Following on from my previous articles; find your purpose and self assessment – the 1st step, you now have a pretty clear picture of who and where you are right now so what is the next step on the road to finding your purpose? I personally found this to be the fun part when I was finding my own. Yes, goal setting should be fun!
Decide what you would like to aim for – this is goal setting on a grand scale, – the bigger the better. In fact, it should be huge and almost idealistic as this is going to become your ultimate goal.
Because of the position I was in after the rail crash, i.e. had nothing/was doing nothing the world was my oyster. The limiters were off and I could let my imagination run riot.
This is what you need to do – take the brakes off your thinking and list down all the things that, how can I put it, turn you on.
Goal setting writ large
Forget the past, the present and the short term. Imagine the perfect position and place you would like to be at when you die. For now, don’t worry what is achievable or not, or how you are going to get there. Aim for what your big shiny goal might look like as if you were already there.
Write a list. Write down everything that you enjoy doing or being and, if nothing stood in your way, you would like to expand and build upon to turn it into your ideal future.
If you want to be a lion tamer write it down, if you want to become an astronaut write it down, if you prefer quieter pursuits like planting gardens write that down. It doesn’t need to be titles, sometimes it will be things (as in my case) you would like to achieve or it may be aspirations. It can come from hobbies you really enjoy, it might come from an experience you had on a dream holiday once, it might be wanting to become like someone you admire. Write anything and everything that pops into your head and you think ‘ooh yes I like the sound of that’. Don’t worry if the list gets really long (as mine did) you’ll be honing things down shortly.
Here are just a few of mine to give you an idea:
And so many more…..
Once you are happy you have your list stand back again and look at it. As you read each line and statement mull over what they are actually saying and highlight the ones that make your gut lurch with excitement. If none of them do then you haven’t dug deep enough into your psyche – go away, clear your head and start again.
Goal setting- refining your big ideas
Following your sense of excitement as you read you should be able to take your highlighted options and put them into a shorter list.
Clear you head and emotions again and then consider each of the remaining statements. Try to boil down what they are saying into one word or a short pithy expression. Once you have these words play around with them until they form into a title. It doesn’t matter if you have never heard of the title you have come up with – know that you have just named your big shiny ultimate, goal.
The reason for the title is so that you can easily remember it moving forward. It should conjure up all the statements you shortlisted and decided to bring forward every time you repeat the title to yourself. This crystalizes your goal setting into something you can say succinctly.
In my case I was left with statements which when I boiled them down the short words that kept on occurring were ‘change’, ‘disruption’, ‘expert’ and ‘speaker’. From these I was then able to give my ideal, shiny goal a name: The Change and Disruption Expert.
The idea of speaking, although for some scary, was exciting to me, but it was more than simply becoming a professional public speaker. My big shiny goal was I wanted to have an impact on others, to disrupt conventional ways of thinking, change situations for the better, and not in a timid or small way. Having lived and breathed my way successfully through almost unimaginable changes and disruption I felt entitled to term myself an expert as I’ve actually walked the walk.
When you embark on this kind of goal setting, you are aiming for feelings, thoughts and ideas that excite you, motivate you, and align with your core purpose…they will help you to define and refine that purpose.
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