We sometimes focus so much on setting a goal and accomplish it that we forget that setting the goal can be really effective without accomplishing the goal. Imagine setting a goal to become a millionare but ending up with half of that amount.
Your results are dependant on how you look at your goals. If you set an extreme goal and become demotivated that it’s difficult to accomplish you will give up long before ever reaching a good result. If however you know that will get great results solely by focussing on working towards it you will be motivated to continue pushing forward. An example of this is if you want to become fluent in a certain language that you have never learned before. If you are motivated to reach for it you will spend a lot of time and effort on it. You are constantly getting better, others will realise it and you will be leaning more towards people who can speak the language. You will want to practise it so you try to speak to them, even if you can’t say much you invite them to speak the language so you hear more in that language. The longer you work on it the better you’ll become. Even if a language test wouldn’t consider you as being fluent you have achieved much better results than someone who had a small goal.
A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at. – Bruce Lee
Regardless fo what your goal is make sure to not demotivate yourself because of the long route ahead of you. Not completing your goal in the first year hopefully means you are getting closer and improving towards your end goal. Goals aren’t meant to obtain in a year, rather it’s something to focus on for as long as is needed. For example becoming healthy should be a life goal not something you focus on for 3 years and then you distance yourself from it. Many achievements you accomplish are rather a point to aim at and continue to work on. You can see this in many goals, becoming a millionare, getting to learn a language, becoming healthy. Completing your goal and turning your head away afterwards is the worst thing you can do. As millionare your money will smelt away if you don’t pay attention, your language skills will dissapear if you no longer use it, not longer paying attention to your health will negatively impact your health.
The earlier you realise that goals aren’t made to be finished the longer you are capable of enjoying the benefits of obtaining your goals. Talk to anyone who achieved a nice goal and see how they are doing now on that subject. If they finished with something extreme and halt their progress they will rapidly lose the success they achieved. For some it may be the point of achieving something temporarily and to never look back at it. But what is the point of having you best body ever when you are 22 and then letting everything go? You’ll have a nice photo (if you don’t lose it) and maybe even win a prize. But the real prize is if you remain healthy without paying so much attention that you have to maintain your best looking body you once had. You’ll enjoy all the benefit of maintaining the goal without the negatives of having to constantly focus excessively on maintaining. The more you work out the more muscles you will accumulate and the greater your fat burning will be.