How To Actually Follow Through On Your Goals
Every January we do the same little dance.
We feel hopeful. Energised. Full of good intentions. We tell ourselves this is the year we finally get things sorted. New plans. New routines. New habits. New us.
And then… life turns up.
The school run still exists. Work still exists. The tired evenings still exist and suddenly those shiny new plans start sliding into the background.
Not because you’re lazy. Not because you “lack willpower”. But because most goal-setting advice is built for a version of you that doesn’t actually live your life.
So let’s talk about how to set goals in a way that fits real life and that you’ll actually take action on.
Here are five simple ways to make that happen.
Set goals for who you are, not who you wish you were
This is the biggest shift you can make.
Most of us plan as if we’re about to become a brand new person overnight:
with more energy
more time
better routines
and a suddenly empty diary
But real change doesn’t come from pretending you’re someone else. It comes from working with the life you actually have.
A really helpful question to ask is:
“If this mattered to me, why am I not already doing it?”
Is it time?
Is it tiredness?
Is it confidence?
Is it not knowing where to start?
Your answers don’t mean anything is wrong with you. They just show you what your plan needs to bear in mind. The more your goals fit your real days, the easier they are to keep showing up for.
Keep the big picture, but work in quarters.
Of course, it’s good to have an idea of what we want our lives to look and feel like long term. Just like on any journey, we need a direction.
However, yearly goals are so big they can quietly drift for months before we notice. That’s why quarters are magic. 90 days is long enough to make real progress yet short enough to stay connected to what you’re doing.
Studies show that more work is done as we head towards a deadline than any other time leading up to it. So make this work in your favour.
Instead of asking:
“What do I want this year?”
Try:
“What would I love to make progress on in the next 90 days?”
It’s much easier to follow through.
Make the good stuff easier and the not-so-helpful stuff harder
We’re not meant to rely on willpower all day long. There’s some debate about whether willpower even exists (and if it does, it’s fickle and can’t be relied on to get you through it).
What does help is making the things we want to do easier (you’ve heard of habit stacking by now, attaching a new habit / routine to an existing one) and the things we want to stop harder.
Ask yourself:
How can I make the thing I want to do easier to start?
And how can I add a tiny pause to the things that derail me?
Examples:
Put your notebook on the table instead of in a drawer
Keep your trainers by the door
Log out of the apps that steal your evenings
Charge your phone away from your bed
Some simple changes to your environment = big difference over time.
Break everything into “sitting-sized” steps
Most plans fail because they feel too big to begin leading to procrastination. So, instead, break them down to small steps which makes starting much easier.
Instead of “sort the spare room” - have “clear one drawer”.
Instead of “work on my business” - have “15 minutes on social media strategy a day”.
Your steps should feel doable in a single sitting eg:
15 minutes
30 minutes
an hour
a morning
Research shows that people who break their goals into smaller, actionable steps (rather than big vague outcomes) are more likely to succeed.
Don’t do it on your own
This one is powerful. When we plan alone, we also struggle alone and it’s much easier to drift when no one else can see your progress.
Doing things alongside other people changes everything. Studies show that telling someone else about your goals helps improve your success rate by 65%. Having regular check-ins increases it to 95%.
You stay connected, feel encouraged and you keep showing up.
Whether that’s a friend, a small group, or somewhere like The Coaching Circle, it’s simply easier to follow through when you’re not doing it in isolation.
Progress loves company.
Let me know - how do you find goal getting? Do you just set goals and then are surprised with them when it comes to the end of the year? Do you start of strongly and then fade by Easter? And which of the above are you going to try this year?
If you’re craving structure, accountability and a place where your goals fit your real life (not some impossible version of it), this is exactly what we work on inside The Coaching Circle and in my 1:1 support.
