Closing Out The Year: Did You Hit Your Goals?

Thanksgiving is here Christmas is around the corner, which is followed by the New Year. Is your head spinning, heart racing? Are you looking at your vision board and to do list and thinking crap, it’s so much I didn’t finish? Are you considering throwing the towel in for the remainder of the year? Stop and KEEP CALM, you still have time. I ask these questions, because in October, I was faced with the same dilemma. I took a look at my vision board and cringed at the things I hadn’t completed and on the flip side, I totally ignored the things I did accomplish.

I know you are saying Candice forget what you accomplished, what about the other stuff. I’ll get to that in a moment, however lets stop and celebrate the things we did accomplish and complete. Do your praise dance, thank God for giving you the strength and direction and grace to get those things done. Did you celebrate? Now onto the remainder things on your vision board, choose one or two items you want to knock out or get started on before the New Year hits. Take a look at the one or two things and ask yourself, is this something you still want to do, because remember it is ok to pivot and make an adjustment.

So you decided you wanted to do it, now it’s time to implement your game plan. Get an accountability partner, flush out the things you want to do, look at your schedule and be one hundred percent honest with the time you are going to give it and recognize the time you will need for it. Don’t overload your day with a lot of different tasks. Perhaps depending on what the goal is, dedicate a week at a time on the item or dedicate a day or hours in a day that you work on one goal and the next day you work on a different goal. I’m suggesting doing it like this, so you are not switching your frame of mind or energy between two goals in a four-hour sitting.

Be diligent about where you are spending your time. For me, I had to stop watching my favorite shows when they aired. In fact I always record them, so I decided that I would binge watch them on Sunday’s when I am meal prepping and doing laundry. If I get what I need accomplished for the day, I reward myself by watching an hour of TV at the end of my day.

I will not act like this is easy, I have slipped, but I have an accountability partner that gets me in check. Every evening we do a ten-minute check in on my day. Speaking of accountability partners, make sure you have someone who will push you. Not a drill sergeant, unless you need that. Have someone who is going to call you on your stuff. Case in point one of my goals is to work out five times a week. Last week my schedule got turned upside down and I was falling short of my workout goal. I started to scrap the week and start over on Monday. Well my accountability partner Jeanette, thought differently. She gently but sternly reminded me, why my goal is what it is. My health, she said “Candice, last year this time you were laying flat on your back not able to move and you are not out of the danger zone yet”.  I started getting a little annoyed, I protested that I had to complete some other things, wash my hair work on my branding etc. She simply said “do thirty minutes of cardio, because if you are faced with not being able to move again or something worst, your hair and branding will not matter”. Talk about perspective right. She got me straight and on top of that worked out with me. The point of that story is that you want an accountability partner that will tell you the truth and want the best for you. You may not want to hear it, but you know when they are right just like I did when Jeanette called me on my bull crap. I was being lazy, point blank and period.

So now that you have your plan for the next six weeks, execute it. Be diligent, be fearless, be faithful and be forgiving to yourself and allow grace.  The other things you have on your vision board that you didn’t complete, move them to your first quarter goals for the next year, but most importantly start developing a plan for how you will tackle them. Hey that can be what one of your six weeks is dedicated towards or do it on your flight home for the holidays. Don’t throw away the next six weeks; you can get a lot done in that time. Remember to be good stewards over your time. Conquer the end of the year and don’t forget to celebrate.