You reached one of your goals now what?
It can be hard to know exactly what our next steps should be once we have finally reached an important goal of ours. We spend so much time making a habit of out it, working on it consistently, and continually crafting out strategies that work best for us to make it a stable part in our overall routine, that when we finally achieve it, we can feel a little unsure about what to do next.
Which can make it very hard to understand what more we can do to continue to grow and thrive in that specific area of our life and/or health. Sure, we can get creative and brainstorm tons of other effective and positive changes we could make in our life that will continue to take us further along on our journey. But why try to fix something that isn’t broken? Or better yet, why try to immediately implement something new when we just got the hang of the new small change we just made?
Of course, this idea varies from person to person and across many different situations and dynamics.
Sometimes the best option is to immediately start implementing something new that you could essentially build upon your newly developed skill. In other instances, the best option is to wait it out for a while and ensure that your new skill or habit is stable enough in your life currently before moving forward. But let’s not forget about the in-between option.
The moments that unfold between stability with your new skill or habit and feeling ready enough to continue to push forward. I believe that the answer as to whether or not you hang out where you currently are for a while, or just continue to push forward, exists in this moment. After achieving a short-term goal, it can be a little confusing about what to do next.
Today I’m sharing with you what I would usually do after achieving a short-term goal, and encourage you to do the same if you’re not sure what the next step may be for you.
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1. Check-in with yourself
The first thing I like to do is check-in with myself and really pay attention to how this new habit is treating me.
Even though we strive to set goals that are going to have an overall positive impact on our life, sometimes the journey getting there doesn’t always make achieving it feel as rewarding as we thought it would. When this happens, I like to take time to evaluate how I’m feeling mentally, physically, and emotionally.
If you’re not finding joy with having achieved your goal, then spend some more time discovering why that may be the case. Maybe you mis-stepped somewhere. Or maybe you changed the process of achieving the goal to get there quicker and as a result it made it feel less fulfilling. Or maybe in the beginning you were giving the journey your all, then the closer you got to the end you started to fall off the wagon a little.
There could be tons of reasons as to why you may be having the dilemma about moving forward or spending more time exploring how achieving this new goal will show up in your life.
I’ve personally found that a lot of the time those reasons reside in my mental, emotional, or physical areas of my health. In other words, mentally I may not be performing my best, physically my body may not be thriving the way I had hoped it would, or emotionally I may still feel as though something is missing.
To get to the root of what may be throwing you off in any or all of these key areas, take the time to check-in with yourself shortly after achieving a short-term goal. In doing so you may be able to make adjustments as needed in order to feel more whole and content with your goal.
Taking the time to check-in with yourself in these three key areas, and answering honestly will help you discover the answer about what your next step should be after achieving this small goal.
2. Revisit the bigger goal
The next thing I like to do is compare how the smaller goal measures up to the bigger goal that I’m doing all the work for. I have found that in doing so I gain an even clearer vision about whether or not everything I’m doing is in alignment with what the overall goal is.
This is important because you never want to steer off the course of working towards the bigger picture. If this happens you may find yourself starting back at square one. For example, one of my overall goals for my health and wellness journey is to be healthy and thriving from the inside out. To get to this bigger goal, I constantly set smaller goals that are in alignment with helping me get there, like meditating daily.
Revisiting the bigger goal can help you see places in your current routine that need to be filled in some more. Sometimes we spend so much time working towards our goal that we forget to take time and evaluate how well the process is working for us. When we lose sight of this, we can lose sight of what the bigger picture was for us.
One way to keep the bigger picture at the forefront of your mind, and to ensure that the smaller goals are lining up with the bigger one, is to constantly revisit the bigger one.
Revisiting your bigger goal is a process that will look different for everyone. Not only is this because everyone’s bigger goal is going to be different from that of others, but your smaller goals are going to propel you forward in different ways. Remember, there is no straight and narrow path to achieving your goals. So, you have to constantly re-evaluate the process and compare it with how it’s going to help you finish the bigger picture.
Keep your eye on the prize and remember your reasoning for your goals and everything that you are doing. There is never anything wrong with having to revisit the drawing board and make adjustments as needed. If anything, doing so may help you be more successful and make achieving the goal feel more rewarding.
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3. Explore your options
There is no better feeling than achieving a goal and feeling as though there is nothing more you have to do to make it a reality for you. It’s a feeling that makes you feel as though you are on top of the world, and completely unstoppable. After all the hard work and dedicated time, you put into making your goal a reality for you, you most certainly deserve to embrace these feelings.
