Stay focused and don’t be afraid to fail this year!

With the new year approaching, how many of you have heard the following? “New year. New me!” “ This year is going to be different!” “ I can’t wait for this year to be over. It’s been a long one!” How many of you reading this have said something similar? I know that I have said things like this in the past as well. This year I made no resolutions. I have not committed to doing something. You will not scroll through Facebook feeds and see my status as “New Year. New Me, Baby!!!” The reason is because I have already been trying to implement things that I wanted to do for the past 6-8 months. My job is to continue to do this and stay focused.

You have had a bad few months and need to get back on track. I am totally for that and setting goals to focus your energy on. Whether it is a fitness goal, a health goal, a career goal or even a relationship goal, we all need them. This helps us stay grounded and focused on something instead of wandering aimlessly and not knowing what to do next. We all have things we want to accomplish. My question is why do we wait until the end of the year to try and set goals for ourselves? We set a few goals that we want to do and we start the year off strong. Then something interrupts our focus and we get off track. Such is life, right? Then what happens? We come up with an excuse on why we can’t do something and it spirals out of control.

So how do we stay focused so that we can reach our goals? Set goals high for yourself! Set a goal that you feel might be impossible! But don’t be afraid to fail. I’m not saying it’s okay to be lazy and not give 100%. I’m saying that as long as you are giving your best effort , but don’t quite meet that goal you need to be okay with that. Then refocus and go at it again. You need to start out with a few goals. This will make it easier to focus. That way you are not trying to do too much at once. If you meet a goal, make another one. Goals should be set throughout the year, especially if you meet one quicker than you expected to. If you set goals throughout the year consistently, you will always have something to strive for. With this method, you are not waiting until the end of the year to set new goals.

Whatever it is that you are striving to achieve, remember that it is okay to fail! Most of the time, this is the #1 reason we choose not to try something. It is also the reason we come up with excuses. All successful people have failed at something. It is life experiences that make you a better person. Don’t be afraid to set big goals because you feel you might not reach them. The sooner you get past that the better off you will be!