You set your New Year’s resolutions. It is now July 1. How’s those resolutions coming along?  If you lost focus on your career goal, you aren’t alone.  Many people loose site of their New Year’s Resolutions by mid-February.  Maybe other things came up for you.  Or maybe you are finding that reaching the goal was more difficult than you thought.

Were your resolutions really an opportunity to make valuable changes in your career or were they a set-up for failure?  What do you really want for yourself?

Change is complex and may take a multipronged approach.  Here are some steps to recommit yourself and make the necessary changes in your life and your career:

1.  Think about why you want to make change.  What is at the core that makes you want this change?

2.  Having too many goals causes distraction.  Define one as a top priority and give it your focus.

3.  If you set a huge goal for yourself, it may seem like a daunting task to achieve.  Break it up into smaller pieces.  Think about the first step you need to achieve to accomplish the larger goal.

4.  Instead of thinking it is “all or nothing”, reflect on what you did achieve.  Give yourself credit for it.

5.  Create a different “focus” each month.  For example, if your overall goal is to create a better life/work balance, go to the gym for 30 minutes, three times a week for the month of March.  In April, pick two evenings a week that you would like to go for walks with your partner after work.  Be creative.

Get more specific.  When you give yourself a goal with the words more, less, or better, what are you really wanting?  Quantify those words into numbers.

As a final note, most of us can’t go it alone.  Having support to keep yourself accountable is a key ingredient in making valuable change.  You still have the rest of the year to make it happen!