When starting a new challenge, we often don’t know how it will take place. Many variables are unknown, and our original goal is more like a guess. The unknown factors can be as diverse as: how difficult will it be, how much time will I have, how much time will it take, how soon will I get bored, will I get bored, how fast will I progress … And so we chose an arbitrary goal.
Re-asses your expectations after a few days into your challenge
With so many unknown variables at the beginning, it is unsurprising that a few days or a few weeks into our challenge we realize it is not actually the right goal we have, or does not correspond to our expectations.
The great thing about your challenge is that YOU set the rules. You chose the rules at the beginning, but you can also adjust the rules according to what you discover along the way. There is no point staying stuck with strict rules if it does not correspond to your expectations or if it does not motivate you.
Adjust your goal to you new learnings
Adjusting your challenge can be because you are having difficulty accomplishing your daily target. But it can also be the opposite, because your challenge is not challenging enough. Either ways, it will be uncomfortable. The objective in setting the goal is to be in what is called the “the Goldilocks zone” in which it is not too hard and not too easy so you stay motivation byt your challenge.
Once you have practiced you challenge for a bit and that you have learned more about it, how much you can put into it, and what you can expect from it, it becomes a lot easier to define a clear and reasonable goal.
Examples on what you can adjust
Some of the different ways you can adjust as follow:
– Change the daily length of your challenge
– Change the intensity of your challenge
– Change schedule of your challenge (when you do it during the day, morning, noon, or evening…)
– Change the duration of your challenge (instead of 30 days, extend to 35days, 40 days …)
– Adjust your final objective
These are just examples of what can be done. Feel free to adjust it in any way you feel comfortable.
Stay motivated
Adjusting your goal can be interesting to get an extra boost of motivation in difficult times. So don’t hesitate to do so. And adjusting your challenge is not limited to only one time, you can adjust you challenge as many times and as often as it makes sens to you. Life is unpredictable and your challenge should be able to match the variables you get.
If you are doing a daily challenge, a good rule of thumb is to re-asse your goal every week. Most likely you will adjust the most after your first week. And as the weeks pass you will be able to zoom in your final goal.
During the holidays you can try the same thing. Instead of putting your challenge aside, try adjusting it and see how much you are comfortable accomplishing during this period. Sticking to a minimum is always better than doing nothing at all.
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