Oh My Goals!

*this article is best read with a paper and a pen*

Well although I should've posted last Wednesday as usual but this article took longer time that I planned. Anyways let's get to business!

This is the time of the year, end of season if we're speaking sports terms and time to review the results and plan for the next season. Corporate Athletes that I met during my career and in university practice setting yearly goals which is a great way of enjoying life with its different aspect.

Now is the time when everyone starts sharing their achieved goals of the year and the major achievements even if we're in such a special and unpredictable year. I received an email with my goals [I usually use this website to email me in the future] and when I saw this email I was like "OH MY GOALS!" I can confidently say 2 out of 25 of these goals achieved but I kept reflecting on this year and the amount of behaviors and habits that I've developed and for me the biggest achievement I noticed is "I survived such a tough year full of unexpected events and situations". & I'm very grateful to be honest as I've also developed some habits I never knew I needed & kicked off a long life dream of having a career blog.

However, I couldn't help but think about all the people that already decided to stop setting new years' resolutions thinking that it isn't achievable. Guess what researchers have found?

81% of people give up on their resolutions in the long run.

Not only this but also people use this time of the year to be hard on themselves while in fact it should be the time to honor the small wins, show self love and be kind to themselves. Even if it is as simple as "reduced screen time" for example.

While I reflect and start setting my 2021 goals I've changed a bit of my way to reflect and set new goals. The below is my way to do that, it consists of 2 parts: Reflections then Goals setting.

Reflections:

1. Start by answering these questions:

This allows you to express emotions and to put your hands on moments that mattered, challenges you've faced and achievements you weren't aware of.

As an athlete we always have to reflect post championships on our performance, we would keep watching the video and open discussions and debates which is a great exercise to understand and be able to move forward.

There are many reflection questions actually that you can use for this exercise. However make sure you end this exercise with focus and gratitude.

Next comes setting the goals:

1. Start with rating your wheel of life:

I usually start with the wheel of life, it has all different aspects of life to reflect on my grading from 1-10. This is the initial step to start with. You can change or add aspects based on what you care about the most.

2. For every aspect create 2 lists:

For every aspect of the wheel provide a list of achievements and a list of "to work on". This provides you the reasons behind your rating. Here are some guide to help on each aspect.

3. Set your priorities, desired rating and your goals:

Start buy setting the desired rating so for example you stand at 4 financially and want to be at 7. What are the goals relevant to this desired number.

It is important to pick the top aspects you want to focus on and write some goals related to them. Be mindful, I had 25 goals for 2020 which at someone point I felt it could stress me out or keep me unfocused. With the pandemic and everything happening I kept on eye on specific goals and worked towards achieving them.

3. Start answering some Why, What & How questions:

Its important to ask these questions for every single one of the goals you place to make sure they are the ones you can actually fulfill and will matter to you in the same time of the year.

• Why is this important for me?
• What am I getting out of this?
• How can I do this better?
• How can I achieve this?
• How can I do this more often?

4. Once you're settled put it down & Share:

Its important to write your goals down in any fashion you want and to stick them somewhere you can see on daily basis. I usually prefer having a mind map with the goals and to which aspect do they belong to.

Don't forget to share them with someone or to send a letter to your future self so you can actually measure your progress.

5. The tweak of the year:

This year I'm more focused on habits. What do habits do I want to build an maintain for 2021. I'm uncertain to put goals like "Visit this place/city" or "Attend this conference" or "Meet this person" and I don't want to look back and think "Wow I didn't accomplish that". I want to be focusing on things I can control despite what the world is going through and this is achievable.

Last thoughts would be you can set quarter goals instead of yearly goals, this will allow you to kind of reflect and re-design your goals according to the current state and moving forward.

Well that being said I'm ready to tear my 2020 paper and look forward to the possibilities in 2021 with everything it will throw at us. Ready for the next season for sure.

Stay Corporately Fit!

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