Have you failed to follow through?

It takes some self-examination to understand why we fall short of our own expectations.

Photo by Jukan Tateisi on Unsplash

We often don't follow through on our best intentions, and it takes some honest self-assessment to discover why. Sometimes our objectives are too hard to fit into our schedule or need to be more specific to be actionable. There may be something more pressing we need to take care of before we get to the task we'd like to do, or we can't do what we'd hoped until we do something else first. We also sometimes say we want to reach specific goals when they're not our true desires but things we only think we should want.

Many of us yearn to be better or do better but find ourselves mystified when we don't improve or follow through with the habits we want to form. It may feel like we're stuck on autopilot and can't change our patterns or that we're constantly reacting only to the most immediate crisis rather than making intentional choices for our behavior. You have to interrupt those patterns and spend some time in self-reflection to move from intention to an actionable plan.

Challenge:

This week, I encourage you to dig deeper into why you've failed to follow through with something you hoped to do. Is something else more pressing right now? Do you need to pay more attention to a different area of your life? Be honest with yourself. Is this really your own ambition, or just something you think you ought to do? Be sure to approach this self-assessment with plenty of kindness and compassion. You're only looking for a cause, not a way to criticize yourself. Once you find the probable reason why your plan went awry, think about what comes next. When you try again, can you come up with a smaller version of your habit or test out a different time of day to do it? Do you want to try a new routine or goal altogether? Make a concrete plan for your next attempt.