"Oh Crap it went wrong" - bouncing back from failure
Having goals and creating plans to achieve those goals is all part of obtaining success in business.
But sometimes our goals don't always come to fruition.
When our goals don't come together the way we planned, we usually make one of two choices: Fold our cards, get disheartened and never return to that desire again, or we pick ourselves back up and take inventory of the moment to continue the pursuit with an energised new approach.
Here's how to get moving again after a failure:
Set real, specific goals
It’s important to be specific.
If you don’t write down what you intend to do and when you want it done, you give your mind a blank check -- to write in whatever is comfortable or convenient at that moment.
“Lose some weight” is not a goal. It’s what you want to do. Losing muscle will achieve that, so will dehydrating yourself.
If you do five jumping jacks, you’ll lose some weight. If you do any of these things, did you really get what you want?
Write SMART objectives to get you back to 'normal' and discuss these with your support.
Learn more about SMART here: https://rise.articulate.com/share/IxjfQu_ZTepw_NUN9iExwd9Lg4lgOBUH
Have a vision for the future that's always looking you in the face
This is best done right after you set your SMART goals.
What will your life look like when you achieve your goal? It’s time to have a description (or pictures) of what that future looks like. Post that document in three places: Your bedroom, bathroom and office wall.
These constant reminders can help focus your thoughts in the right direction.
Shrink the tasks as small as they have to be
Your goal may be too big to work on.
But it can be broken into smaller parts. You can do these parts today. This looks a lot like reverse engineering, but it’s even more fine-tuned.
You’re looking for steps that take less than 15 minutes to do.
Drop the baggage
You’re probably upset with yourself for not achieving some of your goals already.
This may be your second or tenth attempt. It’s time to forgive yourself for the past so it won’t drag you down in the future.
Remember, you hopefully did the best you could with the knowledge, awareness, priorities and skills you had at that time. Emergencies can happen, and some are so big they can shift your priorities.
Occasionally, a more attractive opportunity comes around that causes you to chase after it in place of an older goal.
Perhaps a few goals were based on an outdated version of your ideal life and that vision has changed. Most of these things aren’t worth calling "failures." Should they weigh you down? I don’t think so.
Reverse engineer your end goal
It’s easy to set a big goal and run for several days on the high that comes from taking such a bold action.
After that, the goal starts to get heavy and difficult to actually achieve.
Reverse engineering is about finding smaller goals that you can achieve -- goals that will result in achieving your big goal in the end.
If you have to earn £10,000 per month by the end of a year, first figure out how to get four high-paying clients that can pay £2,500. That’s a lot more achievable than £10,000.
Set a goal to figure out who these clients are.
Send a few emails asking to talk and find out what they want. A few emails are less intimidating than trying to earn £10,000 a month.
Once you land a client, you can duplicate it until you have £10,000. After that first client, you’re just repeating what you’ve already done. There’s very little new territory from there.
Reward yourself for any job well done
Rewards make things fun. Set rewards for each task you accomplish.
If you have the money, spend some on yourself.
If you don’t, do something simple, like treating yourself to your favourite food out, walking the dog or calling your partner. If you're the only one in the office, loudly congratulate yourself.
Go nuts. You deserve it.
Be Accountable
Accountability is something that many people can’t achieve anything without. For some people, that means having someone call you once a week to make sure you’re on track.
For others, it can mean establishing a "punishment" for failure -- something that's big enough to be uncomfortable, but small enough so it won’t wipe you out.