How are you supposed to know which goals are the right goals for you until you’ve actually got what you set out to achieve?
Perhaps you’ve been in the situation where you’ve actually managed to achieve all your goals; maybe you got that promotion you always wanted or your supposed dream job came along after lots of striving and hard work…
But, somehow, the novelty wore off after the initial excitement; it wasn’t what you expected; or achieving your goals actually made you feel worse. If this sounds familiar or you don’t like the idea of this happening to you, the wheel of life exercise might help.
Discovering the intention behind what you set out to achieve and how it will affect other people in your life will be incredibly useful.
Here’s how you can quickly determine which goals are the right goals for you and which ones aren’t.
Recently, I went to an incredibly inspiring two day event organised by the Coaching Academy. One of the speakers, Pam Lidford, talked about goal setting and provided a really useful exercise I’d now like to share with you.
Choose the right goals with the wheel of life exercise
On a piece of paper draw a large circle and split it into eight sections. In each section, write an area of your life that is important to you; for example, social life, relationships, career, finance… You can use the example below as a rough guide.
The next step is to measure your goals using the circle of life; for example, if your goal is to have a better relationship with your boyfriend/ family/ Mum/ colleague… go around the different slices of your wheel and see how your goal might affect each of the eight areas.
If you achieve your goal, how will your finances, health, family life… improve? Will any of the areas be affected negatively? For example, if you decide to start your own business, go travelling or aim to have an amazing car, how will this affect your relationship with the people you love? How much time will you have to put into your goal…?
Obviously, you can only use this as a guide. Sometimes, you can’t possibly predict what an outcome might be, but having some awareness of your intentions and how your goal might affect others, could save you a lot of time and energy in the future. It will also, hopefully, give you an insight into what the right goals are for your life.
