We are halfway through the year, and Covid-19 season already taken most of our year, many people are indulging in retrospection and reevaluating some of their life choices.

Most of us had New Year’s resolutions.

How are we doing so far with our plans?

Did we write anything down?

Do we keep our journal log up to date regularly?

The month of June is the perfect opportunity for all those who have been unable to start making the changes that they said they would make this year, to review their plans.

How SMART were your target goals?

Research has shown that ‘intention’ beats ‘motivation’. What often happens is that we create short, medium- and long-term goals without adding the ‘when’ and the ‘how’, like:

• I’ll change my job

• I will buy a house

• I will eat healthily

• I will get married

• I will have a baby

However motivated you to take action on your goals, if they are worded like this, they are too vague and open-ended. Without the ‘when’ and the ‘how’ there is no motivation to carry it through.

The simple way to be more focused is to be more specific with your plan

For example:

• I will spend 1 hr in the gym every evening after work till the end of August.

• I will not take any work home or use my private / family time for work- for the next 8 weeks. Starting from tomorrow.

Then have a review date to check if you were able to complete your set goal.

When things don’t go to plan. Don’t beat yourself about it, your review will give you the opportunity to either amend, discard or extend the date.

None of these mean you have failed. Things happen, conditions do change so don’t be too hard on yourself.

You can still continue saving for the house or a new car. Maybe you may end up buying a better one.

Always make sure your plan is something you really want. If your goal is just to please society or to “fit in" but you’re uncomfortable changing “you", it would not be wise to set that as a goal.

Or if people are putting pressure on you to do something, but you don’t feel ready or energised by the prospect, don’t do anything that will demotivate you.

Let's get cracking with our mid-year review.

By: Dr. Annie Gaisie, Psychologist - Addictive Behaviour.

Email- dovewomen@gmail.com