PIVOTING: A 3 Step Process to End Self-Sabotage and Maximize Progress

If you’ve stumbled across this page I can only assume that, like myself, you’re a woman in the habit of setting goals and you likely put a lot of pressure on yourself to achieve them. 

So much so that you tend to beat yourself up or feel like a failure any time things don’t go as planned and you fall short of the high expectations you’ve set for yourself. 

And whenever that inevitably happens, because let’s be honest, it is extremely rare to set a goal and have everything go according to plan, you either: 

A) Stay the course, tell yourself that all you need to do is dig a little deeper and that no matter how frustrated and burnt out you feel or how much your quality of life starts to suffer you HAVE to stick to the plan.

OR

B) Decide that you’re simply incapable of achieving the goal, shut down and end up quitting altogether.

As a fellow goal setting, over achieving, perfectionist - I GET IT. 

Over the years I’ve set all kinds of goals for myself; weight loss goals, strength training goals, running goals, business goals, financial goals. 

Any kind of goal you can think of, I’ve set it, and there were many times I took the, “Dig deep and suffer,” approach and when that didn’t work I took the, “This isn’t in the realm of what I’m capable of, time to give up,” approach. 

Neither strategy was helpful and made it nearly impossible to achieve anything. 

And it wasn’t until I took some advice from my dear friend Ross and learned how to PIVOT that I made any kind of meaningful progress towards my goals. 

So, what does it mean to pivot and how can YOU use this technique to stop driving yourself into the ground or giving up every time you set a new goal?

When it comes to your goals, pivoting involves taking a step back, evaluating what isn’t working for you anymore, regrouping and finding a different way forward.

What can that look like when applied?

Let’s walk through a goal that I recently set for myself and how I used this technique to avoid burning out or giving up altogether.

My overall goal for the past 4 years has been to gradually improve my physique while also living a balanced lifestyle. To build a strong, sexy, and toned body, while also being able to eat foods I love and make memories with the people I care about. 

This has involved setting and working towards smaller goals and many phases of dieting, reversing and maintaining. After spending 7–8 months at maintenance from August 2023 - April 2024 I decided to start a deficit at the beginning of May with a goal to have a bit more definition for summer. 

I originally intended to be in the deficit for 10-12 weeks and decided to change course and get back up to maintenance after 6 due to struggling to adhere to the plan.

Prior to making that decision I was extremely frustrated with myself because as a coach, and someone who has been through dieting phases before, I know I can be adherent when I want to. While struggling, I kept telling myself that all I needed to do was suck it up, dig deep and buckle down and I would achieve the results I wanted. 

And after thinking THAT very thought, I took a step back and asked myself if that's what I really wanted to do or if it would be more helpful to PIVOT and find a different way to move forward that would still align my OVERALL goal of improving my physique while living a balanced life. 

So, that’s STEP 1. 

Having an HONEST conversation with yourself and identifying how it is you are feeling and what it is you are struggling with. 

Start by asking yourself questions like:

• Are you willing to do what is needed to reach that goal? 

• Are you feeling burnt out? 

• Are you mentally and physically exhausted? 

• Is your approach too extreme? 

• Do you no longer feel aligned with the specific goal in general? 

• Are your expectations unrealistic? 

As it pertains to my particular goal, I realized that losing fat was not as much of a priority to me as I originally thought and I was not willing to do what was needed to achieve that goal.

And once I realized that I moved on to STEP 2:

Regrouping and coming up with a new plan that would allow me to continue to move forward in a meaningful way. 

For you, this could look like: 

Moving forward with the same goals but slightly changing protocols or using a less extreme approach altogether. 

OR

Setting new goals that are more aligned with your current priorities and coming up with a plan that reflects those.

In my case, I decided to move forward with a plan that was more aligned with my current priorities, but would still help me to achieve my overall goal of building a strong, sexy physique. 

Which simply involved getting back up to maintenance to focus on building muscle, hitting new PR’s, fueling my body well and having a little more flexibility with food.

So, instead of just throwing in the towel on the deficit, calling myself a failure, and believing that the body of my dreams is just not in the cards for me, I found a way to adjust my plan and move forward in a way that would allow me to continue improving my body composition without being in a deficit right now. 

And I have committed to that decision. 

Which is STEP 3:

Committing to the pivot and not keeping one foot in your old plan and one foot in the new. 

If you try to do that, you’ll find yourself going in circles, and even more frustrated than you were previously. 

So, alter the plan and stick to it. 

If you find that after 4-6 weeks you need to pivot again then do so. 

Taking this approach vs. the extreme options of forcing yourself to either stick to the plan no matter what or giving up at the first sign of struggle will help you consistently move forward and make meaningful progress towards your goals over time. 

So, the next time you find yourself in a situation in which you are struggling to adhere to the plan you originally laid out for yourself, channel your inner Ross and PIVOT.

There’s always a path forward, and you’re not a failure for wanting or needing to change course.