When Goals Go Off-Track

For anyone already feeling like 2025 isn't going according to plan.

We hear that ‘time is a construct’ and ‘January 1 is a 24-hour day just like the rest of them,’ but I still love the fresh energy and clean-slate feeling of a new year. The sense of possibility and the chance to start anew just speak to me. How about you?

Did you begin January with big goals and exciting plans?

And have they already gone off the rails?

I imagine we’ve all experienced things not going according to plan at times. Flexibility and adaptability, by necessity, become interwoven with meaningful achievement and purposeful success. But it’s a special kind of disheartening when falling off-track happens so early in the process. If thoughts like, ‘We’re not even one month into the year and I’ve already messed up!’ are running through your mind, this article is for you.

(And on the flip side, if you’re rockin’ and rollin’ with your goals, keep on! But feel free to come back to this article if you hit a bump in the road or just need a little boost.)

If your goals have gone off-track this early in the year (or early in your action plan, whenever you happen to read this), take a few deep breaths as well as a step back. Look at the situation from a bigger-picture view. Getting off-track early in the process can be frustrating, but it can also be a chance to reassess, reconnect, and decide, with intention, how best to proceed.

Here are five actions that may help.

Five Recalibrating Actions To Try

Before we get into the actions below, start by acknowledging and honoring the growth you’ve already experienced. What have you accomplished, even this early in the process? What action have you taken that you wouldn’t have otherwise? Just the act of creating a goal takes a certain kind of courage, so pat yourself on the back for that!

Then, see if one or more of these supports you going forward:

1. Consider your level of agency.

Sometimes we set goals and direct our energy where we have little control over the outcome. For example, you cannot necessarily control whether or not someone subscribes to your YouTube channel. You do likely have more agency, however, in how consistently you post videos, or how you respond to viewer comments, or other activities that might support your channel growth. Rather than tracking or focusing solely on the outcome, consider what actions within your power will support your goal, and begin focusing energy and attention there.

2. Acknowledge the circumstances.

Illnesses, snowstorms, wildfires, global challenges … there is a lot going on in the world, and likely a lot going on in your own life / work / family, too. I suppose one could choose to put on blinders and ignore anything but the goal - but in the spirit of meaning and purpose, grace and compassion, connection and growth, I’m not sure that’s our best approach. What if, instead, we take a moment to acknowledge the challenges? “I wasn’t expecting this” isn’t giving up - it’s being honest. We can then pause and ask ourselves, honestly and without judgment, if our priorities have changed, if we want to adjust our timeline, if we’re ready to dive back in, or if we are embarking on a new fresh start - even if it’s not January 1.

3. Imagine what you’d tell your loved one.

We’re often more supportive of others than we are of ourselves. One ‘trick’ to bring a bit more of that compassion back to ourselves is to imagine someone else - someone we care about a great deal - experiencing the scenario we currently find ourselves in, then asking how we would advise them. For example, maybe you made a sales presentation that you thought went extremely well, only to find they decided to go with the other option, and you’re feeling all kinds of crummy about it. You’re wondering what you did wrong, why you didn’t get the sale, maybe whether or not you’re even cut out for this role at all.

Now imagine your brother, or your daughter, or your longtime best friend coming to you with this same experience. How would you support them? What kind of advice would you offer? What type of encouragement would you give? This perspective shift can provide a helpful splash of objectivity. Write down your responses if necessary, then kindly give offer them to yourself.

4. Give yourself an A.

I adore this idea that I first learned in The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander. Benjamin describes how, as a teacher at a music conservatory, he would tell his students at the start of his course that everyone would get an A, as long as they fulfilled one requirement: They had to write him a letter within the first two weeks - dated for the end of the year - explaining what they did to earn that A grade. They were to write everything in past tense, in as much detail as possible, as if they were already at the end of the year looking back. No ‘I will’ or ‘I plan to’ or ‘I hope to’ - just, ‘Here’s what I did.’

What if you gave yourself an A for your goal - regardless of where you’re at right now - then wrote yourself a similar letter? Perhaps some new actions or ideas would rise to the surface, and perhaps a sense of possibility and optimism would reignite. “This A is not an expectation to live up to,” Zander and Zander write, “but a possibility to live into.”

5. Revisit your why.

Reconnecting with purpose is probably the greatest re-motivator and re-centering activity I know of. Why is this goal important to you? Why does it matter? What prompted you to set the goal in the first place? And does this all still apply?

(Check out this Meaningful Goals article for more on this.)

If you set a goal to build a home office this year but have now learned that you’ll be moving across the country in two months, you could force yourself to stick to the goal - but does it make sense?

But maybe the underlying why is to have a quiet and functional space to support your best, most difference-making work. That is a why you can carry into the office you look for or create in your new home, or search for in a rental or coworking space, or overlay onto wherever you decide to do your best work.

Purpose makes a difference. Consider allowing purpose to serve as your motivator.

The Truth Behind Goals

I’ve written before, and I’m sure I’ll write again, about my love for goals. And let me emphasize the main reason for this:

It’s not so much about what we achieve or check off the list. That’s often the icing on the cake.

It’s because of who we become in the process.

If you set a bold goal, you are going to take bold actions and become more bold along the way. Little wins and lessons learned will help you grow, expand your sense of possibility, and stretch your comfort zone. Your passion, dedication, or zeal is going to inspire people around you - and surely inspire yourself, too.

Don’t let a blip derail the purposeful big picture you’re moving toward. Adjust if necessary, course-correct as needed, reflect and refine and recalibrate.

Then, put your shoulders back, lift your head high, and go do the thing.

Yes, a goal can go off-track. But we can also place it - gently, clearly, purposefully - back on track, then head confidently out toward our meaningful achievement.

* We’re excited for book club meetings this week - more details here! *

Questions? Comments? Books or topics you’d like me to discuss here? Feel free to email me at readingandpurpose (at) gmail (dot) com or comment on this post directly in the app/website. I love hearing from you and I appreciate your support!