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Determining your goals

Huge unbelievably great goals

HUGGS are goals which are life-changing- these are your Vision or ‘Dream’. They are:

  • Long-term
  • Clear, easy to grasp and compelling
  • They connect with who you are and what’s important to you
  • You feel excited about them and want to achieve them
  • When you set them they can seem out of reach

Start by imagining how things would look if you had succeeded in achieving your goal. It can be helpful to literally draw or use images to create a picture of what success looks like to you and display the picture somewhere you will be reminded of it each day.

Now make the goal more specific

  • Working back from your goal achievement date, plan the actions you will need to undertake to achieve it and capture when these individual actions need to be completed
  • On a scale of 1-10, test your degree of commitment to your goal. If it’s less than a 10, what needs to change to increase the score? If it’s less than 7, will you be sufficiently motivated to pursue your goal? Perhaps it’s the wrong goal?
  • When you are happy with your HUGG and your plan of action, commit to one activity each day that will move you closer to achieving it
  • Periodically pause to review and capture your successes. Congratulate yourself on the progress you’ve made.

Try using our self coaching questions PDF to help clarify your goals.

SMART goals

Specific - well defined with a specific end result in mind
Ask yourself: "Why do I want to reach this goal?"

Measurable - identify relevant indicators of progress
Ask yourself: "how will I know that I have reached this goal?"

Action-orientated - defined in terms of the actions you need to take
Ask yourself: "How will I go about reaching this goal? "

Realistic - achievable within the resources and time you have
Ask yourself: "Can I realistically achieve this goal?"

Time-based - specify when you will complete this goal
Ask yourself: "when is a realistic deadline for reaching this goal?"