If you don’t know where you’re going, how can you get there? It’s a commonly used phrase but it’s so true – and it applies to coaching too.

If you’re considering coaching, then you already want to make a change, but what are you changing from and to?

What happens now, what do you want to change – and what do you want to happen instead?

There are many areas that coaching helps in: being more productive, using time more effectively, equalising the work/life balance, streamlining the business, increasing profits, diversifying – all are goals.

And once you know what you want to achieve, coaching helps you to get there gently and in your own time.

Coaching isn’t about doing it all for you; it’s the athletes who win the gold medals, not the coaches who sit in the background. But they have a goal; to get their athlete to run the race in the quickest time.

It’s the same with coaching: helping you to find techniques that get you to your goal. And that’s the important bit – it’s your goal.

Goals shouldn’t feel like mountains; they need to be small and achievable, taking us towards the end point. If the goal is too steep, failure is more likely. Coaching breaks it down into steps so that each can be achieved without overwhelm.

A few things to consider when you are setting goals:

Why do you want to set this goal?
Is it your goal or someone else’s?
Is it realistic?
Is it the right goal?
Why are you doing it?
Will it get you to where you want to be?
What will be better once you have achieved it?

Don’t just decide to ‘go for it’. Take a step back and take a moment to think about what you want and why.

What’s your end aim?

What is the end goal? It can be big, but it needs to be realistic.
What’s your ideal situation; what has to happen for everything to be 10/10?
Can it be measured (e.g. ‘grow the business by 50% in 5 years’)?
Is it subjective (e.g.’handle challenging situations better’)?

Once achieved, will it make the change you want and expect?

Where are you starting from?

How far are you from your goal now?
What’s in place already?
What’s working in favour of your goal already?
Are the foundations strong?
Can you step outside and use fresh eyes?

What do you need to do?

What are the steps you need to take to start reaching the goal?
How many are there?
When do they need to be done by?
Who do you need to get involved?
How will you measure them?
What do you need to do and when?
How will you know you are making progress?

What’s going to get in your way or cause a barrier?

Defining a goal can be very empowering, but when you start to look at how you are going to achieve it, it can become daunting.

Goals that have a realistic pathway are the most effective, because if we achieve something small, it motivates us to carry on.

Once the fog of not knowing where we are going or how we will start is cleared, the pathway starts to carve itself out.

We might need to work on confidence, skills, thoughts and beliefs, past experiences or self-doubt, but once they are re-framed and delved into, challenged and re-calibrated, the goals feel more achievable.

We’ll look at what the barriers are and then tackle them so that they can’t stand in the way of your goal.