Do these 5 things NOW to finish 2024 strong
Another goal of mine: participate in charity scrambles. Here's our foursome in the Chip In for Charity scramble in May 2024
Does anyone else feel like this year has flown by? The first week of October is past and we are into the last quarter of 2024. The holidays are right around the corner. In the last few weeks I have been thinking a lot about the goals both in my life overall and specifically the ones that I had for this golf season, and reflecting on what worked and what didn’t. Before getting sucked into the holiday whirlwind, I am taking some time to do a few things now to finish this year strong and setup for an awesome 2025. It’s always a good time to reflect, renew and reinvent yourself… are you with me?
(By the way this process applies to any area of your life but of course I’ll put my GOLF spin on it!)
Reflect on this year
How has this year been for you? Has it been a tough one? Or maybe you have overcome a lot of obstacles and have been celebrating those triumphs?
This year I have had the opportunity to play more golf! In addition to my weekly ladies league, I had indoor golf leagues, and multiple charity golf events that I played in. In the spring of 2024, I set out two main goals for myself (1) to improve my putting and (2) break 100 on a more regular basis. How did this go? Well, after increasing my time that I dedicate to practice putting & attending a putting clinic, I have improved and reduced my three-putts! For overall scoring, I usually play 9 holes so I broke 50 many times. Not every week but more weeks than last year! My overall scoring was much more consistent than last year where I bounced from 50 to 60+ week to week.
Ask yourself: did you have any goal or idea in mind for yourself for 2024? If so, reflect for yourself - how are you doing versus that goal?
Maybe you didn’t have a specific goal in mind but just had ideas of what you wanted to do or try this year, even if it’s not golf related. Did you take action? Don’t ask yourself this in a judge-y way. Be gentle with yourself! It’s simply an opportunity to reflect & reset.
2. Brainstorm what could be possible
If you’re like me, the changing seasons can completely throw off your rhythm. I hold all of my goals loosely because life demands a lot - whether it’s work, parenting, being there for your friends, being there for your partner - and as long as I’m doing that which is most important, spending time with those who are most important to me, etc, I count that as success.
So if you have been reflecting and feeling like OMG I’m way off track where I wanted to be - don’t worry! Now is the PERFECT time to reset. Get clear on what is most important. I like to set my goals with respect to the roles that I play - mom, friend, partner, my role as a leader in career, my role as a daughter/sister/aunt. But I think often we are so focused on serving others, that we forget to set goals for our own personal development. As you reflect on what life has been like for you this year, brainstorm what could be possible for YOU going forward. Look at your daily and weekly routines - what is there room for? what could be possible? What can you do for YOU? What do you want for YOURSELF?
Reflect on how you are doing in general - how are you feeling physically? Mentally? Energetically? Dig deep and allow yourself to hone in on what you truly want. How do you WANT to feel? Allow yourself to dream without thinking about all the reasons why you can’t achieve that dream.
3. Write down your goals!
Check this out: people who write down their goals are 1.2 to 1.4 times more likely to follow through on that goal compared to those that don’t write down their goals.
Write down your aspiration. Write it down, visualize it, imagine it. Let yourself dream and get it out of your head and onto paper.
Then ask yourself, can you commit to this for the next 3 months? Does that sound like too much? How about committing for just the next few weeks? What is a challenge that you can give yourself and actually follow-through and show up for yourself?
What can you eliminate or STOP doing that could free up time for you to meet a goal that you have? What could you do to PIVOT time that you are already spending and put that towards this goal? Is there a friend or partner who will help you get where you want to go?
The simple step of writing down your goals helps tremendously in working towards them. Every month, at the start of the month, in my journal I copy over the goals that I set for the previous month and edit them for what I want this month. Just that act of writing them helps me feel centered and much less frazzled - I have taken the time to reflect, brainstorm and commit to paper what I WANT. Maybe I don’t get there, but at least I have set intentions.
In the start of 2024, I learned a lot about the benefits of journaling and decided to take it seriously. It has been so helpful, I definitely recommend it. I am not hard on myself if I don’t do it everyday, but I do it MOST days.
4. Take small steps - they’ll add up to big results
OK so now that you have written down your goals, how can you break them down into smaller pieces to help you conquer them?
What is one small step you can take to get close to meeting those goals? Is there a course you can sign up for? Is there a program you can join?
Small gains layer on top of one another over time and lead to HUGE gains. Progress - not perfection.
For example, to improve my putting I committed to showing up a few minutes early to roll putts on the putting green before golf. Playing in the weekly league, it’s easy to feel like I don’t need to warmup or practice putting because it’s the same 9 holes alternating every 2 weeks. But this year I really wanted to improve in that area, so just practicing putting for 5-10 minutes per week prior to teeing off really helped me!
The key is to break your longer term goal up into bite size pieces.
5. Repeat the process!
At the Pink Ribbon Rally in September at Blue Ash Golf Course
I like to re-evaluate my goals on a monthly basis. But maybe quarterly or yearly works better for you. The key is to keep reflecting, brainstorming, committing, and taking small steps!
Every time I turn the page to a new month in my planner, that is my signal to restart this process. Over time you are moving in a the right general direction and making so much progress.
Don’t worry about perfection: the key is to just get started
Do what you can when you can. Don’t be hard on yourself for not being perfect, or for not meeting a goal that you set. Be kind to yourself! Be gentle. Going through this process you can continually renew, refresh and reset. It’s always a good time to do that, but now is an especially good time as we are in this lull before the holidays. I hope this has been helpful for you! What do you think about this process? Do you use this? Do you have goals that you are setting for yourself? Let me know in the comments or send me a DM!
