March: A Perfect Time to Review Your Goals
The month of March can be tough…
The enthusiasm around the New Year has waned.
Goals we thought we’d reach by now seem to have fallen short.
One minute, spring seems right around the corner, but then a Nor’easter suddenly blasts through as if to say, Not so fast…
Yes, indeed, March can be tough. In many ways, it seems to be the most appropriately named of all the months – that feeling that we are just plodding – marching – through life and all its grey, windy days, waiting for the season to turn.
But NO! It doesn’t have to be that way. I used to dread the entire month – reminiscing nostalgically about the holidays or impatiently waiting for spring to arrive sooner – until I’ve finally learned how to embrace it for what it truly is: a transition.
But how? What are the best ways to handle those “in-between” times, when you’re “marching” from one season to another? How can you use transitions like the month of March to your advantage, instead of focusing too far into the future or in the past?
- Re-evaluate: Do your goals still hold true? This is a perfect time to whittle down that list of goals you set for yourself at the beginning of the year. Whether they’re personal goals (Lose weight! Organize my finances!), or professional ones (Update my Linked In profile! Pitch a new project to management!), find the 2-3 ones that are truly priorities for you, and focus on them.
When we set goals around the New Year, it’s easy to get caught up in the whole resolution-making hoopla and overshoot what we can realistically accomplish. Now that a couple of months have passed, it’s a great time to step back and be more thoughtful about what goals still excite us and hold our attention.
- Re-strategize: What didn’t work and why? For the goals that remain, use this time to ask yourself why they’ve stalled. We sometimes make the mistake of believing that willpower is the key to change, when it’s often the habits and the systems we put in place that are the biggest factors in determining our success.
As the new season approaches, identify 2-3 key systems or habits to implement immediately to support your new goals. Two great resources to get your started are The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg or the classic Getting Things Done by David Allen.
- Re-new: Are you having fun yet? It can be challenging to embrace transitions because their very nature assumes we are “in between” two places: we’re not where we were before, nor where we want to be. As a result, we can become impatient and easily be pulled out of the present moment.
To combat this tension, identify a few things you can now that you enjoy and that depend on some future date. Talk a walk outside, even though it’s still nippy. Buy a new outfit, even though you’re not at your goal weight. Volunteer for a fun project at work, even though that promotion may not come until next year.
By balancing the goal-setting tips above, with activities and events focused on the present moment, this “in-between” stage will feel less “in-between” and no longer something you have to “march” through as quickly as possible.
Share how you plan to re-evaluate, re-strategize and re-new this month in the comments below!