Goals can be set at any time of the year. But, the start of a new year is a great time to set your intentions and goal for the year ahead. Personally, I prefer to set mine at the beginning of the year so I have a clear focus of what to do to achieve my goal.
Before being exposed to coaching, I had a basic idea of what I wanted to do each year, but somehow, I never managed to achieve anything. When December rolled around, I wondered what happened, and felt bad for not achieving what I set out to. It was only when I started setting a specific goal, writing it out, and actively working on it, did I start accomplishing my goals.
Exercises to identify your goal
Often clients have a vague idea of what
goal they would like to set. They
know that some change is needed, but not quite sure what that needs to be. Other times, clients have a clear idea of
what they want to achieve but need guidance on how to do so. In my coaching sessions with clients, I help
them gain clarity by using a combination of two techniques.
When we go through these exercises, don’t worry about how you will
achieve the goal. The aim here is to
understand what needs to change and what will be different once the change is
complete.
Get that goal down!
Once you know what to focus on, write it down:
I encourage clients to write their goal as a paragraph rather than in a point format. This helps to create the story of the future you.
It is important to add images and quotes, make your goal attractive and real. You could even create a vision board around your goal.
Read your goal daily
Once you have written your goal down, put it up somewhere where you will see it every day.
It could be on the bathroom mirror so you read it when you brush your teeth. Set it as the background on your phone or your computer. Place it in the kitchen above the kettle or coffee machine so you can read it when you are making a cup of tea or coffee. Find a place that works for you and put your goal up, and read it every day.
We are constantly bombarded by information through our
senses and our brains filter this information automatically and without us even realising it. However, if you have something on your mind, like
the goal you read every day, your mind recognises that this is important and
allows information that relates to this to enter your consciousness.
An example of this happened to me when I decided to buy a new car after 16 years of owning my old one.
I researched options and took a certain model on a test drive. After that, every time I went out, I saw this car model EVERYWHERE! It seemed as if the roads were just filled with these cars.
It wasn’t that the car dealership got people to drive my routes to try and convince me to buy it, the cars were always there.
I just didn’t notice them before,
and now my brain wasn’t filtering them out so I noticed them more.
It’s the same with your goal. If you read your goal every day, your brain
will play a vital role behind the scenes, and you will notice and become more
aware of opportunities that will help you to achieve your goal.
Breakdown your goal
Once you are faced with what you want to achieve, you can get overwhelmed and feel daunted about how you are going to accomplish it. To overcome this, break down your goal into smaller milestones.
The milestones will act as the roadmap to achieving your goal.
In our sessions, I get clients to set 6 or more monthly milestones. These milestones should be:
- · Specific
- · Relevant to your goal (don’t go any side quests)
- · Achievable
- · Only your responsibility and within your complete control
- · Time bound – set deadlines for achieving them
Once you have your milestones, break them down even further into weekly action steps.
These action steps must be even more specific than your milestones.
We always fill our calendars and schedules with work tasks, meetings, appointments and we never schedule time for the tasks that would lead us to achieving our goals.
This means that everything else is more important than our personal
goals, and we will only get to working on our goals if we have “extra” or
“free” time. The message that you are
inadvertently giving to your self (and your brain), is that your goal is not
important. To change this, make sure
that you schedule time in your week to complete these action steps and commit
to getting them done. Book the time out
in your calendar and set reminders so that you don’t forget.
How can a life coach help
With the last 2 years being so unpredictable, take the opportunity to reflect on what you want to achieve and set your goal for 2022. This will help you to give you something to focus on and will you give direction for the year ahead. A life coach is an accountability partner. Someone who enables clear vision of what you want and how you can achieve this. Someone to assist you in not getting sucked up by lifes distractions so that you are able to achieve your goal. Someone to cheer you on when you feel like giving up.
If it sounds like you need someone like this in your life why don't you contact me for a free introductory session? Lets achieve your goals together.