What Matters Most is What You Do Next

“What matters most is what you do next.”

This statement, handwritten on a Post-it, has been stuck on my monitor for over a year now. I’m a serial planner and goal setter. I’m also a human who gets frustrated when life sidelines said plans and goals and they stop following the neat, orderly checklist to achievement in my head. Anybody else?

At the beginning of this year, I posted about resolutions and intentions and got a lot of enthusiastic thumbs up. Talking with people recently though, I’d say you’re in very good company if the commitments you made are now feeling kind of trampled.

Are your ambitious revenue goals feeling out of reach?
Is that shiny new gym membership still waiting to be used?
Have you made half as many prospecting calls as you said you would?

To all of the above, I say, “What matters most is what you do next.” The lovely thing about this statement is that it gives grace. It makes room for the inevitable and says, “It’s okay. The missteps matter, but your next step matters so much more.”

You already know that achieving goals is usually a marathon, not a sprint. Are you really going to scrap the whole plan just because your first try was a little wonky or fell a bit short? Or, are you going to use today as your new starting line? I’m betting on you to choose the latter so, as you ponder what to do next, think about what you can learn from the curveballs. Setbacks feel less sucky when you can suck something good out of them. Use the lessons to do better moving forward, because moving forward – even a little bit at a time – is really what counts.

If you’re already out there crushing all your goals, congratulations and go you!!! But if you’re somewhere on the other end of the spectrum, shake the dust off, revise your plan, and step into what’s next.