I have been helping ambitious mothers succeed in their careers without losing sight of themselves for over a decade now.

Achieving the goals they set, faster and with less growing pains, is a big part of why they come to me as a business coach.

The way I teach setting business and personal goals, is so much more than listing business targets on a to-do list.

I help you see goals as an extension of your inner narrative and a stepping stone to resilience and growth.

I let you experience where goals live in your body, so that somatic intelligence can inform your choices.

I show you how your unique spirit, strengths and skills can make it easier to achieve it.

Now, I know that the daily pressures can make all this sound like just another coaching cliché, so here is a practical checklist to get you started with setting goals you will achieve.

Identify and clarify

You want to build a business that serves the life that you want, not vice versa.

Starting by asking ‘Who do I want to be? ‘and  ‘What do I want to experience in life?’

ensures that the list of work projects or ideas you generate is in alignment with what is important and meaningful to you.

Values are known as ‘the human motivators’ and are the powerful force that will see you through when things get tough.

Ask yourself:

Who do I want to be?

What do I want to experience in my life right now?

Prune

Pruning promotes vigorous new growth, so it’s vital to let go of projects/ assignments that do not serve you, or allow yourself to be supported.

Your time and resources are precious, use them wisely.

When in doubt, tap into your body’s sensory, analytical and intuitive resources by asking:

‘Does this project/ task feel draining or energising?’

Also, ask yourself:

Does this task have to be done by me?

What can I automate, delegate, or eliminate?

Who can support me to create more spaciousness?

Align

Checking that every goal is aligned with the vision of your life and what is important right now, is the key.

Setting your business goals in a vacuum, not considering what season of motherhood you are in right now, will only cause frustration, guilt and disappointment.

Ask yourself:

‘Is this goal/task aligned with what I want in my life right now’?

Believe

Also known as the filter through which we perceive reality, our beliefs become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If you catch yourself operating from the belief that ‘I need to be constantly busy to bring in value/make a real impact’ you will most likely be …constantly busy, rushed and overwhelmed.

A simple first step is checking ‘What do I need to believe to make this easy?’ and start looking for evidence of people living this belief.  What you see, might surprise you, when the filter has changed.

Ask yourself:

What do I need to believe to make (my goal) easy?

Who encompasses this belief?

If I act as if.. ( I have already achieved that goal) how differently will I show up?

Feedback

In the same way the soil needs time to become fertile again after harvest, so is your creativity and productivity after a goal cycle.

Allowing yourself time to slow down, process and integrate the learnings after completing each project or goal, supercharges the next one.

Also called ‘the breakfast of champions’ by K. Blanchard, feedback comes with a warning: Do not skip.

Ask yourself:

What went well? What gave you joy?

What didn’t go as planned? What could have been done differently?

How are you going to use what you’ve learned?

What support will you enlist next? What environment will you plant yourself in to help you succeed?

Stages of change

Before we get any closer to ‘actioning’ any new habit or behaviour (or ditch an old unhelpful one), we go through a few stages.

To break it down simply we ‘pre-contemplate, ‘contemplate’ and ‘prepare’ and not in linear progression!

Explaining the spiral of change and finding out the exact stage always helps my clients to shift the feeling of frustration into compassion and motivation.

To wrap this up – if you have it in you to ‘want’ it, you have it in you to ‘create’ it.

Strive for small, doable daily incremental shifts in what you think, say to yourself and do each day. This alone will let you arrive in a completely different outcome sooner than you know it.

Keep momentum, keeping an eye on the internal resistance, ask for help when it gets challenging and plant yourself in spaces that want to see you thrive and will support your growth.

As you break down your monthly or quarterly goals into your daily schedule it is good to remember that the main goal is fitting more of yourself and what you value on your daily list.

Email hi@ekaterinaward.com to receive the Work and Life Alignment quiz and book a FREE 30 min feedback session with Ekaterina, a business coach for mothers in business.

 

February 21, 2024