Goals
Hello, Dear Ones,
Last week, I did a self-coaching writing session to see where I am and evaluate what I want to accomplish by the end of the year. It felt refreshing to get that clarity and break things down clearly into smaller bite-size goals.
I absolutely love creating goals. This is not something I could have said a few years ago, but learning how to make goals in a way that felt good to me made all the difference in the world.
We are almost here at the time of Halloween, and I know that in the next few weeks, life is going to be pretty busy, prepping for holidays and all of the things that go with that. Taking some time to mindfully transition into the last two months of the year felt important to me.
I thought in this letter to you all, I would share a bit of my process of setting goals to give you some ideas that could be fun to experiment with. As always, you know what works best for you! So take what works and leave what doesn’t. And a gentle reminder to begin, that we don’t always need to have structured goals in our lives. I find them helpful in certain circumstances, but that may not be where you are and that is perfectly ok!
When I want to create goals, it is an intention filled process. The first and most important step (so often overlooked!) is envisioning the possibilities of what you want this part of your life to look like. This could be focused on one area like well-being, work, your home, relationships, or your life in general.
There are several ways to connect with your vision, and you may use several of these at different times. Some of my favorites are:
Journaling to prompts
Doing a visualization exercise
Creating a vision board
Talking it through with a coach
Discussing your vision with a loved one
I have personally used all of these (see vision board pic above) and have found each to be valuable at different times. This most recent time, I was writing to prompts I was giving myself. If you’ve never connected with what your vision is for your life before, first, know you’re not alone! Also know that it may be helpful to combine a couple of these tools, like listening to a visualization audio exercise and then journaling, discussing, or vision board after you’re done to bring more clarity to your vision.
Connecting with your overall vision can provide a powerful overview of your desired big picture. For me, it’s like looking at the puzzle box with the completed image. It gives me that sense of what I want the finished product to look like so that I can go back and find the right pieces to get me there.
Once I have my vision clear in my mind. I think about what’s different and what’s the same between my current circumstances and that big picture I’ve captured. By figuring out the differences and similarities, I can understand what’s currently working well for me, and what areas I could focus on to change or grow. This leads me to my long-term goals.
Long-term goals are typically goals that will take a longer period of time, up to 6 months or more. I think of them like the umbrella goals – kind of overarching and clearly connected to my vision. Once my long-term goals are clear, I can move on to my short-term goals.
Short-term goals are just that, quickly accomplished and small ways of working toward my long-term goals. In my work as a coach, I’ve found that this timeframe can vary from person to person, but those with the most success break their goals into bite-size quick-to-be-accomplished short-term goals so that they can see success building quickly, which helps us stay motivated.
Personally, I like to formulate small short-term goals that I revisit about every 2-4 weeks. This helps me stay on track, and I make small adjustments as I need to.
One small note about goals is that it can be tempting to start making tons of small goals for ourselves. And while I love the enthusiasm from myself and my clients when we get to this part, it’s important to keep it simple and start small to build success. Pick maybe two or three goals to start (or less!), and then, once you get into a groove of knocking those out of the park, you can add in more if it feels right to you.
When you can, keep your goals SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound). Think about how you are going to accomplish your goal. How will you know when you’ve met your goal? And what timeframe feels ok for you to accomplish this goal?
I hope this brief overview on creating goals has been helpful for you. If you’d like to talk more about my process, or work together to find a way to set goals that works for you, I’d love to connect. You can find me here.
I am so grateful for your time and presence here. Feel free to share this with a friend if you think they’d find it helpful!
With love and kindness,
Jessica
If you felt this was helpful and would like to support my work, you can buy me a coffee here!
P.S.
The fun thing I am doing to care for myself right now is playing around with shifting my mindset to notice more of what is going well in my life. Our brain naturally is drawn to what is going wrong, and I am trying to retrain my brain :) So at the end of each day, I will think about three things that went well during the day, and what specifically enabled them or helped them to go so well. If you notice your brain is drawn naturally toward what’s wrong rather than what’s right, join me for this fun experiment!
