How many times have you achieved a personal goal, celebrated for a hot minute, maintained it for a while (with effort!) and then slowly lost motivation to keep going? Did you eventually find yourself back at square one, disappointed and down on yourself for losing momentum? Sucks, doesn’t it? The good thing is, you’ve shown yourself you’re capable of working hard to achieve a goal – and with a few tweaks next time you’ll be better suited to maintain your success. 

It’s actually pretty common to achieve a goal, bask in the glory of it for a short while, and then end up returning to your old ways. The novelty of the desired feelings wears off quickly as we realize that success does NOT equal sustained happiness. We also fail to utilize our progress and newfound skills to continue growing. THIS is a problem, and why the simple acts of setting and achieving goals may not be the most ideal approach to create lasting change. 

Sure goal-setting is imperative to our progress and improvement as humans. Creating targets for our behavior clearly defines a path of action to streamline our focus and drive us toward new, exciting endeavors. Striving for bigger and better things also keeps us forward-focused on what’s possible- it can allow us to dream big and stretch our limits. With learning and growth also comes fulfillment, so stretching ourselves can ultimately improve our quality of life. A compelling goal puts us in the driver’s seat as we branch outside our comfort zone, enact personal power, learn new skills, and drive our own success. Concentrated effort leads to momentum as we go.

However, if we aren’t intentional about the process we design in working towards our goal, we can set ourselves up for failure in the long run. Viewing goals not as endpoints, but as milestones can reframe the big picture and help develop effective processes that will feel sustainable, duplicatable, and motivating.

When we set goals, we start with a why and a what.  The WHAT is the specific end result you decide to work towards, and you can usually imagine what it’ll feel like when you get there. Your WHY encompasses personal drivers and reasons for striving towards that new outcome. We are driven forward based on the feelings we predict we’ll feel once we’re ‘there’. We fully believe that achieving our objective will bring us fulfillment, happiness, and pride to some degree. We imagine what it’ll feel like in that new, desired state and feel motivated to get to work. 

The last piece is the HOW – the process you design – which can be the most difficult piece to decide upon, is often where we go wrong, and when done wrong can sabotage our long-term success. We are often so driven to achieve that we want to take the quickest, easiest route there, and this can lead to cutting corners.  

Here are 5 questions to ask yourself when deciding your HOW:

1. How can you break down the final goal into meaningful chunks to organize your daily efforts?
   What are the milestones you’ll achieve naturally as you work toward your endpoint? It’ll be most effective to identify mini-milestones to keep focused on one step at a time so you don’t get overwhelmed by the bigger picture.
2. Is the process something you’ll enjoy?
   If you hate the day-to-day implementation of work as you grind toward your goal, you are more likely to quit. A miserable process is not sustainable. You will also be less likely to continue the grind once you get to your goal, which will impede further progress beyond the initial accomplishment.
3. Is this process sustainable long-term?
   Is it healthy, viable, feasible, and do the efforts make sense as a route toward your outcome? Is it a process you feel good about implementing day after day? Would you be willing to duplicate this process (or similar) when working towards new goals in the future?
4. Will this process get me my end result?
   Are you confident the steps you’re taking will yield the results you’re aiming for (by your best estimate)? If needed, research proven methods for achieving your result and utilize those you believe will work best for you.
5. How will you gauge your progress along the way to determine if it’s working?
   Evaluating your progress as you go will lend helpful insight into the effectiveness of your strategy, allowing you to modify when necessary.

If in asking yourself these questions you realize that your process is not sustainable and falls more in line with a “quick fix” mentality, then be realistic in your expectations. Perhaps you can achieve the goal, but you’ll need a plan after that to maintain your progress- especially if you’ve chosen a path that you don’t love or want to continue. Or, take a stab at fashioning a process that DOES suit you better, feels doable long-term, doesn’t make you anxious or feel deprived, and still gets you results. Many times the sustainable path is slower– and I know you want to achieve the fastest way!– but slow and steady wins the race. You’ll have to decide whether time or sustainability is more important this time around, but pay attention to your How so that your progress actually takes you to a solid, new level from which you can flourish further.

If you achieve your goal and realize your How could be modified, do THAT and keep going. It’s perfectly ok, normal, and expected to try things and decide they weren’t ideal. It’s what you do AFTER satisfying your goal that is the true test of your gains and progress. Did you improve? Did you develop new ways of doing things? Find out more about what works for you? Develop fortitude and grit? Hold on to those outcomes and use them as drivers to push you onto the next big thing. 

Don’t quit, keep evolving, and remember:  Don’t execute until you get it right. Execute continuously until you can’t get it wrong.