Progress towards a goal is never a straight shot. There will be times when you progress rapidly, and there will be times where things go a lot slower, and forward movement towards your goal is a struggle.  Sometimes, you will completely lose forward momentum towards your goals and your activity level may come to a standstill.

Perhaps this standstill is simply because you needed a break, maybe you went on vacation, or maybe you engaged in a period of focused imbalance where you simply needed to let that goal slide for a short time.  Sometimes people stop progressing towards their goals because other goals get in the way, or simply because bad habits start to creep in and you end up taking the lazy way out.

It is when your progress is completely stopped, that is when you need to dig deep inside yourself. This is when your true character is revealed.  You have two options here: you can let your goals slide – essentially giving up – or you can dig deep and work to get things going again.

Just like a train locomotive, getting started after you have stopped is the hardest part.  You have created a “state” when you have stopped, and you need to move out of the stopped “state” into a “state of motion. The law of inertia says that a body in motion tends to stay in motion and a body in rest tends to stay in rest.  While inertia is true in physics, it is also true as you work towards meaningful life goals.  Thankfully there are steps you can take to get yourself going again and re-engage your goals.

1. Accept the Situation

The first step in getting yourself going again is to accept the situation.  When you have let your activity towards a goal slide you are likely disappointed with yourself and that can easily weigh you down.  So don’t beat yourself up.  It doesn’t help for you to feel bad about what you haven’t done, or to pile up blame on yourself. Even if you should not have let your activity level slide, and even if it is your fault that you are not progressing towards your goal, it doesn’t say anything about who you really are!

By accepting the situation you can learn from what has happened with a focus on the future.  Learn what caused you to stop moving towards your goal. Was it an unusual life event, or did the normal things of life get in your way?  What do you need to do to make sure that doesn’t happen again?  Look at your life’s habits.  Did you let some habits slide?  Are there new habits you need to create?  Analyze what has happened, but always with a focus on the future.  Discover how to not let it happen for you again.

2. Revisit your goals

Next, take some time to revisit your goals.  Think back to why you want to achieve the goal.  Deeply ingrain in yourself an understanding of this WHY.  Is the goal really important?  If so, you need to clarify this importance and use it to help you build momentum.

Perhaps the goal is not important for your life and in that case you should let it slide.  Likely, if you have been thinking about it and acknowledging the need to get back to it, the goal is important. Chances are that you forgot about the importance of this goal and that was part of why you got stalled.  If you have ingrained within yourself why a goal is important you will be less likely to quit.  For example, I’ve deeply ingrained in myself the importance of exercise and staying in shape.  Because of how clearly I see the importance of physical fitness, I’m much less likely to stop working out, even when I’m forced to give up other goals. As a result, even when I recently went through a period of focused imbalance, I was able to stick to my fitness commitment.

3. Start Small

When getting going again in movement towards your goal you need to be willing to start small.  You don’t need to, and shouldn’t expect to, jump in at the highest level of activity that you were maintaining before you stopped. You also don’t need to put that level of pressure on yourself.  Starting small is acceptable!

Say, for example, that when you are moving towards a certain goal, you used to make twenty sales calls a day. Don’t put that level of pressure on yourself to begin. Start small by simply making one call.  Often that first activity is the hardest.  Doing anything, even something very small, can help you create momentum and that can build and develop into inertia.

4. Move to Half-Way

After doing something to get started, the next step is to look for an opportunity to get back to your “half-way” activity level. This is where you make a firm commitment that you will do at least half of the activity that would have been considered your full activity level.

This is what I did to get back into the habit of writing.  At my full activity level I would write for one hour on four different days each week.  To get back into the flow after I stopped, I started by moving to the half way mark.  I did this by committing to write for thirty minutes a day for the first week.

Having a shorter time or activity level commitment can help you get started because it is less intimidating, feels easier to do, and gives you a sense of accomplishment. You should notice that I have used the world commitment several times.  When you move to half-way, you need to be committed.  You can’t simply plan on moving to half-way, or hope to get half-way.  If you do, that will never happen.  Instead, you need to commit to it, and follow through on your commitment, no matter what.  It is this kind of determination that is needed as you try to start moving again.

5. Increase to Full Out Effort

Now that you have moved to a half-way level of action, you can work to build momentum by continually adding in more activities and putting in more time.  Set a plan in place on how you will get back to your previous pace. Your plan may be involve a certain date where you move from half activity to full activity, or it may involve a more gradual increase.  The key is that you have a clear plan that fits that allows for an achievable way of reaching your previous effort level.  Of course, that plan can not sit idle.  You must follow the plan and do what it takes to get back to your full activity level.

6. Consider a Period of Massive Action

Often times after a period where you have stopped working or progressing towards your goals, a period of massive action can make a huge difference.  This is especially true in many businesses, and in any sorts of sales or marketing.  In this situation, you can still take a short while to ramp up your activity level, but instead of stopping at your previous activity level, go beyond!  In fact, go significantly beyond and create momentum.

