Daylight Saving Time is here, which means spring is officially right around the corner. Despite debates as to whether Daylight Saving Time is more harmful than helpful, it’s hard to deny that the extra hour of sunlight after the workday is a welcome event after such a long, dreary winter. Spring is the season of renewal and fresh starts, and it is a perfect time to check in on the goals you set at the beginning of the year. The extra light and warmth can give you the boost you need to refocus and refine your goals, especially if you’ve already felt yourself losing traction after the excitement of the new year has worn off. Here are some tips to keep the momentum going and keep springing forward toward your goals.
Be Flexible
When setting our intentions for the new year, we tend to think of them as concrete and absolute. It’s great to have high expectations and to push yourself, but if you think of your goals only in terms of pass or fail you’re more likely to abandon them the moment something goes off course. Try thinking of the pathway to your goals as being less set in stone and instead as something more winding and malleable. Chances are your circumstances and day-to-day routine have changed since January 1st, and that means the way you move toward your goals will need to change, too.
Think back to your list of goals and find the ones that you may have already abandoned, haven’t finished, or haven’t even started. If they are still relevant and still something you want to accomplish, take the time to refine the way you approach them. Try to remember going forward that while the final goal may stay the same, the process is ever-changing and fluid, and try to be mindful of those changes!
Multitasking (Efficiently!) Is Your Friend
Looking back at that goals list from January might have you feeling a little uneasy about how many you assigned yourself, especially now that a quarter of the year is over. Don’t fret! You still have three quarters of the year to go, which is a huge chunk of time. A good way to make that long list feel more manageable is to split it up by timeframe. Try to organize goals or tasks into categories of the time it would take to achieve them: short-term (one to three months), mid-term (four to six months) and long-term (one year or more). Once you have them sorted, arrange them into a timeline of the year. What can you accomplish by the end of this month? How about by the end of spring? What do you want to have done by Christmas?
Thinking of your goals in terms of the time it would take to feasibly accomplish them and then setting a timeframe for you to accomplish those goals makes them much easier to multitask. While working on your short-term goals this month, you could also be looking ahead toward your mid-term and long-term goals and taking the steps necessary to get a little closer to checking them off your list by the end of their assigned timeframe.
Refresh & Refocus
Sometimes our passions and aspirations change, and that is completely okay! While you’re looking back at your new year goals, you might see some (or a lot) that just don’t feel relevant or resonate with you anymore. Now is the perfect time to comb through your goals and check-in with yourself to decide if the ones you originally set are still worthy of your time and energy to keep pursuing. If you have a deep gut feeling that some of your goals are no longer beneficial to your personal or professional growth, go ahead and get rid of them! Take the time to refine your list of goals and add new ones as needed. Remind yourself that you are a human, not a robot, and your journey is fluid and ever-changing.
Hopefully these tips will help you use that springtime burst of energy to better slay your goals in 2020!