We’ve nearly reached the halfway mark for 2024 so if you set yourself personal, professional or business goals at the beginning of the year, the new financial year can be the perfect time to review and reassess each of these to determine whether you’re still on track to achieving them or whether you need to readjust the goal posts a little.

Going for gold, or silver…..

With the Olympics coming up in July, there are plenty of lessons we can learn and why reassessing and resetting goals is important. Professional athletes train hard to achieve glory in their respective sports, but as part of their ongoing training, they also need to factor in what will happen if they sustain an injury. The same can be applied to setting personal or professional goals – you cannot predict what is actually going to happen down the track.

Remember – life and work can get in the way and your circumstances can change in a heartbeat, so it’s crucial that you factor this in, so you don’t feel overly disappointed if you’re not exactly where you expected to be at this time of year.

Path to success

To help get you started, we’ve outlined some practical strategies that could help you reflect, reassess, refocus and reset your goals for the remainder of 2024.

1. Reflect on what you’ve achieved. Think about each of the goals you set at the beginning of the year and why you set them. Consider how far you’ve come in terms of achieving them. You may not be where you wanted to be but remember this is where you need to factor in times where there may have been setbacks that were out of your control, and you weren’t able to achieve what you wanted in a certain timeframe. These are all learning curves and should be celebrated either way.
2. Reassess each of your goals. While you may have set particular goals at the beginning of the year, they may no longer be aligned with your overall objective. Identify areas that are still working or are no longer practical. When you are reassessing your goals, factor in what the risks are if you don’t reach or complete a goal. What impact will that have on your business?
3. Refocus your priorities. Once you have reassessed your objectives and goals you can refocus your priorities. Breaking down each objective into small goals and targets can help you to refocus on where you spend your time and what your business priorities are.
4. Reset your goals. An easy way to reset your goals is to use the SMART goal strategy. It stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. Using this method can help you to keep your projects and goals moving. There are plenty of examples online that can help you reset your goals using this strategy.

What does success look like?

Success is more than the end result, it’s also about the journey you took to get there. You may be in the exact same position in 3 months’ time but sometimes it takes baby steps to achieve goals. Everyone’s path is different, so be flexible and make the necessary adjustments along the way to help set you up for long-term success.