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I am crafting this episode as I am propped up in bed. If you get my newsletter you know I strained a muscle in my lower back a week ago and this is an injury that got worse before getting better. I am healing slowly but right now sitting at a 90 degree angle at my desk is doable for a short while but not ideal.

So I will do what I must to get this episode into the airwaves and to your device.

I hope you enjoy it because this is the month-end episode; that means an update on goals. While each month I give a progress report on my goals, the end of this month represents mid-year so I took the opportunity to take a step back to see if my goals are still relevant, doable or if I need to make some changes.

For those of you who know me well this process is about creating goals that are worthy of you. It is personalized and imbued with what makes you tick. This mini-course contains worksheets and a cheat sheet with short videos of me guiding you through the entire process step-by-step.

For instance, this process starts with a values assessment. The field of psycho-immunology has shown that when we live according to our own personal values we have stronger immune systems. What I have seen in myself and my clients is that when we live according to our values we are more aligned with who we are at our core and so we experience life differently. We experience less stress, feel more motivated and have the resilience to overcome obstacles as they arise.

When we design and execute goals in alignment with our core values it makes the achievement of the goal easier and more enjoyable.

Strengthen your goals with a solid review process

The goals process I created includes a review of the prior year: what worked, what didn’t work and what surprised you. You document some of your lifetime moments and a no-holds-barred declaration of what you want. This helps you capture your focus areas and a draft of the goal that represents success for you in your chosen focus areas.

Next, I help you uncover your Superpowers. Have you done this exercise before? Guess what, you may have more Superpowers to uncover or you may have developed a new Superpower since the last time you did this exercise. Fully utilizing our Superpowers often create opportunities to see we are naturally good at more things than we realized.

Superpowers aren’t meant to live on the shelf. You’re also going to identify ways that your Superpowers can help you achieve any goal that is worthy of you.

We also are going to help you develop the qualities that will help you achieve your goals more easily. And the simple daily practices that will help you develop those qualities without a lot of effort.

And any plan for the achievement of a goal will have milestone and metrics. These are the things that will show you that you are making progress and will motivate you to keep going or they will let you know immediately if you need to tweak your plan a bit.

Lastly, there’s a cheat sheet that you can fill out to help you keep your goals and your practices top of mind. I’ve shared on this podcast that I had not achieved a goal merely because I forgot about it. And once I put it back on my radar it was achieved within 6 weeks. It was that easy!

Keeping your goals top of mind is half the battle.

As I mentioned earlier I took myself through this updated process and I was really happy with the results. Let’s dive in so I can explain what’s changed or more accurately, what has been enhanced.

For background I’ve Identified that currently my top 5 core values are freedom, personal development, leadership, partnership and vulnerability. Each of these core values have a specific meaning and nuances to me that might be slightly different from what they mean to you.

For instance my definition leadership includes striving for achievement, honesty, personal development and creating meaningful connections with others. Leadership may mean something different to you.

All that’s important is that whatever your core values represent to you is present in every area of your life.

So as I was reviewing my goals it was important to consider if freedom, personal development, leadership, partnership and vulnerability were key components in the goal or the goal represented bringing about honoring these values in my life.

In this review I have narrowed down my focus areas from 5 to 4, removing outsourcing as a focus area. Outsourcing is still going to happen and will occur as a part of my overall plan; it just won’t be something I focus on or measure for progress.

Focus area #1 Increase profitability in my business

Goal: have a net income (earnings minus expenses) of $80,000 minimum this year.

With the help of my mastermind group and going through my goals review I have 4 sub-goals for this goal. These sub-goals are, in the next 6 months:

• Have 12 new Executive Leadership Coaching clients. This is coaching that focuses on leaders within organizations to help them with their performance and happiness at work.
• To do 10 corporate workshops.
• Promote the DIY products that are on the website for sale
• Do two more group programs by the end of the year.

May’s Profit and Loss report showed a net profit of $1658.40, down about 39% from April’s profit and still far off from the average $6700/month required to see a net profit of $80,000. The good news is I have a new client, the potential for a couple more in the coming weeks and 2 corporate workshops in July so next month things should look a lot better.

If you know any ambitious overworked women who would like to make more money and achieve their goals while doing less, please send them my way. Thank you!

Focus area #2 Build more strength and endurance

The original goal for strength and endurance was to do 300 Spartan-regulation burpees in good form in one session by June 30 but I completed that in February.

Goal: I had updated my burpee goal to do 1000 burpees at the Burpees for Boobs event I’ll be planning to occur in October. Separately, I have a goal to do an unassisted pull-up before the end of this year.

With this new review I’ll stop talking about the original goal of 300 burpees and only mention the goal of 1000 burpees going forward.

If you receive my newsletter you know I strained a muscle in my lower back putting a dish into the dishwasher and this is an injury that got worse before starting to get better so I have not been able to do my normal workouts this past week. However, I always plan a cushion. Knowing it was possible to get sick and/or injured during the 9 months I would be training I built in a 4 week cushion in case I needed to take a  break.

Pray that my back is well enough to begin training again soon and this will not be a concern.

For pull-ups I now have the reminder on my to do list every day so I’m getting them done. Starting to see some small progress and I’ll be looking to see what I can do when I’m no longer so uncomfortable.

Focus are #3 Romantic Partnership

Goal: Be in a committed monogamous relationship with a man.

I am continuing to meet people, continuing with first dates but not seeing a lot of progress in this area.

While doing the goals mini-course I identified qualities that would help to take me to my goal. The ones that I specifically want to develop are being aligned, feminine, social, focused, disciplined and committed.

Then I identified the daily practices that would help me to develop these qualities. I was not completely surprised to see that many of the practices had to do with my self-care, especially sleep, a lighter schedule and transition time between meetings and activities.

This past week being injured and not feeling like my usual self, never mind feminine, it was hard to be engaged on the dating app.

When you’re sick or injured it is natural and appropriate to be focused on healing and so you need to be self-focused.

For me, it was taking so much energy to just compose messages back on the dating app it was ridiculous. And not surprising the men I matched up with were also self-focused. We had the same vibe going on; I was just pretending that it wasn’t the case for me.

My intention this summer is to take excellent care of myself so my best self and the self that enjoys being feminine and social can come forth. It’s a new strategy for this goal but it’s a good one.

Focus area #4 Live Events

Goal: Plan and execute the Burpees for Boob event in October in partnership with Marie Sola of Daughters of Change and Emily leRoux, the Spartan Women Global Leader and Global Partnerships.

In October, which is breast cancer awareness month, we will partner for a “Burpees for Boobs” event. I am going to coordinate the event here in Maine and Emily will coordinate these events globally.

Also, as a part of this focus area, though it is not technically a goal, I will continue to serve on the board for The Maine Women’s Conference to develop this start-up entity and plan the conference for 2019.

In doing the goals mini-course as a part of my review process I realized how important live events are to me. This is an area where I shine and part of the reason I chose to have workshops be a part of my plan to increase profitability in my business.

Have you reviewed your goals yet to see if they are still serving you and in alignment with your values and superpowers? Do you know what qualities will help you to achieve your goal and do you know how to apply your superpowers to get better results?

Did you not set goals at the beginning of the year and your thinking now is as good a time as any. Because now is as good a time as any. We still have 6 months left in 2018 and you can make a lot of progress in that time.

As always I hope this was of value to you and here’s to your success!

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Resources

Accomplished: How to Go from Dreaming to Doing: A simple, step by step system that gives you the foundation and structure to take your goals and make them happen.

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