Did you give yourself summer goals? Maybe you promised to get in great shape, travel, or read more. You got started on your morning sit-ups, picked out the locations on a map, and created a reading list, but maybe you felt busy, distracted, or discouraged. Summer arrived and you felt like it was too late. We’ve all been there. The good news? You don’t have to give up on your summer goals. We’ve got some great tips for you on how to get back on track.

Remember Why You Started

Without purpose, your goals are just meaningless words that you’ll avoid. Write down your goals and underneath them, write down why they were essential to you when you came up with them. If any of these goals are no longer relevant to you, feel comfortable dropping them.

Be Willing to Readjust Your Goals

It’s already late July, so if your plan was to make the Olympic team by fall, you might need to tweak your timeline a little. Kidding aside, there’s nothing wrong with updating your goals. Pushing dates back, or changing to a more attainable goal will be less discouraging. Ask yourself what you think you can realistically accomplish this summer. Create a feasible plan to meet those newly adjusted goals and press onward!

Find a Partner

Find someone that will keep you honest and hold you accountable. Choosing the right person is important. Some people may be motivated by choosing someone who crushes every goal. Feeding off their success can be a great source of positive energy. Others may find this person discouraging. If this is the case try finding someone who has similar goals, but also needs some motivation. Working together keeps you accountable without feeling discouraged.

Attaining Goals Is All About Positive Momentum

Take a look at your original goal, then try breaking it into a few smaller tasks. Make the first task something easy and attainable. When you accomplish this, your momentum and desire to continue will propel you forward into incrementally harder tasks.

Get Comfortable with Failure

You likely won’t accomplish every single thing you set about achieving this summer. That’s okay. Look for your small victories, then get comfortable with the fact that summer goals and goals, in general, don’t always happen on our timelines. If you can find a valuable lesson in one of your failures, that’s equally as valuable, if not more so.

Look Ahead

Identifying past failures is essential, but always remember that you need to look forward most of the time. Set up end of summer goals, fall goals, 2019 summer goals and remind yourself that if goals aren't a least a little scary or audacious, they might not be set quite high enough.