Well formed goals

A journey from well intentioned to using intentions well.

Happy July everyone!

We’re already into the seventh month of the year (where has that gone?) and it got me thinking this morning about the intentions and goals I had set for myself and how I was getting on.

I quickly realised that my life was a very different place in January 2021.

• I was still an “in-house” HR partner

• I was working on building my business as a consultant

• I was putting effort into building my new audience on LinkedIn

• I was tired. Really, really tired.

Then it dawned on me, here I am reflecting on my intentions and goals, but at the start of the year I didn’t actually have any.

I had ideas.

I had vague visions and dreams of what I wanted to do.

But deliberate intentions? Well formed goals that I was focused on?

Nope.

Huh 🤨

Fast forward to March and in the space of a few short weeks, my life had changed.

• I was 100% self employed

• I was working with new and returning clients, continuing to build amazing relationships

• My audience was growing and I felt connected to awesome people, who I was both helping and who were helping me

• I was still tired, but I was energised by the buzz of new ways of working and the creation of something that felt more “me”

Brilliant. So I now had goals too, right?

Urm. No.

Huh 🤨

Fast forward again to June. Aside from continuing to grow in all the areas above, I was now engaged with not one, but two amazing coaching groups! 

One to gain my formal accreditation as a coach with the brilliant In Good Company (whom I highly recommend to anyone looking to take this step)

And one to join forces with a group of the most inspirational women I’ve had the pleasure to “bump brains” with. All under the guiding light of Taz Thorton in her Project Artemis.

Okay. So I NOW have goals and intentions, right?

You bet your booty I do!

And the difference this has made has been phenomenal.

I’m still figuring out how to shift my mindset from corporate bod to queen of my own destiny, and honestly, managing my own time has proved more difficult than I thought. 

I was used to working hard, on a perpetual path to burnout. Now it was all on me, so if I wasn’t prepared to manage my own energy levels, then there was simply no hope.

I have deliberate intentions now around

• Who and how I want to be, and this governs what projects I will say yes and no to.

• How many hours I will dedicate to exercise each week, to keep me mentally and physically able to support myself.

• How much money I need to make each quarter, because as much as I LOVE what I do, I also have a mortgage a pay.

• What I am doing to keep developing myself and learning.

• Doing AT LEAST one thing each week that moves me out of my comfort zone (even just a little).

There is much more depth to each of these areas, and I am working on breaking things down to weekly intentions to keep myself focused. As an easily distracted creative type, this is a challenge, but I’m sticking with it... because I’m an easily distracted creative type and without it I’ll wander off path, lured by new and exciting ideas. Ooh shiny new ideas. 

So….

What have I learned?

I was actually doing okay in my new adventures as a business owner. But I was also working hard and not smart. Now I am learning to be more deliberate, and it’s paying off.

I was happy and moving forward. But I was also making tiny moves to sabotage myself, which clear goals and acknowledgements have helped me overcome.

While I make the time to reflect on my progress each week, I do not dedicate enough time to review my “big picture” and how all my tiny moves form part of the big journey.

What about YOU?

How’s your 2021 shaping up against your goals?