What exactly are goals anyway?

Goals. Aims. Targets. Dreams. Desires. Objectives. Ambitions. Aspirations. Hopes. You get what I mean. They’re everywhere at this time of year while we start a new year and consider resolutions that we will, or won’t, keep. Call them what you want. Just thinking about them and maybe having one or two is a great start.

The best thing about personal goals is exactly that, they are totally personal. I don’t have the same goals as my friends or even my husband and I love that. What’s really important to you isn’t necessarily important to me and that’s ok.

In the simplest terms goals are somewhere to aim. You can’t say things didn’t go to plan if you didn’t have a plan in the first place, right?

Goals should be ambitious though. And if they make you feel a little bit sick then that’s good too. That means they’re meaty and challenging for you and if you achieve them it will hopefully mean things are changing in the way that you want.

So how on earth do you figure out what this exciting and ambitious yet sickness-inducing goal might be?

Well it’s time to sit back and daydream. What is that niggle in your life that you’d really like to change this year? What’s your secret ambition that you’ve never told anyone? What’s the one thing that you love doing so much that it makes you forget to eat? Try not to get caught up in the logistics of how a big goal might play out and let your mind wander…

Got something? Great. Now what?

A good litmus test for a goal is to then think about all the areas of your life that are important to you – it might be family, friends, security, home, religion, health, fitness, wellbeing, local community…the list is endless. Then ask yourself if working on this goal, this year, will have a positive effect on each of these important areas of your life, yes or no? If the answer is yes for more than half then that is telling you that this is something that is both important to you and everything you stand for.

Then check your language. Keep it positive. ‘I want to lose weight before my holiday’ is a great goal but the words are so depressing. Try reframing it. What is it you want to gain? How do you want to feel? ‘I want to feel fabulous in a swimsuit in the pool with my kids this summer’ is much more like it. Similarly ‘I want a new job’ could be ‘By September I have rebooted my career and will be playing my part in a dynamic senior leadership team’.

Now write your goal down. Anywhere. On paper. On a post it note. As a drawing. Online. At home. At work. And then tell someone who you trust and has your back.

Research shows that people who both write down and tell people about their goals are at least twice as likely to make headway than those who keep them to themselves. Coaching tools don’t work for everyone but this evidence shows that accountability, commitment and the simple act of putting pen to paper really does work.

And now put a date on it. When do you want to see this change in your life? By writing it down and putting a date on it your goal ceases to be that passing thought or dream you daren’t tell anyone about and becomes something to actually aim for. It might involve hard work, diversions and possible upsets but no one said it was going to be easy.

In case you were wondering for the last decade my big aspiration was to seek out a vocation that was a perfect fit for me and my values, where I could manage my own destiny and keep people firmly at the centre. It’s taken a while but this goal is now firmly on track.

My big goal for the next six months is to write with passion in a way that changes people’s view of the world and makes them want to take action. Let me know how this one is going.