5 Things You Should Do Today to Accomplish Your 2021 Goals

It is mid-March and an excellent time for your first quarterly goals review. A time to reflect on your goals and review your plan. Let me start by saying this, if you are already feeling like you are not making enough progress this year, do not be discouraged. This time of reflection is your opportunity to make necessary changes to turn things around and start making progress. And if you are making progress, that is awesome. You can set up sustainable practices to continue the momentum.
 
In this blog post, I will share five things you can do during your reviews to accomplish your goals in 2021. Check out my blog post on "Why are you not achieving your goals?."
 
Starting point: Why should you do regular goals reviews?
One of the planning tools that have helped me accomplish my goals is regular reviews. I have made it a routine to do monthly and quarterly reviews. During your reviews, you reflect on the past months and plan for the coming months. The reviews’ primary objective is to ensure that you know where you stand today compared to where you want to be. I have found it very helpful to block out two hours of my time, sit in a very comfortable place and take out my notebook. Making time and getting into my zone helps me focus on the task at hand. Having regular reviews has helped me stay on track and accomplish my big goals.
 
#1: Take stock of where you are compared to where you want to be
We are three months through the year and have nine more months to go. This is a great time to check on the progress you have made towards your goals. The advantage of taking stock of where you are is that you learn about how far you have come, and you can start thinking about the changes you need to make. As you reflect on where you are, you want to be honest with yourself and evaluate your actual progress. This is a very important step if you are going to start or continue making great progress.
 
Strategies to consider

• Write down your goals and document the status of each of them
• Write down where you wanted to be at this time in the year
• Identify what you want to focus on over the next months

 
#2: Celebrate the progress you have made
Reflecting on what has been going well so far will help give you a boost for the rest of the year. Think about the small, medium, and big things that you have accomplished so far. This exercise is not always easy because we tend to focus on only big wins or areas where we have not made progress. Starting with your accomplishments shows you that you have made some progress this year. Even if you are making slower progress than you planned, remember that you have made progress and know how to make progress.
 
Strategies to consider

• Write down your accomplishments for each of your goals
• Do something special for yourself to celebrate the great things you have accomplished
• Share your accomplishments with your support community

 
#3: Explore areas where you have not made progress
We still have nine months this year to make progress on our goals. This is a great time to reassess your priorities, actions you took, challenges that you faced. Knowing where you did not make as much progress is important. You can start by asking yourself why you think you did not make progress. Some of the reasons could be that the goals are not really important to you or that you did not have access to the resources needed to accomplish the goal.
 
Strategies to consider

• Highlight the areas where you feel like you did not make progress
• Write down the challenges you faced or obstacles that were in the way
• Ask yourself if you are working on the right goals for you

 
#4: Adjust your plan for action
Now that you have reflected on where you are, celebrated your wins, explored areas where you have not made progress, you can now make adjustments to your plan. Focus on thinking about the activities that you want to work on over the next months and what you need to complete them. I recommend focusing on detailed planning for the next three months before your next review. This is also the best time to think about new goals that you might want to work on.
 
Strategies to consider

• Make changes to the plans you have
• Detail out tasks that you want to work on over the next three months
• Think about new goals that you may want to work on

 
#5: Recommit to your goals and take action
There is something powerful about reminding yourself of your goals and actively recommitting to work on them. Personally, I have found that I leave my reviews feeling energized about the next months and the progress that I will be making towards accomplishing my goals. Remind yourself that reviews are a tool to help you refocus on what really matters. If you realized that you needed to change things, now is the time where you start making changes.
 
Strategies to consider

• Implement frequent checkpoints
• Commit and take action on areas where you want to make more progress over the next month
• Stay positive and do not be discouraged

 
Time for Reflection

• What have you done in 2021 that you are proud of?
• What was one surprising thing you learned or noticed during your review?
• What is one thing that you will start doing this week?
• What is one thing that you will stop doing?
• When is your next review planned?