I’m not sure you can achieve success if you have no goals. Perhaps a few people accidentally stumble into it, but we all have an innate desire to be good at what we do or at least find something we can be good at. I’m open to admitting there are times in our lives where our main goal is just to get by and there’s nothing to be ashamed of by that. Sometimes things happen to us and we just need a bit of time coasting to gather our energies before we rise again, it’s fine, I’ve been there too.

Setting clear and achievable goals is one of the fundamental projects you work on when working with a business coach and there are many reasons why. They give you a purpose, something motivational to work towards, something to break down into simple steps so you can make solid progress again and again, something to celebrate when you achieve them and a concrete idea of what you want your future to look like.

Goals don’t have to be big, amazing things. They can range from something simple like “I want to procrastinate less” to something big like “I only want to work two days a week but have a full-time income”. The importance of brainstorming them, reflecting on them, writing them down, breaking them down into pieces and creating a path to ticking those pieces off until you’ve ticked them all cannot be understated. It’s a huge deal, even for little goals. Trying to do that by ourselves is manageable, but it’s all too easy to let them slide with little external encouragement or accountability. In fact, writing these words now is one of my broken-down goals that I’m ticking on my way to a bigger goal.

You shouldn’t be scared of goals. Managed in the right way by an experienced coach, they’re not an anchor and chain around your leg that you’re dragging around with you, they’re the helium balloon pulling on your hand wanting to lift you higher.

Contune the series: 2. Improve Your Motivation

Stephen