Achieving Goals

Regaining a sense of control over my life beats being a helpless victim. Start by pacing your day / week to reduce the likelihood of overdoing things and having a set back. Rushing round all morning then collapsing in an exhausted heap is not pacing.
Do you need to do all the tasks that drain your energy? I agree with Shirley Conran, 'Life is too short to stuff a mushroom.' Forget it, delegate it or do it with a smile.
Pacing can be used to increase your tolerance of an activity or help you to change unwanted habits. Pacing requires patience - small advances mount up quicker than one big step forward and two steps back. I could only walk on the beach for 5 minutes By increasing at a rate of 1 minute a week, I built up to 30 minutes Improvements are rarely smooth, there will be times of steady improvement, plateaus and occasional dips on the way to your goal.
Distrust anyone who suggests that pacing is easy. With practice you can learn to listen to your body, recognise the warning signals and identify causes for setbacks. Setbacks are an inevitable consequence of testing your boundaries rather than a cause for despair.
If you really want to do something, you will find a way to do it and deal with any adverse consequences. Try replacing 'I can't …' with 'How could I …'. It got me as far as Australia despite having a wheelchair and needing a gluten and dairy free diet.

How could you enrich your life? The most motivating goals are those aimed at making life more enjoyable. Simply having a goal helps my motivation. All too often goals, like New Year resolutions, deal with stopping an enjoyable activity e.g. stopping smoking or going on a diet.
Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, long-term - you can have goals for every aspect of your life
Smart goals are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and have a time-scale. My major goals are divided into steps that are within my capability and tolerance levels. I pace up my exercise schedule to increase my fitness and pace down the comfort eating to maintain my waistline.
Do you have control over your goal? We cannot control fluctuations in our weight but we can control our diet and level of exercise. Goals to eat less and exercise more may achieve the desired outcome of losing weight.
Are your goals like an ancient tree that blows down in a gale or flexible like a sapling?

Reviewing my goals highlights how much I've achieved and helps me to focus on the ones where I haven't made progress.
No progress? - is there a real excuse? - is it the right goal for you? - is the time-scale over-optimistic? - are the steps too daunting? - or do you have too many goals?

Setbacks are proof that you're exploring your boundaries.
I know what I can no longer do. Trying things I didn't think I could do has led to pleasant surprises. When I joined a creative writing course I never imagined I would love writing, set up a website, write magazine articles and write a book about my adventures down under.
What are your current limitations? Have you tested them recently to see if they're self-imposed? Are there limitations you're not admitting to and suffering the consequences in terms of setbacks?