Much has been written over the years as to how to achieve goals. One piece of advice, which I’ve read many time, is that we should write our goals down, which very few people do. Others recommend a S.M.A.R.T. goals approach. This acronym suggests that goals be: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and a time frame should be set.
I’m sure these approaches work for many people, but the fact is they don’t work for everyone and I personally find this approaches limiting. Whenever I choose a specific goal for myself, I ask myself four questions.
1. What makes me happy?
Many people mistakenly pursue a goal that that have chosen intellectually, and then when they achieve that goal they often discover that it didn’t make them happy. So, the very first thing you need to do is to let your heart guide you.
If you don’t already know what makes you happy, then ask yourself this question over a four week period. During that time take note of any times throughout your day when you feel happy or contented. What happened to make you feel that way? Did you enjoy the company of a friend, is it that you feel on top of things, did you participate in an activity you enjoyed? Your answers will be varied, that’s good. What you are really asking yourself is, What are my needs. When you’ve completed this task, assign a value to each of the items on your list and you’ll have a list of needs/desires that you need to create.
You can find out what makes you happy at work by doing my free ecourse Love Your Work.
2. Who do I need to be?
Once you’ve chosen what you really want then you need to decide on who you need to be in order to achieve that goal. Do you need to be resourceful, innovative, powerful or courageous? There are a vast array of values that you could choose to adopt to help you create what you want.
Having chosen who you need to be you then need to act that way. Let’s assume you want to be successful in business. How could you be more innovative so that your potential customers would prefer to do business with you? If you need to be more courageous, what do you specifically need to do to create the business that you want?
3. What do I need to do?
If you’ve ever studied the habits of successful people you will find the one trait they all share is that they are proactive. What can you do now? Do you need to tell people you are in business? Do you need advice? Do you need the help of a life coach/mentor to help you stay on track?
Remember, it’s possible for you to wake up every day and Love Your Work and your life.
Anne Hartley is a life coach and author of several books including Love The Life Your Live and Love Your Money. Anne offers free book extracts, free newsletter and a free ecourse at http://www.hartlifecoaching.com.au
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