Month: January 2022

Categories
Career Coaching

Goal Setting – What Matters Most In Your Life?

goal setting in a planner
  • What would you do if you only had 10 years left to live?
  • How about 5 years?
  • What if you only had 1 year?

This goal setting exercise was given to me several years ago. It really made an impact.

I think it was so significant for me, because 10 years ago, my husband died after only 1 week in hospital. I realised at that point, just how short life can be. Initially I was offended, I thought that it was an insensitive question to ask, given my circumstances. However, it made me reflect on what was important in my life.

We can easily go through life with goals and dreams that we put off for another day, thinking that we’ll have time. Sometimes it’s fear of failure, or even fear of success that holds us back. Sometimes it’s not having a clear plan.

9 out of 10 workers would take a pay cut if it meant having the opportunity to participate in more purposeful work. 

BetterUp

Shifting the question from ‘What would you like to be doing 10 years from now?’ to ‘What would you do if you only had 10 years to live?’ gives a sense of urgency, clarifying your thoughts.

The exercise motivated me to set clear goals and gave me a focus. I began to plan, research, set myself some deadlines and make things happen.

Using this questioning approach can help you to visualise what your priorities are. Once you’ve visualised your goals you’ll still need to plan clear steps to achieve them, but it’s a helpful tool to spark ideas.

How to set goals using this technique

By asking the time bound questions from the exercise above it can help you to think about;

  • how old you would be at that point
  • what age your children would be (if you have them)
  • how long you’ll have been in your current role
  • wider life goals, beyond work

Which can help you to think about:

  • the outcomes you’d like to have achieved
  • if you’ll have greater flexibility in terms of location, travel, working hours
  • whether you’d like to have moved onto another role
  • your work/life balance

Also reflect on the following:

  • What kind of organisation are you working in? e.g. Large Corporate, Not-for-profit, SME
  • What’s the culture like?
  • Are you working independently, or as part of a team?
  • Are you leading the team?
  • Where are you based? Home, an office, abroad?
  • What are you known for?

What next?

Once you’ve identified your goals:

  • think about how committed you are to them on a scale of 1 to 10, this will help you prioritise them
  • which milestones will get you to your goals?
  • how will you know when you’ve achieved them?
  • what might get in the way?
  • who could help you?
  • what’s the first small step which you need to take?

Without realising it, you’ll have used a SMART goal setting technique, by identifying specific goals, which are measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound.

I’d love to hear how you get on. If you’d like some help, please contact me about my coaching packages.

Following redundancy, one of my coaching clients was struggling to decide which career direction to take next. I asked how they’d like to be remembered when they retired.

They wanted their legacy to be their approach to customers. In that moment they realised that it was their greatest strength, yet it didn’t even factor on their CV. They were passionate and highly knowledgeable about customer service.

They identified organisations that they could target and actions they could take to raise their profile. 4 months later they’d secured a senior role building customer loyalty.

You might also like:

Vision Boards for when SMART goals aren’t your thing

Categories
Career Coaching Leadership coaching

Vision Boards, for when SMART goals aren’t your thing

Vision board example

There’s plenty of research which supports the S.M.A.R.T approach to developing goals. However, it’s not for everyone, so I thought I’d share some posts with alternative approaches, starting with vision boards. As a disclaimer, I’m not guaranteeing success with any of the methods I share, they’re just tools which you might like to try.

Achieving goals

There are many elements involved in successfully achieving a goal, for example;

  • Deciding on your goal
  • Thinking creatively
  • Planning how you’ll achieve it
  • Visualising the goal and the steps to reach it
  • Paying attention to/being affected by relevant cues
  • Exercising willpower or self control
  • Helpful habits
  • Monitoring progress and adapting
  • Inhibiting internal distractions (emotions)
  • Inhibiting external distractions
  • Taking action

List from Amy Brann – Neuroscience for coaches

What is a vision board?

A vision board, or action board, is a visual representation of your goals, dreams and intentions.

If you google vision boards you’ll see that there is much debate about the pro’s and con’s! So to give you a balanced view here’s some research for and against them. What there seems to be agreement about is the importance of visualising the steps needed to reach your goals, so make sure you don’t miss this bit out!

What are the benefits of using a vision board?

Sometimes coaching clients feel stuck when talking about goals. When we explore it they’re often being held back by assumptions, beliefs and the voice in their head which is saying ‘I should do x…’ Visualising their desires can help them to think creatively – they start talking about the ‘what if’s…’ Their eyes light up at the possibilities, suddenly they feel motivated to take action.

During my coach training I experimented with a vision board. This was my experience:

  • The act of creating the vision board helped me to clarify my goals and dreams
  • It acted as a visual reminder of what I was aiming for. Research into goal maintenance shows that there could be benefits in keeping a goal in mind externally, rather than relying on working memory.
  • I found it helpful to portray goals beyond my work life e.g. financial, travel, wellbeing, hobbies. It helped me to think about the intrinsic motivation behind my goals, which drove me to achieve them (the ‘why’.)
  • As mentioned above, an important step for me was focusing on elements on the board and thinking about the steps I’d need to take to achieve them (the ‘how’.)

How to create a vision board

  1. Reflect on your goals or dreams.
  2. To help you develop your vision board ideas source images, metaphors, quotes and words which reflect your goals. You might also like to portray how you want to feel.
  3. Add the images to a board, this can be a physical pin board, or a piece of card. Alternatively you might want to create your vision board digitally using Canva, Miro or Mural. Unsplash is a great website for finding images.
  4. Looking at the different elements on your board, reflect on the following:
  • How might it feel if you achieve that goal?
  • Visualise the steps you could take to achieve it, what milestones are there along the way?
  • When might you get to those milestones?
  • Who can help you?
  • What might get in the way?
  • How could you overcome it?
  • On a scale of 1 to 10 how committed are you to the goal?
  • What would move you up the scale by 1 point?
  • What’s one small step you can take tomorrow/this week/this month?

In summary, my personal experience is that vision boards can be a useful tool for unblocking thinking, enabling you to think more creatively. They can be motivating, particularly when combined with reflection on the steps that you need to take to achieve the goals.

Have you used vision boards? What’s your experience been?

Once you start working towards your goals you may face challenges which de-motivate you. You might find this blog post helpful – 5 Resilience Boosting Techniques To Help You Move Forward