Have you judged yourself as a failure prematurely?

Sometimes, we set goals and we go after them gusto and things don’t work out the we’d hoped and planned. When this happens, it is easy to go down the, “I failed” rabbit hole.

I was super excited to see 2022 come in because I had the plan of plans! Then, it all went to hell….kind of ! As the year progressed, one part of my plan after another fell through. After I missed the first two major goals, I knew the rest of the year would be a wash because the goals I set were sequential: I had to do the early things in order because the rest of my plans hinged on the first few steps being solidly in place. That disappointment was significant because I knew that meant I’d be going into 2023 with less momentum than I wanted. However, all was not lost. 

Despite knowing that I’d missed important goal posts, I kept plugging along because the goals that I set were powerful, and they weren’t set impulsively. Moreover, I still wanted to check them off my list! 

As I thought about what went wrong, I realized that nothing had gone wrong: I was simply learning! I realized that the approach that I took to these goals made sense to and for someone who had never done what I was attempting to do! As I was attempting to implement my plan, I was encountering challenges that I couldn’t have anticipated. 

Guess what this means? I’ve decided to commit to the same goals for 2023, but with a revised strategy! The interesting thing is that the new strategy requires something different from me than my previous strategy.

I’ve Had Three Mindset Shifts:

1. I’ve had to reframe my idea of success. Often when we set goals, we focus on what we think the final picture looks like. We fail to picture the work that gets us there as just as important. Success is the final picture and the brush strokes required to create the picture.

2. I’ve committed to working on no more than two major goals at a time and accepted that success will not be a company front. Essentially, all of my goals can’t be in motion at once; such is overwhelming, unsustainable, and will lead to another year of many starts and few finishes.

3. I’ve created an anchor habit to keep me focused on my goals. An anchor habit is a habit that you adopt that you commit to maintaining at all costs. You ALWAYS choose this habit over other options. You reprioritize other things to make sure the habit is compromised.

The beauty of the anchor habit is that it forces you to prioritize it, which means you are forced to cut other things because you recognize that you can’t do everything. 

Reflecting on what happened in 2022 instead of just doing more of the same has been a sober process and a source of newfound strength. I’m excited to take more swings at it!

What are you planning on doing over? What do you need to do over?