Sometimes a period of massive action will help you make up for lost time and propel you to more rapid success. You may find that this higher level of activity is something you can maintain and that the efforts are really worth it; alternatively, you may find that you need to go back to your previous activity level.  Either way you’ll have created more rapid growth and momentum because of your period of massive action.

Remember, just because you’ve let your activity towards your goal slide doesn’t mean that you have any less chance of achieving your goal. Sure you may need to adjust your deadlines if you’ve sat back for too long, but your goal can stay.  Readjust your deadline, ramp up your activity and see the success you’ve dreamed about.

Written by:
The Success Professor – Danny Gamache
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The Joy

Think back to the start of the year. Remember the excitement and energy that you felt as you looked at the potential of what was to come. You had taken time to set your goals for the upcoming year, and there was nothing going to stop you from achieving them. Perhaps you had some New Year’s resolutions to make as well. You might have wanted to lose weight, to read more books, to grow your business, or bet a better spouse. Whatever your goals or resolutions you likely entered the new year filled with hope and excitement.

There is a similar thing happening this week on our campus. Students are arriving back excited about the year ahead. Freshman students are embarking on something very new and exciting. They are not fully sure what to expect, but they are here and ready to go. Returning students have a lot more of an idea about what to expect. They know the tough times ahead and the commitment they need to put in, and yet they too are excited (mostly). The new school year, just like the New Year in January, provides people with a clean slate. It is an opportunity to start over, no matter what has happened in the past. Students can set new goals in academics as well as in their personal and social lives. The new school year is waiting.

The Problem

Of course something happens as the days and weeks and months go by after a new beginning. After New Year’s Day you likely started well as you worked to achieve the goals and resolutions you had set. But over time those goals slowly started to take a back seat to other things in life. Your goal to eat better may have started well, but since then you have no doubt had a bad day or two. For many people those bad days start being the norm, not the exception. Your goals for business and your work may also have started well but likely some point along the way even those have been left behind as other stresses in life continue. For most students it will be no different. Many will start the year well and then slip back into their old habits, their old routines, and do the things they have always done.

These kinds of trends are natural. When something is new it is easy to set goals that are exciting and that inspire you. It is equally as easy for those goals to slip away over time and for your energy and inspiration towards achieving them to be diminished.

The Good News

The good news is that you can take advantage of a fresh start whenever you want! It is possible at any time, on any given day, for you to gain all of the benefits of the New Year experience. You do this by DECIDING to start over. You can decide to start over and start acting as if it is the New Year; as if you have a new beginning. In order to act like it’s the New Year, simply do the things that you would do if it really was the New Year:

· Celebrate your recent successes

· Set new goals and deadlines

· Plan how you will achieve your goals

· Reconsider your life priorities

· Recommit to the important things in life

· Connect with what inspires you

All of the things on this list are things that you do at New Year’s and other significant new beginnings. Further, all of these will help to reinvigorate you and push you into action. Restarting your life can be powerful.

One Part at a Time

Another good thing about starting over whenever you want throughout the year is that you have the potential to restart one area of your life at a time. While you may have times when you need to start over with everything, it is just as likely that you will have some areas of your life that are progressing towards your goals and some areas that are stagnated.

When you choose to restart like this, you can restart one part of your life at a time. Perhaps your family life is great, but you are struggling at work: then go through the restart list with your work life in mind. If you are doing well professionally but are struggling to exercise and get your weight under control you can simply restart that area as if you have just started a new year with exciting new resolutions. Whatever area you are struggling to reach you goals in is the area you want to choose to restart.

Automatic Restarts

Life also affords us with a number of automatic restarts. In fact you may be taking advantage of automatic restarts without even realizing it. The start of the school year that I described earlier is an example of an automatic restart for many. Certainly it is a restart for students and teachers, but it’s often a natural point of restart for anyone with school aged children. The pace of life changes and life routines must change with it. What better time to restart your goals?!

The calendar also gives us automatic restart points. The most obvious one is the start of each month. You can use the start of the month to celebrate your successes from the previous month, to set new goals and deadlines, to plan how you’ll achieve your goals, to reconsider your priorities, to recommit to the important things in life and to reconnect to the things that inspire you!

To a lesser extent the start of each new week can serve the same function. When I go through my weekly planning process, I’m in essence following the steps of starting over. This enables me to enter each new week recommitted to my goals and excited about pursuing them.

When to Restart

There are many reasons why it might be a good idea to choose to create a new beginning and restart yourself towards your goals. You may want to restart when:

· you haven’t taken steps towards your goal in sometime

· you’ve been working towards your goals but haven’t seen any progress

· or you’ve just had a significant failure

If any of these situations apply to you, you should likely consider starting over. Pretend it is New Year’s Eve. As of tomorrow morning, the calendar is blank, and you have the potential to reach all of your goals.

Happy New Years!

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

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