Have you ever noticed that most of us seem to set our goals or plans around a time that signifies the start of a certain period? For example, the start of the year, the start of the month, the week, or the start of the day?
It appears that in most cases we tend to do this out of habit.
Here are the pros and cons to this approach
PROS
- Convenient for time measurement – Some find it easier to measure progress if they start at the beginning of a certain period – an example is comparing progress of things accomplished in 2017 against things achieved in the previous year, 2016.
- Efficient for work if it is a requirement – if your job requires daily tasks, then setting a plan at the start of the day is a good way to keep track of them and work more efficiently. There will also be businesses that have certain time constraints and have specific dates when certain documents are required from them, such as financial statements, reviews and business plans. In such cases the planning will be timely
- Seasonal – Catching the ‘bubble’ – Examples include launching a gym or health and fitness company in the New Year, launching an Ice cream or swimwear business at start of summer, or selling couple themed nights during Valentines.
CONS
- Limiting quality of output by time wasting – putting off a project till the start of the next week, when you know you have time to do it all weekend, and having to rush it in the end
- Easy excuse to quit once you begin to fall off your target, as it doesn’t coincide with the start of a period. – An example is; starting a new month on a healthy diet, and waiting till the next month to start again or quitting completely because you had a small lapse on the tenth day the diet.
- Costly – examples include; wasted gym memberships arising from people giving up soon after joining during the January hype. Delaying starting your business till the New Years and someone else sneaking into the market with the same idea, and launching it in December
- Believing that your goal is seasonal when it really shouldn’t be – examples include; waiting until winter to launch a company selling necessities like toiletries when the demand is usually steady all year round, so you are essentially losing potential revenue. Another example; people opting for crash dieting to look a certain way for a certain season, usually summer.
Let’s try look at ways we can combat this and be better
CHALLENGE
- See your goals as a journey instead of as a seasonal craze – Explore learning different techniques for the things you do. Examples include; explore how your mind and body can improve and transform over a longer period, instead of during a run up to an event. Aim to be more charitable all year round, not just in Christmas period
- Three strikes – if you can’t stick to your new goal for the month, trial it at least three times within the same month before deciding to give up or start again the next month; do the same thing with weekly or yearly tasks
- Take Risks and Just go for it – launch your new goal whenever you want! If this seems too risky, have a trial – If you wanted to launch your book in the New Year, – why not have a trail launch of a short story, or teaser chapter in December, see how it goes
- Trial a different start time – trial starting your weekly goal on a Wednesday instead of a Monday. A monthly goal on the ninth instead of the first day of the month, a yearly goal in March instead of January. Move away from the idea that all will fail if you don’t stick to widely used rigid time targets
Finally, remember
- Time waits for no one – Sometimes it is brilliant to start a new goal when it coincides with the start of a period. However, we shouldn’t deliberately put off our dreams or our plans unless it is absolutely critical to its success.
Everything will not fall apart if we kick-start our dreams later or earlier than the generic ‘start gun’ that many others use. Give it a go.
Juliana Idara ~
J writes 