"A goal without a plan is just a wish" ~ Antoine de Saint Exupéry

Introduction

As we have cruised into the New Year our social media feeds are flooded with everyone’s New Year’s resolutions. The gyms are unusually packed, we are drinking our green smoothies and working out with renewed vigor. Unfortunately, the February slump often knocks many of us off the resolution wagon. Besides the need for creating new habits (keep your eyes peeled for more info to come on that topic!) we also often jump into the new year new me mindset without clear and present goals to keep us on track with the slump hits, when life gets in the way, and when our sore bodies remind us that we are not marathon runners. That is what I want to chat with you about today, GOALS! (If you watch Brazilian soccer then insert the commentator goal yell here…if not then insert with whatever motivating cry you want).

In previous blogs I have brought up the term BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goals), these are the dreams we have inside that set our hearts on fire. The dreams that scare the heck out of us, but we can’t seem to shake, the dreams that show us as the person we want to be someday! If you are someone that is dreaming big dreams, and ready to chase down the goals to get to your dreams then I am talking to you! If you are anything like me you dream the dream, then lose focus, and suddenly it is a year later, and that dream is still just rattling around in your head. You know where you want to end up but have no clue how to get there and end up doing nothing. If this sounds even remotely like you, then you are in the right place! Over the next few weeks, I am going to layout the method I use to create and pursue my goals.

I like to build my goals through backward chaining, meaning I start at the last step and work backward breaking it down into small steps! This is something often used in therapy for children with special needs (like my daughter with Autism), and how popular self-help authors Gary Keller and Jay Papasan the authors of The One Thing, and Rachael Hollis author of Girl Stop Apologizing, teach their methods for reaching goals. The techniques and ideas I will be sharing lean heavily on the concepts I learned reading books by these authors, listening to their podcasts, attending seminars, and even participating in virtual coaching with them.

(As we work through the steps I will update our road map graphic )

Over the next few weeks, I will be posting the steps I use when creating my goal roadmap. The general idea is to start with getting your big dreams down on paper, then it funnels down into writing out specific goals, then you choose which to pursue further, then finally you pick one to focus on and decide what can I do today, right now that would get me one step closer to my goal, which will lead me to my dream!