You won’t always meet your goals. But that doesn’t mean giving up. When it comes to your health, I advocate for a ‘fail forward’ approach!
Have you found yourself discouraged after failing to meet a goal you set for yourself? Don’t give up! Failure is a natural part of any health journey, and no one meets every goal they set for themselves.
I teach my clients that failure isn’t the end, but a beginning–it’s the first step in creating success in your next goal. I use the ‘fail forward’ approach both with my clients and in my own life. So let’s talk about how you can ‘fail forward’ into successful goals!
Understand why you failed
The first step to overcoming the disappointment of a failed goal is to understand why you failed. Was your goal unrealistic? Did you get bogged down in procrastination? Maybe you simply didn’t take the time to map out small enough steps that would be necessary to reach your goal. Whatever the reason is, take time to ask yourself what caused the failure, and create a plan to avoid making that same mistake next time.
Address your fear of failure
Failure often leads people to stop trying completely. But why do people give up after a failure? It’s because people are afraid to fail again. That fear can come from a variety of places, but it is often an indicator of a deeper mindset issue.
It can take time to get to the root of the issue and address the deep-seated cause of your fear, and it may require a lot of work. Give yourself grace as you do this soul-searching, and take as much time as you need.
You may find that it’s time to talk to a coach or a therapist to get a professional’s support on your journey. There is no shame in this. You can always benefit from that informed perspective and guidance!
This leads us to the next part of the process: support.
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Tap into your support system
You will always find it easier to meet your goals when you are connected with a strong support system. Productivity expert Timo Kiander suggests that support is so important to successful goals that ‘accountability’ should be added to the SMART goals acronym.
Every person’s support network looks a little bit different. For some, family and friends are at the core of that network, while for others professional support is essential to success. What’s most important is that you choose your network based on your needs, and decide who will be the best support at the moment. For most people, it really does take a village!
Reevaluate and start again
If you want to ‘fail forward,’ you’ll need to assess and re-plan before you dig into your goal again. Failing forward is all about learning from your failure and using the new information to help you reach success next time.
Go back to what caused you to derail last time. What strategies can you use to prevent that from happening again? How will you use your resources–including your support network–to keep you on track?
So what does failing forward look like for your health goals?
Let’s talk about what the ‘fail forward’ model looks like when applied to your lifestyle to meet health goals.
If your goal is to increase your strength, you may have a goal to go to the gym on a set schedule. This is a common approach and often ends in people giving up when they don’t keep that schedule during the first week or month.
With the ‘fail forward’ strategy, you’ll figure out what caused your failure: Did you find that your gym planning actually didn’t work with your schedule? Planned on hitting the gym at the end of your work day, only to realize that you’re too tired at the end of the day to efficiently work out? Perhaps you didn’t stick with it because you found it intimidating to work out in a gym by yourself. Or you don’t have enough experience to create a workout plan on your own. Be sure to also consider any lingering fears that may have affected your failure.
Now take that new information and turn it into a strategy to try again! Create a new schedule that works for you. Work out before work instead of after. Tap into your support network and ask a friend to be your gym buddy. Hire a personal trainer to help you learn how to workout properly and without injury. Most importantly, examine your goal to make sure you’ve set a SMART goal. Whatever you need to do, the important thing is that you use your failure as a tool for future success!
You can apply this to any goal in your life. For instance, if you find yourself ordering takeout instead of cooking PFC balanced meals at home, look at why you ordered takeout and find a way to use that knowledge in attempting your goal again! Maybe you need to streamline your meal planning and food shopping. Maybe you want to take a cooking class so you have some new ideas for recipes.
There is never a point where you have to stop trying if things don’t go according to plan. Just get up and try again! You are allowed to fail as many times as it takes to reach your goal.
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DAWN MCGEE
Dawn McGee is a certified and licensed Nutrition Evangelist and a long-time foodie, she focuses on both the health and joy of food as fuel for your body. She is a driving force in bringing education on healthy eating to more people through her community, my “Reclaim Your Life, One Bite at a Time” programs, and my book “365 Days of Healthy Living”. Her hope for you is that you live a life you love, without being hungry, feeling deprived, or giving up your glass
