I know we haven’t done Christmas yet but I’m pretty sure already you may be thinking about your goals for 2017. I’m already making plans for my 2017!
Did you achieve your goals in 2016? Or is there a list of things still uncompleted?
Don’t worry life gets in the way sometimes and we can lose track of where we are headed.
For 2017 that’s not going to happen. We are going to employ new tactics.
Instead of writing a huge list of things all to be achieved in 2017, not having a clue where to start and rushing out to do everything in week 1 before getting overwhelmed and giving up at the first hurdle we are going to break things down.
In 2017 we are going to break down into 4 quarters. That way we are going to be working towards goals in 12 week periods. They can be the same or they can be a different goal that’s up to you and what you are trying to achieve.
I am going to use the Wobbleberries Challenge as an example for this. So anyone who is not familiar the Wobbleberries challenge is a group of riders who have agreed to take on the challenge of competing in a BE80 event by the end of Autumn 2017 in aid of the Willberry Charity set up by Hannah Francis. These are riders who are not currently out competing or have even not been in the saddle for some time-any of you reading this I take my hat off to you!
So, I imagine at the moment that seems like a pretty big task and you don’t know how you are going to get there.
Plan A: Panic, ride a bit, Panic you can’t do it, Ride and Panic a bit more….
Plan B: Break it down into sections of roughly 12 weeks. I think that gives you 3 sections.
Block 1 will be Jan to March. Although you will need to work backwards from you goal to make the steps once you have done that you are going to forget about them and just focus on block 1 for now.
What steps can you take in Jan to March that will help you reach your goal? Do you need to start a fitness programme for you and your horse? If you start slowly now you will both hopefully avoid injury and overwhelm giving you the best chance of succeeding.
Do you need to book some lessons with your instructor? You could also sit down with her/him and go through your 12 week blocks and put milestones along the way you can work on together.
It will really help if you have mini goals along your 12 weeks as these become you aim rather than the big goal at the end.
You may also find it useful to plan at the beginning of each week what you are going to do that week to help you reach your goal. Each week this gives you a marker to check whether you have made steps towards your goal, if you have that’s great; if not what can you do to achieve next week? This way you will never fall too far off the track.
This structure also gives you time to reflect on your progress as you go along. If you mark in your diary the 12 week blocks at the end of each one you can see how you’re getting on and review if anything needs changing. Have you reached target? If not why not? What can you do in the next 12 weeks to get back on track?
I’ve diarised to check in with you every 12 weeks next year so you will get a reminder from me too!
I’m using it to plan things in my business and my personal life next year to keep me focused for the long term goals I’ve got in mind so I’ll be with you every step of the way!
Hit reply and let me know what you want to achieve next year!