If you’ve followed along here more than two days, you know that I’m no stranger to goal-setting. It’s one of my favorite topics, and it’s often how I measure my success. I’ve written about not accomplishing goals before, and I recently had another break through that I thought I’d share.

I have a tendency to want to accomplish everything. Literally everything. This shows up in practically every area of my life. Have a day off? I want to do all of the fun things. A regular day at work? I think I have to get every single thing done. Goal setting time? I’m going to work towards every single idea I had. Did you see my idea list for #the100dayproject? My mind ran wild with ideas, and I wanted to do every single one. When we started renovations on our first house, it was sooo hard for me to not do every single project at once. I probably would have done them all if the funds would have been available!

When I was setting my goals for 2015, I had to pare them down a bit. Even after limiting myself some, I still ended up with quite a full list of goals (three separate lists actually). When I purchased these tracking sheets for monitoring my progress, I was pumped. Here’s the problem though — I was tracking too many things.

I had a sheet for exercise. A sheet for blog posts, quality time with Matthew, and 3 sheets for tracking work goals. I had 8 of the beautiful bubble sheets in a pocket folder, ready to track everything…everyday. I’m sure most of you are already seeing the problem here. I, however, did not. After all, I love marking things off and filling in bubbles! It was going to be fantastic and fun!! My thought was, I’ll keep myself motivated because I’ll enjoy getting to fill in the bubbles. Wrong.

Somewhere around the end of February, I quit using them. All of them. I wasn’t doing as well with some of my goals as I’d hoped, and I honestly couldn’t even remember what some of the sheets were for without checking them.

Isn’t this how we end up not accomplishing most of our goals? We fall off the wagon, lose momentum, and then give up all together? The sheets even say it – progress is more important than perfection. Even when you get off track, the important part is that you get back at it. It’s ok to lose sight of the goal every now and then…you just have to get back on track when it happens.

So…I filled in what I could remember on my sheets and then started tracking things again. I did well for a few weeks and then around mid-March, I quit again. Of course, I was getting discouraged. I was working towards some of my goals, not others. I had certainly lost momentum with tracking things, even though I loved these sheets so much. Then I had the all-important breakthrough that I’m sharing with you today. I was doing too much.

I’m currently taking BOLD through Maps Coaching at Keller Williams, which is a life-changing program. It teaches you how to grow your real estate business, yet more importantly, it teaches you how to become a better person. In my BOLD class last week, we talked about a daily habit tracker. (I immediately thought of my bubble sheets and simultaneously felt guilty for being behind yet again.) We talked about how it takes 66 days to form a habit. We’re 110 days into 2015, all of my daily tasks should now be habits! Why am I not rolling out of bed bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (what a weird saying!)? Why am I not exercising like it’s second nature?? My mind was racing.

As the coach continued, I finally had the realization that I so desperately needed. I could indeed conquer every goal in the world…I just needed to do them one at a time.  I was stretching myself too thin, dreaming of big ideas, so I wasn’t able to focus on any one task enough to make any of them happen. I was committed to becoming a better person. I truly wanted it. Those sorts of changes don’t happen overnight, though. I might still be able to accomplish all of these things in 2015. However, I’m going to need to focus on one thing at a time to do so.

So what’s next? I’ve chosen to work on my physical fitness goal first. Rather than having a sporadic fitness plan where I work out out here and there when time allows, I am committing to making time for physical activity. It seems like the most important one to address for the time being, and it’s the one I want/need the most. I pulled my exercise bubble sheet from the portfolio and hung it on the fridge. I’ll be focused on that one goal for now. The others can wait.

I’m sharing this realization today because it was huge for me. I need to really understand this concept and remember it. Furthermore, if you struggle with trying to do too much, you could benefit from trying to pare things down a bit too. If you set a goal for the year and then quit in the first quarter like I did, understand that it’s not over. I really considered giving up since my track record for the first quarter wasn’t so impressive. Don’t do it!! We still have the majority of 2015 left to readjust and make magic happen. If you’re not sticking with your goals, simply reevaluate and make adjustments. If you’re committed and approaching things the right way, you will win. I simply can’t way to see what this adjustment does for my goal-setting process. I also can’t wait to see what it does for you!

Speaking of goal-setting, I pre-ordered the Get To Work Book from Elise, and I can’t wait to get it in my hands!!