Normally there are a few times when people are serious about their goals:

When they are trying to lose weight (I am talking about the serious guys n gals)

When they are trying to write an exam (you know a 6 month effort can impact your NEXT 60 years!)

When they are trying to meet a financial goal (need to make a down payment to buy a house in 6 months)

One very important thing with goals is to get a little realistic with your goals. Also some tactical changes are necessary from time to time with the goals.

Let us say a kid has a goal of preparing for an exam. He / she knows that ‘Diwali week’ or ‘marriage week’ or ‘Christmas week’ – can be very demanding on the reading time. It is necessary to adjust ones goal for that week accordingly. Let us say he/she studies for about 60-70 hrs a week. It is necessary to say ‘because there is a marriage in the family and many guests may come home, I will go to the college library and study’ or say “I will do subjects like accountancy or costing – so that there need not be too much of concentration …as some other subjects may require”. Or say ‘this will be a light week, where I will revise what I have done in the past”.

Using one week as a part recovery week in a study of say 8-9 weeks is not so bad after all.

Now you could do a similar thing with your diet also. Tell yourself..I wanted to reduce 6kgs in 12 weeks..HOWEVER instead of trying to lose HALF a kilo every week,…in the ‘Marriage’ week, I would be happy to hold my weight constant, and I will work on my weight from next week.

And similarly for financial goals. “This month is my sister’s wedding…so I will not be able to spare money for my SIP’…

THESE are just examples…but I am sure you get the drift…