Goals Can Be Hazardous to Your Health

Have I just said the most blasphemous statement ever!!  Isn't the American ethic all about setting and achieving goals? And I'm a coach with over 2 decades of helping people achieve their dreams! How can that be?
Goals are often done at the wrong time for the wrong reasons and it sabotages the process.  There are more important first steps that a lot of people never take - and find themselves frustrated when they consistently fall short of accomplishing what they they had hoped. Here's the order I recommend:


1) PURPOSE:  This is your "Why" and is the core of what motivates you. You can set goals, write them on your calendar, and murmur affirmations until the cows come home, but if it doesn't excite you at the very center of your being, they are not going to materialize in any way that is going to be really rewarding to you.  When I work with people this is always where I being: what is your Core Essence!

2) CONNECTED: Whatever you choose to move forward on this next year has to be deeply connected to you.  According to Max Bazerman, Professor of Business Administration at Harvard University, "people create goals that are disconected from their deeper feelings, values and passions and create out of need, frustration, desire to please, or just because they think it is a goal they should have."  It can result in  depression and hopelessness. For this reason Bazerman has said, "the harmful side effects of goal setting for both individuals and organizations are far more serious...than prior work has acknowledged."  Yes, "hazardous to your health."

3) VISION:  This is when it gets juicy!! This is the process that allows you to feel those feelings, how it will satisfy you, and sets some parameters about when and where it will happen.  Yes, it's visual, but true visioning is far more than vision boarding!  Everyone is a visionary, but we all process it differently.  When I teach visioning, it's from a few different perspectives. But a well connected vision is a gold mine.

4) STRATEGIES:  This is the straegic part of how you are going to take all this information and decide on a path to get where you want to be. But at least now you know where you're going.

5) GOALS:  Here it is!!  There is a place for goals - but it's not in the beginning!  Goals are the markers you are going to set on your path to be sure you're staying in the right direction.  But goals are a measure of strategies which are created by implementing your vision - a vision that is deeply connected to you and your "Why!"
Because I personally have had some amazing results from visioning, I am devoting more of my focus to it this year for both myself and my clients.  It does take more than just a vision board or writing goals. Those are incredibly helpful tools, but there are some simple things that can work wonders once you understand the science of why all this works - and have had significant experience of it working. 

We just don't know how to keep it consistently working! 

Because Community is one of the major tools and you want to join a visioning conversation on my private Facebook group, ask to be my friend or if you're on Facebook ask for entrance to the group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/igniteyourvision/.

I find this such a vast and rewarding subject, and if you're interested in being a part of a dynamic mastermind focusing on the tools of creating an amazing life and business in 2018 through personal and community visioning techniques, just let me know you'd like to have  conversation with me at mlm@firedupforsuccess.com.  (It will be conducted on Zoom video.)

Meanwhile, enjoy the remainder of 2018 and have a wonderful holiday!

Mary Lyn Miller, CEO
Fired Up for Success Mentoring and Masterminds!