This document provides tips for adjusting goals when facing setbacks. It recommends tailoring action steps if the original plan is no longer working, or aligning goals with your overall purpose. Goals may need small changes if unexpected issues arise, such as temporarily reducing writing time from 60 to 30 minutes daily. Examining whether a goal aligns with your internal purpose can also help motivate taking action when facing difficulties. Adjusting plans for unforeseen circumstances rather than giving up on goals altogether can help you continue progressing toward your objectives.

1. How to Set Successful Goals

2.  Before you decide to give up on your goals, try
adjusting them.
 Sometimes you might experience a misstep that only
needs a little change to help you move forward.
 Or you may need to tailor your steps to better meet
your goals.
 Or, if you discover that your purpose isn’t aligned with
your goal, examine your goals and see how you can
adjust them to align with your purpose again.

3.  First, adjust your action steps, if needed.
 Ex. Let’s say that your action step is to write your book for 60
minutes daily.
 But suddenly, something happens in your life that needs your
attention, requiring you to reduce your 60 minutes of writing.
 In this case, you would only need to adjust your writing time
from 60 to 30 or even 15 minutes for a certain number of days
or weeks.
 After you’ve taken care of the issue, you can resume writing
every day for 60 minutes, as you originally planned.

4.  When something happens to take some of
your attention away from your goals, it
doesn’t mean that you’re not meant to
achieve your goals.
 Things that you have no control over will
happen, and that’s fine because life isn’t
perfect.
 As a matter of fact, your plan will never go as
thought, or turn out perfectly because a
perfect plan doesn’t exist.

5.  If time isn’t an issue and you have trouble fulfilling your action
steps, look at your purpose for that goal.
 When you have the wrong purpose, or the wrong goal to fulfill
your purpose, it’ll be difficult to motivate yourself to take
action.
 The best motivation comes from within, and that mainly results
from your purpose for your goal.
 Ask yourself, “Did my purpose come as a result of external or
internal influences?”
 When your purpose is clear and aligns with your inner
desires, you’ll be motivated to take action.