Ideally, many of our goals are a reflection of our long-term vision. They are clarified steps on how to achieve the life that we want and they’re tangible evidence of our dreams. It is imperative that we stick to our goals consistently and persistently enough to make them happen.
But as life goes on and changes, we can fall into the trap of simply accepting everything that comes our way. Growth enables us to change interests, evolve as individuals, and if necessary or desirable to even change our goals in life. It is important to “stick to your goals and stay flexible with your methods” while ever your vision for your life is still the same.
Life is infinitely full of growth and we must accept and allow change to happen as it comes. There are instances when it is acceptable and even desirable to change our goals in life. But, there’s a great difference between giving up on a goal because it gets too challenging, and changing our goals as a result of personal growth and coming to a realization of what is more valuable for us.
Many young people set goals for themselves to achieve, and realize later on that they’ve evolved into someone completely different from who they were in the past. We can’t avoid the possibility that some of us will create goals due to external pressures, such as influence from our families, friends, and society.
Because nothing in life is permanent, not even our long-term vision, it is best to live our lives as authentically as possible. We could only do this by allowing growth and change to occur, and modifying our goals as needed.
If you ever wonder if it’s acceptable to change your goals in life, it certainly is. Under certain circumstances, changing goals is a better thing to do for yourself and your life. Our goals can change by default. As children, we may have dreamed dreams and created goals that we esteemed highly, yet allowed the idea to dissipate from our mind because they didn’t matter to us as much as we once thought they did. This is how a goal changes by default.
There are also goals that we change deliberately out of realizations that unsettle us. In pursuing goals, we need to consistently evaluate ourselves and track our progress to make sure our goals are still aligned with our vision.
What Do You Do When a Change of Goal Hits You?
Accept that Change is Okay and You Need It
A change in your goals may arrive as a necessity for various reasons. You may no longer be motivated by your present goals, no matter how important they seemed to you previously. Or your goals could change because you are not effective and don’t feel like your best self in the pursuit of it.
Whatever the impetus for change, you need to know that changing your goals once and for all is acceptable. You need to be able to accept it yourself, so you can get rid of unnecessary negativity or limitations that could be holding you back from moving forward.
Allow Enough Time to Rediscover Your New Path
Change is on the horizon and it will not be easy at first. As Socrates once said very wisely, “The secret of change is to focus not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” Give yourself the time and space to let go of what didn’t work in the past, to regroup and compose yourself, and finally, to discover a path that has opened up for you to explore.
This is your future now, let go of what didn’t work but learn from it too. Then do everything you can to focus on the present moment; this is the new path to your future.
Work on Your New Goals
Take time to make the changes, but don’t take too much time holding on to what’s now gone. You’ve decided to change your goal, and it must be for a reason. It’s time to put your focus on the new goal that is in front of you. Allow yourself to reset your goals, make sure they’re clear and that they’re valuable enough to move you forward. With a new goal ahead of you, take consistent action every day until you make these things happen.
There are many times when it is acceptable to change goals in life and not consider it to be quitting. It could happen to us by default, or it could change through redesign and through redirection in life. As long as our goals remain relevant and deeply valuable to us, then we are still on the right track towards working on our success and allowing our dreams to unfold as they should.
Always remember what C.S. Lewis once said about changing our goals and dreams in life:
You are never too old to set another goal, or to dream a new dream.”
– C. S. Lewis
