As we reach the midpoint of another year, it’s a good time to check in on your goals, dust off your business plan if you’ve been neglecting it, and make any adjustments you need to keep moving forward.
This past spring, I set a short-term personal challenge for myself as part of a larger goal I hope to achieve this year. I laid out a plan to follow, breaking it down into small weekly milestones to shoot for, and got to work.
The first several weeks were very successful. I stuck to my planned schedule, and it felt great to hit all those milestones and know I was on my way to where I wanted to be. I felt more motivated as time went by, because those small wins were adding up.
But as often happens, I eventually hit a roadblock that derailed my progress for a few days. While this goal is only important to me, personally, and doesn’t affect my bank account or employees or customers, my motivation and confidence took a hit. I tried not to beat myself up about it. I just gave myself a day to reset and then tried to get right back on track.
It took longer than I expected to recover. But I didn’t let myself quit or move the goalpost. A setback doesn’t mean the goal is out of reach, or too difficult to achieve. It just means the plan might need to shift a bit, sometimes even only temporarily.
The goals you set each year for your business — and your plans to achieve them — are your path to continued growth and success. Being a business owner is never easy, but a lot comes down to having the right mindset and never giving up.
What do you do when your progress falters or you’re hit with a setback? Do you scrap it and give up, or just keep plowing along? Or do you re-evaluate and change your plan?
How you approach a setback will have a big impact on whether you’re able to overcome it. Look at it for what it is: a setback — a bump in the road — nothing more. It doesn’t have to ruin everything. You can change your route, update the plan, or even modify the goal if it really did become unrealistic. Just don’t give up.
Hopefully your hard work is paying off and you’re well on your way to achieving your goals for the year. But if it’s not going quite as planned, now is the perfect time to take some time to evaluate how you’re going to change things in order to keep moving forward.
I hope you enjoy this month’s issue.