However, we should never feel too proud to believe that there no further growth that can happen.
Yes, short-term goals are something to be celebrated. They may not be the bigger goal we are ultimately working towards, but they are a very small step, which amounts to a huge accomplishment in the right direction. So, in the mist of celebrating your success you should also keep your options about what may come next open.
Keep an open mind to the possibility that your journey may lead you to places you may not have anticipated. Those new horizons may present you with options that may be able to help you take your game to the next level.
Sometimes after reaching a milestone, we think that we have to continue to do what worked for us to get there in the first place. However, this is not the case at all. What worked well for you one time does not mean it will work well for you the second, third, or fourth time.
In other words, appreciate what you were able to accomplish with your perfectly crafted formula the first time, but do not become married to the routine. Whenever we evolve or grow in one area of our life there is another right behind it that is ready to do the same. In order to plant the seeds and nurture them to grow we have to understand what needs must be met first.
You have to explore your options. There may be some things from a pervious process that you may be able to keep and carry over, and there may be some things that you need to let go of and start anew. Either way, don’t get too comfortable with continuing to do what worked well the first time and expect to apply this method every time you are working towards another goal.
If it’s not broke don’t try to fix it, but if it’s not helping you thrive then most certainly adjust as needed. Keep your options open and never become married to one way of doing things.
4. Start with small changes first
What I love most about goal setting is the fact that you can break them up into short-term or long-term goals. Short-term goals are ideally things that you can realistically achieve in a short amount of time, like over the span of a couple of weeks to a few months. Long-term goals tend to be goals that require more time to achieve, like 6 months plus.
However, whether you are striving to achieve a short-term or long-term goal both can be broken down into even smaller steps to help you get there.
I love this process because it helps to create less stress and anxiety with actually achieving the goal, and it makes the process more enjoyable because you are not doing too much all at once. Instead, you have very clear and specific objectives to work towards on a weekly basis, that will help you achieve the bigger goal all the same.
Identify what your goal is and then think of small little changes you can immediately start implementing on a weekly basis to help you continuously move forward. In order to create habits and a routine that you are disciplined in doing consistently, you have to start out small. Sometimes this can make the process seem longer than you would like it to be, but it will set you up for success at every stage of the process.
An important reminder about goal setting is to remember that it’s never about the goal itself, but more so about what you personally gain from the experience. When you start small you learn things that work really well for you, and things that don’t work well for you at all.
This gives you plenty of time and room to adjust to a system and routine that feels authentic for you. When you try to accomplish everything in one go and you don’t implement small changes first, everything becomes blurred and you’re not too sure what specifically was pushing you forward or holding you back. While the process may seem longer, in the long run it is more effective because you not only get a chance to experience the journey in full, but you also get a chance to explore the many different ways you could potentially grow from the experience alone.
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5. Hang tight or push forward
Once you’ve done some checking in with yourself, you’ve revisited the bigger goal you are ultimately working towards, spent some time exploring your options, and even began implementing small changes that could potentially help you continue to move forward in the right direction, all that’s left to do is decide what the next step is for you.
I could share various tools and techniques that I play around with to figure out how to move forward with pursuing a new goal, but the reality is that it’s only as helpful to you as it is for me if you actually spend the time exploring it.
Setting and achieving goals is not a one size fits all. Yes, there are many processes and routines that can be very helpful in guiding you in the right direction, but ultimately achieving your goals is about the experience you are walking away with.
This is why I encourage you to check-in with yourself. Only you know how that experience impacted you, and in what ways it made you feel accomplished. Only you know what your bigger picture is. Therefore, only you can determine what options you need to further explore next. Which of course means that only you have the power to decide what small changes are necessary to make now, in order to start moving in the right direction for your overall goal.
Sharing is helpful, but personal experience is more powerful.
This in-between moment of achieving a short-term goal and deciding what your next step is, is truly where all the magic happens. It’s extremely personal but when truly and fully explored it can be very eye-opening. You already know what the right answer is for you deep down inside, but sometimes we need to do a little bit more digging before we feel comfortable enough to give ourselves the greenlight.
This is how I give myself permission to trust my instincts and continue to move forward. Will you give it a try? Or better yet, what’s something more you can add to this process?
-Xo
Kimora