E31: When and How to Reevaluate Your Goal

When and how to reevaluate your goal

Transcript

When and how to reevaluate your goal

Reevaluating and changing your goals isn't quitting

Overcoming obstacles

BAM!  A NEW PR!  THAT IS 2 MONTHS BEFORE I PLANNED!  Which is great! Because I am really struggling with this vegetarian diet goal.  Well, I guess one for 2 isn’t bad.

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Last week we talked about evaluating goals to determine whether they were realistic or not. Once we've determined that AND developed a plan, then we can start working toward achieving our goals. As we go through this process it is important to set a schedule or reevaluate your goals on a regular basis. Why do this? Because there are many things to factor in when we are trying to achieve our goals. Changing situations; changing preferences in how we spend our time; missed timelines and Milestones; even achieving our goals earlier than we planned, are all reasons to re-evaluate goals. Is this goal still what you really really want? Has what you want to spend your time on changed?  Evaluating your goals will also give you a chance to look at what is and is not working and make changes accordingly.

Have you ever made a goal because your friends were doing it?  For example, going vegetarian to be healthier.  After a few weeks, you realize that you have really low energy and you are having a hard time at practice.  Perhaps you need to up your protein intake, or total calories.  As you reevaluate this goal at the one month mark, ask yourself “what was the purpose of this goal”.   You realize that the main focus of your goal of going vegetarian to be healthier was the healthier part, and NOT the vegetarian part.  In this example, your evaluation has you changing your goal to “healthier eating habits which include no fast food, no red meat and stopping eating at least 3 hours before bedtime.” This change now has your goal more in line with what you are actually trying to accomplish.

When should you re-evaluate your goals? It is good to have a set schedule for when you are going to examine your goals and see how you are progressing. This can be done at a set time interval (for example once a month).  This will help to not only make sure that you're on the right track to hit the timelines you set for your goals, but also to take a moment every month to evaluate whether these goals are still the things that matter the most to you. It is also important to evaluate goals when situations have changed. For example, changes in the environment such as switching teams, changing schools, a new coach, a new season, a new sport if you're a multi-sport athlete are all good times to evaluate goals. Another time to evaluate goals is when you realize that your timeline is slightly off. This can be a good thing (for example if you PR earlier in the season than you expected) or a not so good thing (for example if you end up missing milestones or a goal deadline). 

In addition to having a schedule for when you are going to look at and re-examine your goals, there are other things to take into account while you are evaluating your goals about whether the goal needs to continue, be modified, or be changed completely. Ask yourself the following questions: Are you still progressing toward your goal? Is there movement in the right direction for success? Have you lost interest in achieving this goal?  Are there people that are knowledgeable in the situation that are telling you that your goal is not achievable? 

There are many ways to re-evaluate your goals. I'm going to give you a process and a couple of different things to keep in mind to help you with the “HOW” of evaluating your goal. 

The OODA loop was initially created by Air Force Colonel John Boyd for Air Force combat operations.  O-O-D-A stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act. When you are evaluating your goal the first thing to do is to 

1. Observe - examine the environment and situation. See if anything has changed or if new opportunities have come up that may make you revise your goal. For example, did your coach move you to a new position? Also take a moment and look at how your goals are progressing. Are you still within the timeline for the plan you originally set? This can be done on regular scheduled intervals (for example, monthly)

The second “O” stands for Orient.

1. Orient - Ask yourself “What’s important now?”  In this step, you want to prioritize what is important to you. This part of the evaluation will happen at different time intervals.  There is no set schedule for this step. Instead you will constantly be orienting yourself when new situations arise and new things take priority. These could include a setback due to injury, a change in priority if because you got moved up in the ball Club from single-a to double-a, etc. This change provides new information for you to factor in with the next step.
2. Decide -  In this phase you will take the information from the Orient stop and decide whether that information requires you to change your previous goal plan and timeline.

The final step,

1. Act - Put the new plan in place.  Once you have completed the first three steps and have either of the same plan or as before or revised plan this is the staff where you then put the plan into place.

 This o o d a loop can then be used again in another month's time to evaluate your goals and where you are in the process.

I want to take a moment to point out that reevaluating your goals is not the same as giving up on your goals!  Your goals may change, or obstacles may come into play that alter the timeline for your goals.  Reevaluating and possibly changing your goal is done when the thing you really really WANT to achieve….CHANGE.  Maybe your priorities have changed and what matters to you THE MOST is different than it used to be. Your goals should be important to you and, because of that, hard to give up on or replace.  If you are evaluating a goal and choose to change it, it is because your priorities, situation or some other key factor has changed.  It is NOT because it was too hard and you wanted to quit.   One thing to keep in mind is that Reevaluating your goals is not just about looking back at what is working and not working, it is about looking forward to creating and modifying the plan and the next step to success.

To Review:  

1. Evaluating your goals gives you a chance to look at what is and is not working and make changes accordingly.
2. Look to reevaluate your goals and situation monthly. 
3. Use the OODA loop to examine your goals - OBSERVE, ORIENT, DECIDE, ACT
4. Reevaluating your goals is not just about looking back at what is working and not working, it is about looking forward to creating and modifying the plan and the next step to success.

Tune in next week when we continue on the third and final episode of this goal setting series and look at different ways to reward yourself for achieving your goals.

For more information on the goal setting process, contact me at RattoConsulting.com.  If you or your coaches or organization are interested in hosting a workshop or virtual seminar on this or any other sports psychology or performance optimizing topic, please email me at Laura@RattoConsulting.com.  

“If your dreams don’t scare you, they’re not big enough.”