better after drinking hard the night before? Has the world moved on since? Or better still, you have moved on?
Cross them off if they are not relevant anymore. Let them go without any guilt or grief.
Now on the right-hand side, of the line write down what you would really want to achieve this year.
We are almost halfway through the year; you now have a much better idea of how much you will be able to achieve. More so now that you are not caught up in the heat of the moment of the New Year. And more in touch with your soul through the trials and tribulations of January to June. What do you really want to achieve in your life? What are your long-term goals, and what are your quick wins? Write them all down.
Once finished, I want you to prioritize them in order of importance.
Which one is the most important one that you must do so that if you die in six months, a day before your death, you are really pleased that you have done it? Place #1 in front of it.
If you have been a little more organized and can achieve another one, place #2 in front of it.
Then #3, #4, #5 and #6.
No more. Six goals are enough for the next six months.
If something comes up and you are not able to achieve all of them, at least you have achieved the most important ones.
Now you have very little time and have only the most important goals to work on, so let get cracking.
Ask yourself a question.
Who would you have to be to achieve these goals?
You won’t achieve goals just because you have written them down on a piece of paper. You are going to lose that piece of paper again. And your brain will not remember them.
But one thing it will remember very well is what kind of person you want to become to achieve a particular goal.
If your goal is to quit smoking, it is not enough to say I want to quit smoking by the end of 2021. But I am a person who doesn’t smoke makes it an identity-related goal. And identity-related goals work better than the outcome-related (quit smoking) or process-related goal(use chewing gum when I have the urge to smoke).
I would go to the length of identifying a person I admire and see myself acting and behaving like that person. My long-term goal is to write fiction and non-fiction. There aren’t many writers who are doing both effectively. But there is one, whom I admire a lot. I see myself becoming like her. I listen to her podcast. I read her books. I am following her footsteps. Each day I am getting closer to becoming like my idol.
Before you jump in with both guns blazing, I am not becoming exactly like her but I am becoming the person who can be as prolific a writer as my idol. A person who can put in as many hours as she has into refining her craft, building her market, and continue providing value.
Not everyone can become Gandhi, but having him as a model can make you a better person. You get my point.
So ask yourself, who would you have to be in order to achieve your goals?
If you know the person write down the name of that person or cut up an image of they person and put it on your goals sheet.
Let’s move on to the next step.
Build a system
We all should write James Clear’s following words in our best calligraphy handwriting, and put them over our desks.
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. — James Clear.
A system is either a routine (daily, weekly, or fortnightly) or breaking things down into smaller tasks.
Make the system to when you are at your weakest, not when you are at your strongest.
You will not have all the energy all the time. There will be days when life will take over, and you will get no time to spend on your goals.
If such days are more frequent, don’t make daily goals, make them weekly. Then make sure you achieve them each week.
So rather than committing to write 1000 words every day, commit to write 3000 words a week. If you do it, you win. If you do more, you win again if you don’t do it,, up your game or tweak your system.
Accountability Partners
Now write down your goals and your system to achieve them and send them to your accountability partner by email. Ask them to check on you weekly.
My accountability partners could be your readers on Medium, your friends, your social media fans.
There your go.
A halfyear reset and the system in place to make sure you achieve them.
I will be reporting my progress through my articles on Medium from point to point.
Let me know how you go with the exercise and who will be your accountability partners.
