Review Your Goals: 3 Easy Steps

Making goals is a great way to change your life. But, because life is unpredictable, you must review your goals regularly. You may find one goal or another no longer fits this season of life. Or you may see that you’re making great progress and be motivated to keep going. Or you might have to change the plan you’re following to achieve your goals.

But it all starts with reviewing your goals.

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The First Steps to Review Your Goals

The first step is to take time to re-read your goals. It doesn’t matter if your goals are for one month, one year, or ten years. If you have them, re-read them as a first step to review your goals.

Second, spend some time thinking and praying about your goals. Ask yourself questions like

• Does this goal still fit my season of life?
• Is this goal still important to me?
• How important is this goal to me on a scale of 1 to 10?
• Is my progress on this goal good enough for me? If not, what is holding me back?
• How can I continue to make progress on this goal? What can I do to make faster or better progress on this goal?

Third, if you’re a highly visual person – and most people are – try to create a graph or visual showing your progress (or lack) towards each goal. This visual information can motivate you better than words and sentences.

What Next?

Now you have a good picture of how far you’ve progressed towards reaching your goals. You may be discouraged, angry (with yourself, life in general, other people, or even God), or depressed. That just means you’re normal. It’s what you do next that matters.

Only you can decide what comes next, but below are some suggestions that might help. Remember also, throughout this process, to keep praying for wisdom and discernment.

• If the goal is no longer important to you – say below “7” on a 1-10 scale – consider laying it aside temporarily or permanently.
• If the goal still matters, but your progress is frustrating, focus more on what you can do than the end result you desire. For example, if you want to lose 50 pounds but you’ve only lost 8, don’t focus on the 42 remaining pounds. Instead, focus on lifestyle changes you can make: drink more water, eat less sugar and carbs, have a salad every other day or more, or go for a walk every morning. Those are the things you can control that will lead to reaching the result you desire.
• If the goal is still important, but life is crazy busy and you’re feeling overwhelmed, maybe consider setting it aside temporarily. Keep it on your list to review and reconsider next quarter or next year.
• If you’re happy with your progress so far, even if you haven’t reached the goal yet, maybe it’s time for a mini-reward to celebrate your progress so far.
• Maybe you need to lower your sights (at least temporarily). If one of your goals was to have a weekly date with your husband, but you have three kids ages 6 and under, maybe reworking that to a monthly goal for the next year or so is more doable – and less stressful.

Rework Your Plan

After you finish reviewing your goals, grab your calendar and make your plan. For more detailed information about turning your goals into plans, check out this article. But for now, these basic steps will get you started:

• Lay out your next 3 months’ calendars.
• Fill in all non-negotiables: medical appointments, children’s events, work deadlines, and family trips are examples.
• Take each goal one at a time and list the steps you need to complete. For example, if your goal is to redecorate the playroom, the steps will include choosing wall paint, refinishing the toy shelves, painting the walls, painting the trim, buying new artwork, and hanging it.
• Now, place each step of each goal on your calendar. If you’re planning for a the second quarter (April, May, June), maybe you’ll schedule “choose paint color for the first Thursday in April and “refinish toy shelves for the first weekend in May.

It’s generally more effective to plan out the steps for one goal at a time, beginning with the goal that is most important to you. Remember, also, that you may not be able to schedule every step in one quarter. When you come to your next quarterly review, take stock of what you’ve accomplished and repeat this procedure, getting more steps scheduled.

Looking back at where you’ve been and what you’ve accomplished in the last quarter (or month, week, or year) may have been encouraging or discouraging. Either way, it gave you a clear view of the progress you’ve made so far and hopefully an idea of how to proceed.

This practice, once it’s become a regular part of your routine, can move you closer to achieving your goals than any “New Year’s Resolutions” list ever could. Grab your calendar right now and schedule your quarterly planning block to review your goals.

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