How to set and achieve great goals

From a young age we are asked ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ or ‘where do you see yourself in five years' time?’ Pretty big questions to ask someone at any age - I’m still not sure what I will be when I grow up! And yet, when we are asked this, we are rarely given the tools to help us set those goals and put a structure in place. The good news is there are ways you can set yourself great goals and have the tools to achieve them. This article looks at how you can change your life by forming and reaching your goals.

Get ready to set your goals

Before you get to the stage of setting your goals it’s a really helpful exercise to look at where you are now. The Wheel of Life is perfect for doing this and you can find out how to complete yours in this article. When you’ve completed your Wheel of Life you can choose which area/s you’d like to improve and from that it’s time to set goals. As you set your goals use the information below to make them really great and write them down in one or two sentences. There is also a handy download at the bottom of the page for you to keep.

Positively Stated

This is super important. We need to give our brains something positive to work towards. Here’s an example...if your goal is ‘I don’t want to eat as much chocolate.’ You are telling your brain to think about chocolate. Read my article on your Reticular Activating System (RAS) to understand more about why your brain cannot process a negative. So, how can you flip that goal around? Here it is; ‘I want to eat more healthy food.’ Simple.

Resources

What resources, both internal and external, do you need to reach your goal? Resources could be physical e.g. finances, premises or a personal trainer or mental e.g. willpower, confidence or resilience. If you are not sure you have the resources to reach your goals it could be a case of placing interim goals in place to get there - more on that later. Talk to your life coach about techniques to strengthen your internal/mental resources.

Initiated and maintained by self

As much as you may need other people to help you reach your goals, due to their knowledge or expertise, you need to be totally in control of the outcomes. It’s important you stay in control of decisions which are made and have plans in place to adapt if external variables change. Your life coach is an external variable - they can help guide you but the resources have to come from within.

Ecologically sound

What are the consequences of you achieving your goal? How will it affect your life, the lives of others and your environment? It’s worth considering your personal values at this point and checking your goals are in line with them. For example, if you have decided to leave your job, how might that affect your family and the ability to pay your mortgage? Does that sit well with you?

Sensory evidence

It’s time to have some fun! How will it look, feel, smell, taste and sound when you have reached your goal? Here’s your chance to really envisage life when you get there. Look into the future - as you want it to be. This mental imaging will come in so useful later down the line. If you’re ever struggling with reaching your goal dip back into that sensory evidence to give yourself a power boost!

Time

How long will it take you to reach your goal? What interim goals can you set along the way to check you are getting there? Some goals may be fairly immediate ones, such as choosing and buying a new car. Others could take a year or more to achieve, for example buying a house and starting a family. Write yourself a timeline and mark your interim goals on.

So, you’re ready to start working towards your goals…

Having clearly set goals is a fantastic next step to getting to where you want to be in life. But it’s still not always easy to reach them without a little help. Your life coach has lots of brilliant techniques and tools to get you started and keep you moving towards your great goals, at every step of the way.

I’m always happy to have a free chat with anyone thinking about using a life coach to help reach their life goals. Just drop me an email at cadi@shinelifecoach.co.uk