If you were busy during the start of the 2010 New Year and didn’t get to writing down your goals then don’t worry because the New Moon phase is here now in Australia and offers another intense time for setting goals.

Consider writing one, if not three goals in each of the 7 areas of life:

1. Financial
2. Mental
3. Career
4. Family
5. Social
6. Physical (including health & wellbeing)
7. Spiritual

Rules for goal setting

Setting goals is much more than making vague, wishy-washy statements like ‘I will expand my business’. If you are serious about goal setting it means creating a written plan that includes reasonable and measurable long-term and short-term goals. It means making them SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely) goals.

Specific

Your goal needs to be specific. It needs to be succinct, clearly written and include as much detail as you can put in a nutshell.

Measurable

To be effective goals need to be measurable so you can see progress and know when you have achieved them.  Using words like ‘better’, ‘shorter’ are not measurable so you need to think of incorporating measurements such as time, weights and measures into your goals. For example setting a goal to lose weight is not measurable but writing it in terms of I reduce my weight by 10 kilos is measurable.

Achievable

Ensure you goal is achievable and don’t set yourself up to fail and don’t make it too easy that it’s not motivating. Incorporate a level of challenge into your goals and if you are energised by the goal and can honestly visualise yourself reaching your goal then it’s bound to be achievable.

Realistic

Do you have the knowledge, skills and resources to reach your goal? If not, perhaps your first step is to gather the necessary information you need to make this goal realistic

Timely

Setting a deadline for achieving you goal provides the necessary tension to give you the motivation and energy.  The time frame you decide on for achieving you goal should be realistic.  Reducing your weight by 10 kilos in 10 weeks is realistic but in 3 weeks is not only unrealistic but also unhealthy.

Bringing energy to your goal setting

This is the exciting part.  Bring energy and emotion into your goals.  Visualise them, see, hear and feel every detail as if you have already achieved the goal. See yourself in the picture and notice the colours, the shapes, the distance between things, hear the sounds, know what the noises represent and experience the positive sensations of achieving your goal and living with that achievement.  Really experience what it feels like and connect with that feeling often.

The Authentic Self is the core of your being. It is often referred to as the true self, real self or essential self as distinguished from the self you usually present to the world. It is the self you were born to become, the self you would be if your character were not distorted by conditioning and projections from external authorities. It shines in your values, your sense of purpose and your drive to express yourself authentically throughout your life.

The Authentic Self is the ’seed’ that contains your potential. It is open and uniquely you.

The ‘conditioned self’ is made up of many different conditions that influenced your development such as parents, teachers, cultural and society expectations, much of what was learned in your early childhood and growing up.

Regularly connecting with the Authentic Self allows you to become aware of an unfolding purpose for your life and empowers you to make choices that will further evolve that purpose. You will be less distracted or blown off course by others unreasonable expectations or your own insecurities. Living with purpose and knowing and acting in accordance with your Authentic Self gives everything you do an added measure of stability, credibility and authority. When connected with the Authentic Self you communicate a powerful sense of inner authority.

There are several steps to bringing more of your Authentic Self to work:

1. Recognise the difference between your Authentic Self and your conditioned self
2. Stay connected to your Authentic Self as much as possible
3. Identify your unique set of values that support your Authentic Self
4. Identify ways to express your authenticity at work or find your purpose vocation

If we understand that life itself is an ever changing process, then we will feel connected to change rather than alienated from it. We will be able to sense the subtle winds of change and act accordingly rather than getting caught in a hurricane.

• This is what it means to participate with the change process.

• You feel at one with change.

• You feel yourself continually shedding the old to make room for the new.

In the busyness of everday organisational life we often get caught up in habitual ways of engaging in role.  There is little room for reflection about the stories we hold and how these impact on our behaviour and the social, physcological and political processes that drive organisational life.  Check this out – Shelley Ostroff, PhD is presenting her ‘Conscious Roles in Conscious Systems’ program in Melbourne Australia on 15 & 16 September 2009.

Conscious ROLES in Conscious SYSTEMS

Will Smith sends a strong message. This is about being different and making a difference. I hope you enjoy