Ooh, now we get into the specific template I use for each specific goal– and I have a lot of fun with this. I like to get creative, use colors, pictures, all the things to make this fun. Remember to get yourself into a good state of mind – go for a walk,
If you haven’t checked out my first blog on this 3-part series, check it out here.
So here goes.
Goal: State the goal in bold, color, with stickers or whatever makes it fun for you, on the header of the page. Either hand-written or online, it doesn’t matter. Remember to use the SMART format.
Value: Identify which value this align to and why is this important to you. I pick from my list or if it doesn’t seem to align, I take a deeper look at why. Perhaps my values are changing. Oh, and, “I just want to,” is a perfectly fine reason to do something.
Action Plan and Steps: This section gets updated until the goal is complete. Decide ahead of time how often you want to review your progress and update your list of actions. I’ve found it works best to do this on some recurring interval depending on the length of your goal. Once a day, week, month, or quarter is typical. Schedule it and keep the appointment as if you had committed to meeting with a friend. To start, write the steps you know right now that you need to take towards achieving your goal. Sometimes this means you a task is to schedule time to plan, or to do research. Be sure to create a deadline for yourself for each task. If the task seems overwhelming or too big, break it down in to smaller and smaller chunks. Most important – TAKE ACTION, and do NOT be afraid to fail. If something doesn’t go the way you intended, do not use that as an excuse to give up. See what you can learn and then take more action as quickly as possible.
- Do thing one on this date/time.
- Do thing two on this date/time.
- Etc.
Challenges/Assumptions: What might get in the way of you achieving this goal and how are you going to handle that? Assumptions can be sneaky because we often have underlying thoughts that in order for us to achieve something another thing has to be in place, and if that thing goes away or changes, then we can’t complete the goal. Challenge those assumptions. Imagine the thing does go away, now what? For example, I may be going after a goal to finish college, and I have chosen to quit my job because my spouse can support us while I finish the degree. My assumption is that my spouse will have a job and be able to support us. But what happens if my spouse loses their job? Think through possible assumptions and come up with strategies ahead of time that will help you continue to make progress. I like to list these out as well.
- Challenge/Assumption 1. Plan for navigating or overcoming it.
- Etc.
Share: Find someone you can share this with, someone who will be interested in hearing about your goal and coaching you along as you progress – excellent reason to use me as your coach, by the way!
Status: At the same time you are updating the tasks to be completed, track the progress and lessons learned here. Most important here is to take time to pat yourself on the back and celebrate your progress as you go.
That’s it! Next week I’ll show you the format I use to summarize my goals for the year. Like always, I would love to coach you and up-level your life. Schedule time on my site to coach with me, and if you’d like to get periodic emails when I post a blog along with special updates from me, sign up below!