Time to make some new plans and set goals? There are many different ways to do this. But first you need to have an idea of how it might feel to reach a goal. What would that be like? This really helps you to be clear on defining and understanding when you’ve reached your goal. Your definition of success is probably very different to mine.

In this post we are looking at goals. And we’re going to start by getting really clear on what your success will seem like, be like, look like or feel like, so you can start taking steps towards it.

Start with Your Success

“Everyone’s dream can come true if you just stick to it and work hard.”

Serena Williams

Before you set any goals, there’s something that will really influence how you think, write and talk about them – your track record with, and view of, success. Whenever you feel successful, it boosts your confidence and spurs you on.

What does success look and feel like for you? What is it? How does it seem? Jot down some ideas now of what success is for you. See if you can come up with at least five.

We all have our own personal blend of definitions of success. Check that yours are specific, e.g. ‘success is being happy’ is very vague. What specifically do you mean by ‘being happy’? How do you recognise it, describe it, define it? In what circumstances do you want to feel happy? As you write this list notice how much success you’re already achieving, too.

How Do You Want Your Life to Be?

You may already be very clear about what you want to do with your life, how you want your life to be or what your goals are. If you’re not, here’s a tool that can help – the Wheel of Life.

You can think about how your life is made up of many parts. Each of these parts contribute something to you as a whole person and your overall feeling of wellness, success and being in control of your life. When the parts are out of balance it can lead to the opposite of feeling in control, you could feel unhappy, frustrated, discontented and sometimes stuck. By assessing your level of satisfaction and happiness with each part of your life individually, you can start to get ideas about where you want to make changes and that can lead to your goals.

For example, if at the end of every week you feel tired and overwhelmed that could be due to lack of control over your finances, your career, your home environment or your health. Sorting out which of those to pay attention to will help you feel more like you are taking control and will give you back some energy.

The Wheel of Life tool invites you to score how happy or satisfied you are with each part of your life. It’s not about having a perfect score in each area, you decide how you measure your satisfaction or happiness. This allows you to notice where something is out of balance and needs attention, where dissatisfaction in one part of your life might affect other parts.

In the circle there are pie shaped sections relating to different parts of your life. I’ve given titles to the six which many people describe as the most important and left some blank sections so you can add your own. If you prefer, you can divide the sections further to make smaller parts, for example you could have sections for mental and physical health, or sections for debt and savings in finance. You can also rename sections to suit you better, perhaps religion or belief sits better with you than spirituality. Do whatever seems right for you to describe your life.

Give each section a score from 1-10, where 10 is a high score, as to how happy or satisfied you are with that part of your life. Draw a line across the section at that score or colour in or shade the section from the centre up to that number.

When you’ve done this for all the sections, you’ll have a picture of your overall level of satisfaction in each part of your life.

How Do You Feel?

How do you feel about the balance in the parts of your life? Where you’ve given a low measure of happiness or satisfaction, this is an area of your life where you can start to set goals. And if all your scores are great for you, then your goal becomes how to keep it that way!

Which parts of your life will you choose to set goals in first? Will it be:

• the one with the lowest score?
• the one with the highest score?
• the one that has the biggest effect on the other parts?
• the one that seems most urgent?
• the one that seems easiest?
• the one that seems most important for your happiness or satisfaction?

Your Dream/Reality Gap

You Wheel of Life represents the reality of your present. It is data, factual and a measurement of a moment in time. We all imagine or dream or have ideas of how life could be in the future. Between your dreams of the future and your reality of the present, shown in your Wheel of Life, there is often a gap.

Setting goals allows you to bridge that gap. It allows you to take that spring energy with you to the seasons ahead. For some of us, reviewing that gap from this side, the starting line, it can seem really big or insurmountable and it can put you off even trying to cross it. When you look at the gap you can:

• find choices where there appears to be no choice. Often adding a third way can broaden your choice from just an A or B decision
• look for the first small simple steps to take you in the right direction. You don’t have to take huge leaps – small steps still get your there in the end and you get boosts from small successes on the way
• challenge your assumptions about your constraints. All of us have already had some successes in life where we felt it unlikely. Where have you already succeeded?

You have much more freedom than you think, you can go farther than you think and you can always rest on the way. Not all your goals need to be completed by next week, the end of spring or even by the end of the year.

Create Your Wheel of Life

Here’s the fun, practical part. Take some time now – as much time as you need – to create your Wheel of Life. Print it out or draw it on a huge sheet of paper. Have some fun with it and get creative, if you’d like to.

Remember to make it personal to you.

There’s no right or wrong – it’s your Wheel and your Life and it’s helping you achieve a happier more satisfied future designed by you!

When you’ve done it reflect and notice what it’s showing you. Where will you start? Who will you share it with – maybe your bestie, maybe your partner or a coach. Also, I’d love to see how your Wheel of Life looks. Take a photo or scan it. However you can, do send it to me. You can do it by sending it to me at sue.hewitt@develomenta.co.uk. Or you could try sending it by carrier pigeon …