Hope you enjoyed yesterday’s blog about goal setting and how understanding the what?, where?, how?, who? and why? of setting your goals can really help get to grips with them. All 5 steps this week are extracts from my “Making a Splash” workbook. If you’d like to get your hands on the full version, it’s free when you sign up to my newsletter.
Today’s post is about understanding what can sometimes get in the way of achieving your goal.
Milton Erickson was an American psychiatrist specialising in medical hypnosis and family therapy. This is a great little story by him.
“I asked a student, “How do you get from this room into that room?”
He answered, “First you stand up. Then you take a step . . .”
I stopped him and said, “Name all the possible ways you can get from this room into that room,”
He said, “You can go by running, by walking; you can go by jumping; you can go by hopping; by somersaulting. You can go out that door, go outside the house, come in another door and into the room. Or you could climb out a window if you want to . . .”
I said, “You said you would be inclusive but you made an omission, which is a major omission. I usually illustrate, first, by saying, ‘If I want to get into that room from this room, I would go out that door, take a taxi to the airport, buy a ticket to Chicago, New York, London, Rome, Athens, Hong Kong, Honolulu, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, come back by limousine and go in the back yard and then through the back gate into the back door and into that room.’ And you thought only of forward movement! You didn’t think of going in backwards, did you? And you didn’t think of crawling in.”
The story serves a purpose in demonstrating how easy it is to limit our thinking to the learned boundaries we have.
I like to think of goals as journeys. Although your goal may be the same as the next person’s, the way you will get there will be totally different.
TRY THIS
Start with the destination in mind.
Where is it you’re going to?
How will you get there?
What choices of direction will you need to make?
What stepping stones are there?
Stepping Stones are the smaller goals/stages you will need to reach in order to achieve you Splash Goal.
In a recent case study, Mark wanted to change careers. His SMART goal was to “Start my new career as a Gym Instructor by next August”
His stepping stones looked like this:
Get Fit
- Research training courses
- Save money for training course
- Negotiate hours at work
- Get practical experience
- Create CV and cover letter
- Apply to gyms
Sometimes it’s necessary to break down the stepping stones even further. In Mark’s case “getting practical experience” meant breaking it down into “getting volunteer clients”, “get work experience at local gym” and “Shadow an expert”
Carolyn Trafford is a confidence coach and speaker, if you need help creating and working towards your 2015 goals call Carolyn today on 
07714 216388 to book your free 45 minute kick start session and create the work life YOU want.
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