Goal Setting Guide | 2021
Annual Goal Setting Using The Eight Drivers of Contentment
- Professional Contentment – How content you are in your current and future career potential.
- Financial Contentment – How content you are in your current and future financial status.
- Family Contentment – How content you are in your family relationships.
- Health Contentment – How content you are in your physical and mental health.
- Leisure Contentment – How content you are with quality time spent on leisurely activities.
- Legacy Contentment – How content you are with the legacy you are leaving behind should you die today.
- Relational Contentment – How content you are with relationships built and maintained with friends and loved ones.
- Spiritual Contentment – How content you are with your spiritual life.
Good Habits Support Good Goal Results
Let good habits support good results
– The first thing to appreciate about good habits is that they must have a real resonance for you. If you’re not especially bothered about being slimmer, fitter or more successful, then that lack of enthusiasm won’t sustain you through cold dark evenings or on the tough days when your will power starts to waver. Having friends or family who are pushing you to ‘improve’ only increases your stress levels, resentment and maybe even feelings of low self-esteem. Pick good habits that feel right for you.
– Small steps are a positive way to move towards your bigger goals. Stepping-stones can help to prevent you from feeling overwhelmed at having to tackle everything all at once. Recognise each milestone you achieve; give yourself credit for enrolling in that class, not eating that cake, declining that alcoholic drink. Each decision takes you nearer to those good results.
– Stay focused, but also appreciate that sometimes other options may appear which can add value to your life. Don’t allow yourself to become too distracted from your agreed good habits but equally be ready for great opportunities that may come along. Ring-fence the time, money or mental energy you expend on distractions. Allow yourself to make the most of them and enjoy what they bring to your life, but don’t let them take you away from the big picture and your ultimate goal.
– Being accountable to others can be a great motivator. Having to check in regularly and report on your progress ensures that you keep your eye on each stage of the journey. Knowing that you’ve a regular date in the diary can quickly push temptations out of your mind.
– Joining a group and working together on shared goals can provide a good support network. Exchanging tips, advice and motivational stories can give a real boost on those tired, unenthusiastic days. And if we know our attendance is important to the group’s survival it can inspire us to continue going. Being a group member, even when it’s online, can encourage us to stick with our good habits. The downside though is that if one or two members lose their enthusiasm it can demotivate the rest.
– Sometimes paying upfront to join a club or gym pushes people to go regularly, whilst others lose interest and go only a couple of times even after paying out all that money. For me, I’ve committed to a weekly delivery of locally grown organic vegetables. It’s inspired me to eat at least one item from the box every day and it’s good to cook from scratch, eat fresh organic meals, shop local and sometimes try new things that I’ve never cooked before. Having it arrive every week means there’s no excuse to slack off from eating this healthy veg, and it’s a habit I’m pleased to maintain.
– Be aware of your vulnerable areas and put steps in place to mitigate them. So, for example, if you know that you find reasons to justify stopping at the petrol station, off licence or supermarket every day, where you then ‘accidentally’ buy chocolates, wine, cigarettes or scratch cards, intercept those times and don’t go. Instead, shop online or make a list and shop once a week. Don’t put yourself in temptation’s way.
– Using the services of a professional coach or therapist may be worth considering if you feel there are specific issues which are holding you back and which need to be addressed. Regular sessions could help you move on, introduce a positive mindset, manage stress and determine to treat yourself better.
Be gentle with yourself. It can take 2-6 months for a new habit to become your automatic default. If you experience slip ups, bad days and ‘can’t be bothered’s be kind to yourself and let them go. Remind yourself of all the good reasons you have to persist and start again, knowing that by sticking with your good habits you’ll ultimately support good results and outcomes.
Roadblocks to Goal Success
Goal setting often gets a bad rap as people have tried and been unsuccessful at setting goals. Do not despair. Try, try, try and try again. Each time you will develop a stronger discipline, focus, and skills for goal success. Here are some roadblocks people run into with their goals and some solutions to try! Keep Charging!
I don’t want to set goals, but I like results. What should I do?
Often this is from a fear. The reality is in order to set a goal; you must decide what you want. Many people prefer to leave all the options open, picking nothing, and defaulting to “life” to pick their destiny for them. Whether you resist goal setting because of a fear of failure, success, pressure, or whatever the reason, the fact remains, you cannot arrive where you have not set out to go. People who set goals have something to attain and often do. You cannot attain what you have not set. Do yourself a favor, evaluate where you want to end up, determine a viable course to get there, pick a focus and work toward it. You can always adjust or change if after several months doors are closing, but at least then you can disregard this option!
I have lots of ideas and goals, but I am overwhelmed where to start?
Often, goal-setters can set too many goals. Three SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timed) goals are about the max a human brain can really focus on. I prefer to have ONE focus statement that combines several goals. For example,
Goals:
1) Earn 5K a month by being disciplined and focused on money-making activities.
2) Refine my skills (education) and processes to hold my clients more accountable to exceed goals.
3) Grow personally, more study time, expand the family, eat better/work out, have an organized home.
Focus Statement:
I am energized to be a focused and disciplined IBO, earning 5K/mo. coaching and training ‘Movers and Shakers’ to exceed their goals, while living in integrity nurturing and advancing my faith, family, health and home.
I have goals, but don’t seem to reach them? Why?
Lack of a plan. In the book “Goals” by Brian Tracy, he tells the story about 2 desserts and how people died crossing to get from one town to another because they lost perspective in the middle of the dessert since they could not see the beginning or the end and died. To resolve the problem the town put mile markers between the cities to get travelers smaller milestones to focus on. Goals are also like this. If you do not break your big goals into milestones, it can be overwhelming to figure out how to accomplish them and it is always too big of a project to undertake and it simply never gets done. Set your focus goal, measurable goals, and milestones to allow a clear plan for goal success. I recommend that you take an annual focus goal and have monthly milestones. Read the goal and the milestones for the month daily. (i.e. if you want to increase your income, add 2 new clients this month and have a plan for attracting them.)
I have a focus goal, but I am just too busy to do anything about it. How do I get more time?
The power of passion. WHY did you set that goal? Was it a “should”? Often we set goals, like lose 25 lbs, eat better, make more money because we need to or know we SHOULD do this, but are not really motivated to make this happen. What we are passionate about will get your time and attention. Get connected to the WHY of your goal. Ask yourself “WHY does it matter?”10 times to get to the heart of it.
I have a goal, but it is not happening yet. What needs to happen?
Post in 3 spots. Read it daily. Think about the laws of attraction (www.thesecret.tv). Write what you have to do each week to make that goal more of a reality. Do not cancel yourself out with negative or self-defeating self-talk. Be positive. Look for opportunities. Assess and make sure it is measurable and know what baby steps you can be taking to move closer to it. An elephant is not meant to be eaten in one bite!
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