How to Use 90-Day Challenges to Crush Your Goals
Are you a goal achiever? Or does it seem like you are always setting goals you never reach?
Do you feel like you are always on a hamster wheel chasing your dreams, but never truly get anywhere?
It’s time to change. It’s time to make things happen.
A 90-day challenge can make the difference. A 90-day challenge is the piece of the puzzle you have been missing. Imagine how different you will feel if you create a 90-day challenge and finally reach your goals.
What is a 90-day Challenge?
A 90-day challenge is a simple plan defining the actions you plan to take over 90 days to advance specific goals. A 90-day challenge could also be designed as a 90-day action plan or 90-day goal plan.
Why focus on 90-days?
When you set a 90-day goal, 90 days gives you a long enough period of time to make significant progress toward your goal, yet not so long that you get bored with the goal or project.
Using a 90-day focus will allow you to set achievable goals, but not overwhelming goals.
I have noticed one of the reasons I frequently don’t reach my goals is because I set goals that are too big or will take too long to reach.
A better approach to goal setting is to set smaller goals with a 90-day plan, these smaller 90-day goals allow you to make progress toward your goals.
How to set a 90-day challenge to reach your goals?
Brainstorm possible goals
To start the process of creating a 90-day goal plan, you need to brainstorm some possible goals. Write down all your plans and goals.
Spend about 30 minutes doing a complete brain dump including all your ideas big and small.
If you like, you can include ideas within categories like fitness/health goals, business/professional goals, personal goals, family goals, financial goals and more.
Sort your ideas
Once you have an exhaustive list, start sorting the ideas into long-term goals (goals that require 6 months to a year or longer to complete) and short-term goals that can be done in 90-days.
You don’t need to pick your 90-day goals yet, just decide which ones can be completed in 90 days and which one will need to be broken into multiple 90-day steps.
Define your 90-day goals
From the list of long-term goals, break these goals into smaller steps.
For example, if you have a goal to lose 100 pounds this year, then a 90-day goal would be to lose 25 pounds (or 8 pounds a month).
You will want to include one to three of these long-term goals on your 90-day plan so you will be working toward your 1-year goals as you work on your 90-day goals.
Additionally, if you have some goals that can be completed within 90-days and are done, you will also want to consider these goals for your 90-day plan.
Pick your goals
At this point, your list should have a mixture of goals that are short-term and will be complete within 90-days and some goals that are long term and require additional steps or 90-day challenges.
I suggest selecting a few short goals (so you get the small wins) and a few goals that move your longer-term goals forward, too.
How many goals should you have on your 90-day plan?
That depends on how much time each one will take and how much time you realistically have to devote to each goal.
If you know that every goal on the list requires at least 1 hour 2 times a week and you only have 1 hour once a week, then you will need to refine your list of goals.
One of the biggest reasons we fail at goals is that we don’t allocate enough time to complete them. I struggle constantly with accepting my own time challenges and that’s why I become so frustrated with goals and challenges.
When we become frustrated because we don’t reach our goals, many times we just quit.
But, if we realistically set goals and accept our time limitations, we are more likely to focus and achieve the goals and challenges we do accept.
How to start your 90-day challenge?
Now, that you have chosen your goals, grab a calendar and mark off the next 90 days. You can make 90 days from today your end day.
Start writing your goals on the calendar. Some goal tasks will be repeated each week, some goals will have specific action steps that lead you to complete the goal in 90-days.
If needed, take some time and map out how you will reach each goal.
It’s usually best to plan time to work on each goal each week. I don’t recommend waiting until the last month to do all the work and it’s also hard to reach your goals if you work on one for a week then stop, then start again the next week, then stop. The stop and go progress usually does not work.
One last tip as you start your 90-day journey, be sure you have the right mindset. You need to be determined you will complete the goals and stay focused on your 90-day challenge. Remember it’s just 90-days.
Once you complete your first 90-day challenge and reach your goals, create a new 90-day challenge with updated goals. Add the next step for your long-term goals and add a few short-term goals, too.
When you look back after a year of completing four 90-day challenges, you might be surprised by how much you achieve.
Don’t wait. Get started now. Click here for the Smart Mom Goal Setting Bundle which includes the Smart Focus Planner and Smart Mom Monthly Goal Planner that will help you define and achieve your goals.
What goals will you achieve in 90-days?
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