The 3 Little Piggies Of Goal Setting

Posted on 10 December 2007

I have a bit of a confession to make. Actually it’s a bit more than a bit of a confession it’s a lot of a confession. In fact for a Life Coach it’s a whopper of a confession. In fact speaking of whoppers, if it were indeed a hamburger it would be a 1lb double patty, bacon wrapped, cheese soaked, artery blocking heart attack inducing superburger of a confession.

 

I spend a lot of time talking to people about setting goals. As a life coach it’s kinda what I do, at least with about half my clients. Some people come to me with specific issues and aren’t really interested in goal setting and I haven’t got a problem with that. It doesn’t mean I don’t think that they should set goals just that it’s not for me to insist that they do if they see no value.

 

If you’re already jumping ahead and saying to yourself “He’s about to admit he hasn’t set himself any goals! The audacity of the man, calls himself a life coach, more like a fraud coach if you ask me. I bet he’s an alcoholic drug-taking wife-beating commie too” Go on you rascal you can admit it to me; you were thinking that, weren’t you? Well let me stop you there because I do have my own goals. Me saying I don’t have goals would be like Dr Ruth saying she thinks sex is naughty.

 

So as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted by my own overactive imagination, I have a confession. When I do goal setting using the SMARTER method I usually tie up by talking about goal statements. A goal statement to be effective needs to utilize the three P’s, which stands for Personal, Positive and Present tense. For instance I could have a goal statement of: I am a world-class loafer that sits around and thinks a lot whilst earning loads of money. ‘I am’ makes it personal to me because that is all I can influence. ‘I am’ also refers to the present tense, it doesn’t say I will be or one day I may become, it says I am right here and right now. The whole statement is also written positively, it doesn’t say I don’t want this or I want to avoid that, it focuses the mind on what I want.

 

The reason for a goal statement is to create a disconnect between what you are saying and the reality of the present situation. The reason you do this is because then the unconscious mind goes to work on bridging the gap. It doesn’t like making itself out to be a liar so it will do whatever it can to help out including (and this is the cool bit) focusing in on previously ignored or simply unseen opportunities. There is a bit more to it than that and if you are interested in knowing more do a Google search or even better hire me!

 

Ok I have put it off long enough and you even know where I am going with it now but I still have to ritually humiliate and embarrass myself by saying I haven’t had a goal statement for weeks. Ok maybe months if truth be known. Well yeh you’re right I’m fibbing, scratch that, I’ve actually never had one until yesterday when I finally sat down and wrote my own. Pathetic I know and I will report myself to the life coach police forthwith but at least I have one now and I can be smug about that at least.

 

Seeing as I came clean in public I hope you’ll forgive me and before you ask, no it isn’t “I am a world class loafer that sits around and thinks a lot whilst earning loads of money.” But it’s close ;-)

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