Are you scared of goal setting?

Here we are, already in March and no doubt you, like me, have been bombarded with advice to plan for the year ahead, make resolutions, set goals. Sound familiar?

Well, I have a confession….. for a long time I was scared to set goals. I occasionally set a one-off goal, like running a fun run but never anything too challenging, in fact the only time I ran a half-marathon was when I took over my husband’s entry at the last minute because he was injured! Of course I had been training alongside him so I was completely capable but it had never been my goal.

Why was I so scared?

2 reasons:

1. Fear of failure, what if I told people I was going to run a half-marathon and I couldn’t do it? How mortifying! 
2. I hadn’t identified what I really wanted in my life so it I didn’t really see the point of setting goals. If you don’t know what you want then how do you know what to pursue? In my career so many goals were things I thought I “should” do, which simply didn’t resonate with me.
   

Of course these sound ridiculous in so many ways, after all who cares if I fail at running a half marathon? Now when I reflect I realise that I was completely out of touch with what was really important to me, as well as being far too concerned with other people’s opinions.

So how do you move forward and commit to goals that really matter to you?

The starting place is with your values. To reflect on what is important, try out the following questions:

• If I could do anything with no fear of failure what would it be?
  

• What would I love to achieve?
  

• How would I like people to talk about me, and remember me after I’m gone?
  

Albert Einstein once said that “Imagination is more important than knowledge” so use your imagination to visualise your best possible life. Then look for themes and patterns in your answers to uncover what are the most important elements. Forcing yourself to focus on your values can be challenging but also amazingly enlightening.

It can be useful to divide your life into four areas, being work, leisure, health, relationships, and then prioritise values in each quadrant.

Once you know what you really value you can use this as your compass – the road map for individual goals can change but just keep checking in with that compass to check that you still feel good about the overall direction you are heading.

How will these goals help?

Once you start setting goals, which are subservient to your values and which are about expressing yourself rather than trying to impress others, you will realise how much more motivating those goals are, and your level of commitment will increase exponentially. As you take action to make the goals a reality you will see that those goals are now so much more achievable. Studies have also shown that the pursuit of this type of goal is likely to enhance your sense of well-being.

So don’t be afraid, take the plunge and dive in to figure out what goals you want to pursue in all areas of your life!