It’s Time To Revisit Your Goals And Refine Your Vision

I spoke to a couple of people a few weeks ago, asking to know how things were going with their new year’s resolution goals.

Sad to say that most said they couldn’t remember what their goals were.

Now, this isn’t unusual.

This happens because many of us get caught up in the goal-setting fever at the beginning of the year.

We do it without putting much thought into what we genuinely want to see happen.

So, by the end of the first quarter, we’re often out of alignment with what we thought we wanted.

The months are flying by super-fast as expected, I guess, this will be a good time to revisit our goals and refine our vision.

Let’s do what we can to salvage the time we have left.

Today’s post is about learning how to revisit your goals and refine your vision, and we’ll start by talking about inbuilt check-ins.

Do Regular Inbuilt Check-Ins

One way to keep track of your journey is to have a clear idea of how far you have come.

That’s why in goal setting, you must build into the process a timeframe for achieving each goal.

Your check-ins can be done monthly, quarterly or even half-yearly.

If done regularly, your progress or lack of it can be tracked in concrete terms.

Check-ins are done to help ascertain where you are and will give you a sense of where you are headed.  

Also, See This Article: How To Avoid New Year’s Resolution Failures In 2021

Have A Statement Of Your Goals Written Down

Have a statement of your goals written down and placed within view.

Be sure to read them to yourself as often as possible to complement your check-in habit.

In doing so, note that these goals are not cast in stone and can be adjusted to fit new realities.

You may also want to design a chart that marks the achievement percentage of the milestones you wish to measure.

Doing these will keep your goals on the front burner of your mind and thoughts!

Top tip

It’s always advisable to do regular check-ins.

The chances are that if left undone for too long, you may loose track of things.

In not doing check-ins regularly, you may miss out on opportunities to carry out any form of goal refinement or goal readjustment.

So, what is goal refinement?

Related Post: 5 Steps To Manifest The Future You Have Always Wanted

What Is Goal Refinement?

Goal refinement is the process of fine-tuning your goal until it becomes crystal clear to you. 

In other words, it’s drilling down to precisely what you want, where you want it, with whom you want it, how you want it and when you want it done. 

More like hitting the bull’s eye.

Here is an example:

Assuming your goal for the year or month is to do a self-development course. 

Having that in mind is a good starting point.

However, to achieve this goal, you’d have to refine it clearly in terms of what, where, how and when.

You see, self-development is a broad field with three main categories: Habit Creation, Skill Enhancement, and Mental Conditioning.

So, you have to be exact on which aspect of it, you want to do.

What?

What will help you choose the aspect of self-development you want to study. Let’s say it’s Skill Enhancement.

Where?

Answering the question where helps you to identify where you’d like to study.

It helps you choose from a variety of course providers.

So, you could choose My Institute of Self-Development for instance from the lot.

How?

In this case, you’d have to choose between the type of classes offered which could be online or traditional classroom learning.  

So, you choose online learning.

You can also decide if you want to do it on a full-time or part-time basis.

Let’s choose part-time classes.

When?

When helps you determine the time you want to start the program- in a month or week or in three days.

Let’s say you choose to do the course in a month’s time; you can also drill further to get down to the precise number of days and times you want to do the course.

It could be three times a week- Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 4-6 pm.

From the above, you have seen that goal refinement makes the picture of your intent clearer.

Rather than saying to yourself, “I want to do a self-development course” and leave it there, you have gone ahead to determine that you want to enrol on an online evening course on Skill Enhancement.

Not only that, but you’ll also be attending it three days a week on a part-time basis at My Institute of Self Development in June.

Goals refinement is the art of drilling down to the specific details of what you want to achieve.

Without it, your goal is up in the air.

Now that we know what goal refinement means, let’s look at what goal readjustment is.

Goal Readjustment

First and foremost, before you readjust your goal, you have to know why there is a need for readjustment.

You would need to dig a little deeper to get to the root cause of it.

What might have caused the shift?

What might have caused the shift? Is the question you need an answer for.

• Could it be that the goal is far more complicated than you thought?
• Or that something profoundly changed in terms of your vision?
• Or that your aspirations don’t match your current reality?

The way to find answers to these questions is by reflection, probing, and being honest with yourself.

The clues may not jump out at you immediately, especially if you’re unfamiliar with reflective work.

But you can do it by creating time for reflection .

You can start at any time; daily, weekly or monthly.

When your dreams change

Your dreams can change at anytime and it’s very normal.

Note that it isn’t uncommon to be on track to achieving a goal but decide against going down that path two or three months later.

The change in your decision may be due to several factors.

It could be that your priority or your reason for wanting the goal has changed.

While you will agree that nobody wants to end up building a business they don’t wish to, the majority of people end up doing just that.

Why? Because they hold on tightly to their original vision or goal.

But it doesn’t have to be so. You should make room to adjust your vision when it evolves.

And most importantly, you don’t have to cling to a mistake because you spent a lot of time making it!

Also, See Video:

Don’t Cling To A Mistake Just Because You Spent A lot Of Time Making It

I can bet on my last dime that what we want evolves as humans and as business owners.

That’s why it’s necessary for us to reevaluate our goals when see fit to do so.

That’s not to say we should give up on anything too fast!

On the contrary, doing new things may be challenging, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing.

You Need To Reevaluate Your Goals Constantly

Are your results what you anticipated that they’d be at the beginning of the year?

Or are your outcomes smaller, bigger or radically different from what you envisaged?

To achieve a reasonable margin of success in your pursuit, you’d need to do the work and figure out what works best for you.

You have to stop assuming that what worked for others will work for you.

Staying on top of things will require your constant recommittment, reaffirmation, and reevaluation.

These are the factors that drive your wheel of success.

Conclusion

Revisiting your goals and refining your vision is a way of committing yourself to having a successful outcome.

It’s a way to be clear on how you’re going to get there.  

And a means to map out what you want to see happen.

Doing regular check-ins is a valuable tool.

It’ll help you identify when a shift in your current reality happens.

And not only that, but it also allows you to readjust your goals to suit the new reality.

Have a statement of your goals written down.

It’ll ensure that you keep your goals on the front burner of your mind and thoughts, powering you to keep keeping on!

And…

And your goals are not cast in stone. They can evolve to fit your current desire or circumstances and are therefore subject to change.

Don’t cling to past mistakes. If it’s not working, it’s not working.

Instead, understand why, self-reflect, make the necessary adjustments and keep moving.

Remember that the key to your progress is constantly recommitting yourself to your goals, reaffirming that it’s what you want, and reevaluating it if the need arises.

Don’t forget the power of goal refinement!

It’ll help you hit your target over and over again because it makes your goal or vision crystal clear and easier to achieve.

Do you have any helpful tips you want to share? Please leave your comments below.