Welcome back everyone,
I hope 2010 has started well for you and you have had some time to reflect and distill new resolutions, goals and plans for the year.
I had quite a bit of thinking to do, but with the help of my own mentor-coaches and with all the physical, mental and emotional cleansing before Christmas, I was in a good place to crystallize my core ambitions for the year. I allowed myself to go beyond “traditional” goals and connect to my larger purpose and vision and in this blog I would like to share how this happened:
Enriching the Goals
After critical questions by my mentor-coach about my goals, I came up with a revised list that separated GOALS and PROJECTS with attached timelines, preliminary strategies how to get there and measures (evidence that lets me know when I have achieved my goals).
You may be wondering what questions my mentor-coach had asked that prompted me to revise my plans. Quite simply, she challenged me to think about:
a.Whether my plans really “excite” me? And if not (and obviously some of my plans did NOT excite me…), how could I integrate new options that DID excite me?
b.What kind of markets, people, environments and results if achieved would charge me up?
c.In which ways could I transform and re-design my existing plans to include options that showcase “who I am” and “what I truly want to achieve” (my essence) by working with people?
You can imagine, while I knew she was right about going back to the drawing board, I was not quite thrilled that my core essence was still not reflected in my plans and I had to dig deeper again.
I was cracking my head for a few days and then I sat down with my partner over two sessions to go through all the goals again. After discussions and sharing’s, I decided to enrich my goal list with special projects that require more intense work, but are ultimately what am looking for. The key for me was to balance business goals that are necessary at this stage (to also be financially stable) with knowledge-building, developmental and creative goals that may not bring immediate results, yet set me on the right track towards my long-term vision.
Cognitively this may seem obvious, but in reality, standing in the midst of your own plans, it is like “not seeing the wood for the trees”, you can get so caught up in the details, that you are missing the bigger picture.
Connecting with Essence and Purpose
Part of the bigger picture is also about knowing the ultimate reason, the driver, and the purpose of why you are committed to achieving certain things. For me personally, it has always been important to be aware of my purpose as it has given my life and actions meaning. I generally have a strong desire to understand how my intentions and actions today fit into the overall puzzle of my life. This awareness allows me to make more conscious choices in the present that will ultimately influence the future (think of cause & effect or KARMA).
Having said that, it did take a long time and consistent efforts, learning’s and reflections, to find that purpose inside of me and take the courage to show it to the world through my work and way of being (one of the reasons why I set-up Flow & Balance).
While I had articulated my purpose as part of my “Personal Strategic Plan (PSP)” in 2008, something was missing looking at my plans and new identity as a Holistic Coach in 2010. And as the universe always provides the right resources at the right time, I had the privilege to have a coaching call by my other mentor-coach. In this conversation, we addressed some of my concerns regarding my own expectations, style and standards I put upon myself when coaching people. As we progressed through this intimate verbal dance, four fundamental insights for me were reinforced:
1.One of my core values is to “make a difference for people” and I have chosen Holistic Coaching as my vehicle to do this.
2.My ultimate purpose is to “awaken people” – it is about empowering people to understand who they are, what they are here to do and what they want to create, how they use their talents & gifts to live a life with purpose and meaning, in flow & balance and with spiritual guidance.
3.I commit myself to embrace and be guided by this purpose in all my coaching conversation with clients and interactions with people in my life.
4.The coaching style I adopt expresses my natural strengths where I leverage and blend rational (being an Expert & Challenger) with emotional (being a Counsellor and Supporter) capabilities to facilitate holistic transformation for people.
You see, suddenly the pieces fit together as I crystallized not only:
•WHAT I want to do and how I measure it – my goals & projects
•But also WHY these are important to me – connecting to my vision, purpose & values
•And commit myself to principles of HOW I am going to do it – my natural strengths & coaching style (and purpose)
Visualizing and Manifesting
As many of you may know, in my article on Goal-setting which was published in Today’s Manager Magazine (Dec / Jan 2010 – you can also download it if you go to articles at http://www.inflowandbalance.com/free-resources.html) and my 1st Newsletter in Nov 2009, I emphasize the importance of daily goal visualization. It is so important, because by doing it we send messages to our subconscious mind to attract the resources and situations we need to manifest our goals (see also previous blog entries on the power of the subconscious mind).
One good way of doing it is to create a Vision Board. And it happened that my friend and neighbour, Martha Lee (www.eroscoaching.com) was conducting a Vision Board Workshop last Friday which I attended. Having gone through my rigorous goal alignment and purpose-connection process, I figured this was the last puzzle piece I needed for making my goals come alive. In addition, I also believe in walking the talk – if I emphasize it for clients, I better make sure I am doing it myself!
It was really a creative exercise where you design a collage by cutting out pictures that represent your goals from magazines and newspapers and glue them onto a board. As Martha highlighted, it is actually important to “glue” or fix the images permanently onto the board to reinforce our commitments towards the goals. If we do not do it, we may be tempted to switch goals around or replace them all together which is like “backing-off”.
You can see my Masterpiece as picture in this blog.
Take Away’s
You might be wondering why I am sharing my process and outcomes of the goal-setting in such detail. One thing I realized about myself and this blog writing is that I never start off with having clear key objectives of the blog entry in mind, but rather let a story unfold. While you are certainly encouraged to pick up the messages relevant for you, allow me to give you some pointers that I deem important:
•The goal-setting process in a beginning of the year is essential if you are committed to progress and manifest your true desires for the year or subsequent years.
•Goal-setting is not only a rational exercise or a listing of “to do’s”, it needs to connect to your larger vision, purpose, direction and values in life. This enables you to come up with meaningful actions and plans that serve your long-term and short-term goals and provides positive impact on the environment and other people.
•If you set goals, think about the principles of a fulfilled life: “I am fulfilled and happy if that what I set out to do and to achieve is:
oFitted to my personality (who am I)
oFulfils my personal needs (not necessarily WANTS) (what do I need)
oGives me direction (where do I want to go)”
•Get some support – go to your partner, friend or hire a Coach. It is easy to get lost in the details and delude yourself of what is really important to you. Sometimes the very things we truly desire do not appear on our goal lists, because these are the things we are most afraid of. The things we THINK we can’t accomplish anyways. Allow someone to challenge, encourage and support you!!!
I am planning of giving a Talk on “Purposeful Goal-setting” in the 1st quarter as part of a Health Series, What Therapy (www.whattherapy.com) is organizing. If you are interested, watch out for my February Newsletter. I am also offering goal-setting sessions at a discounted rate of S$80/hour for Jan / Feb 2010 (http://www.inflowandbalance.com/promotions.html).
Wishing you clarity, focus and joy as you embark on making your goals a reality in 2010!
In gratitude,
Vanessa
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