I have a love/hate relationship with the word goals.
Do you ever set a big goal for yourself and then feel negatively when you don’t make it? That’s why I struggle to set big goals for myself. Or have you ever “set” goals for yourself at a coaching retreat that feel arbitrary? I’ve found myself thinking, ‘Sure, I’ll set these goals now, but I don’t really intend to meet them. I’m just doing this for a lame exercise.’ That’s definitely coming from my inner rebel.
The word intentions feels more expansive. To me, intentions describes what I’m moving towards. It feels softer. It doesn’t feel hard and fast, like the word goals implies.
Whenever I have “set goals” for myself at the request of others, I’ve felt that my heart wasn’t in it. My soul wasn’t in it! There was no direction or guidance on coming up with said goals that meant something. The directive was just: “Set goals for the next 90 days. Map out your yearly calendar for your business. Put in your vacations, your marketing agenda, your money goals, etc.” No heart. No soul. No joy!
I can set intentions much easier. I can set a single intention for a meeting, a day, a project, or a phone call. And those are manageable—when I meet those intentions, I feel I’m winning. No self defeat. Nothing undermining my self-esteem. No giving up.
Generally before my workday begins, I meditate and gather my thoughts around an intention for the day. I listen to my heart. To my soul. The feeling that comes over me is usually the intention that I’m going for.
Begin with a feeling. (That’s a lot of what I do in my work!) Start with how you want to feel. How do you want your clients to feel? What’s the overall feeling of the webinar you want to create or the class you want to teach? What is the outcome that you want people to have?
It all begins with recognizing how you want to feel and the next step is sensing how you want your clients to feel. From that, you can figure out the best way to reach them and teach them.
How do you approach goal setting for your business? What is your opinion on the word goals? Do you use a different word to trick yourself?
I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please tell!