How to Set Personal Goals

Here at Handel Group, we talk a lot about dreaming. In a sense, this is our version of setting personal goals.

In fact, the very first assignment we give all of our clients through Inner.U and personal coaching is to dream. No, sorry, this doesn’t involve napping. But it does involve setting big, exciting personal goals. In other words, our highest ideals for ourselves.

We have you write down on paper (or iWhatever smart device) your deepest desires, which most of us humans are already resistant to doing in the first place, in 12 different areas of your lives. Yes, 12. We break down your life into these categories:

• Self – how you feel about yourself, your personality traits and habits.
• Body – including weight management, health, and fitness.
• Love – finding it, staying in it, relationships, dating, and marriage.
• Career – professional development and executive coaching.
• Money – negotiating a pay raise, getting out of debt, investing in your personal goals and dreams.
• Time – how to master your schedule and calendar to get what you want out of every day.
• Home – do you love where you live? Does it feel like an oasis? Does it represent who you are in a way that you’re proud of?
• Family – relationships with your parents, kids, step-family, and in-laws.
• Friends – developing and assessing friendships, do you respect and love your tribe?
• Fun & Adventure – travel, learning new things, enjoying life.
• Community & Contribution – how you’re giving back to the world, are you fulfilling your purpose?
• Spirituality – whatever that means for you; God, spirit, Mother Earth, your mind.

We all remember being a kid and knowing exactly what we wanted to be when we “grow up.” However it seems that dreaming, or at least setting personal goals that really get us excited, is something that many “grown ups” have forgotten how to do. 

Whether or not you’re still studying to be an astronaut (or whatever your 9-year-old self had planned), I bet that if I asked you today what your career, or community, or body dreams and ultimate goals look like, and feel like, it’s more than likely you’d be a bit mystified. You’d probably only be able to tell me what you DON’T want instead of what would actually make you proud, inspired, and happy. 

At some point, we stopped dreaming. We got older, and decided it was smarter to want what we can get, rather than admit (let alone actually try to get) what we really want. We sold out, because if we admit to having a big, juicy end goal – wait for it – we’d actually have to do something about it! 

Dreaming wakes us up to ourselves and shines a light on the personal goals that would really fill us with pride to achieve. 

It gets us in the right fight. It allows us to set our internal GPS to where we want to go, while showing us the “traffic” that’s in our way. Real happiness comes from knowing that you are giving your ALL and have Personal Integrity® in your WHOLE life – not just one or two areas, where most of us prefer to play.

Think about it…

Are there areas in your life where you’re feeling great about yourself? 

Are there areas where you’re heartbroken? 

Unfortunately, those parts of your life where you feel “less than” will find a way to infiltrate every part of your existence. They leak. You don’t have to be great at math to acknowledge that if you sell out in even one area of your life, the average of your total level of happiness diminishes.

Let’s try it. Take an area of your life you want to explore right now and practice this exercise:

Write a big dreamy personal goal

Tip 1: Be specific. 

• Capture what your vision both looks like AND feels like, so that you can really see it. 
• Your ideals/goals should inspire you, and even scare you a little. 
• It should be a stretch, but not a pipe dream.

Tip 2: Write it in the present tense. 

This may feel a little strange at first but, trust us, it’s inspiring.

• Start each sentence with “I am…,” “I have…,” or “I feel…”
• It makes you accountable immediately. 

Tip 3: Play in the positive. 

• Focus on what you want to feel and who you want to be.
• Make absolutely no mention of what you don’t want. 
• We’re trying to keep past negative experiences away from future positive ones.

Tip 4: Be honest. 

Go for it. Come on, once and for REAL, cop to what you most want. Get creative with your goals and dream BIG.

Tip 5: Keep breathing. 

Writing out huge goals and dreams is not out to make you feel small. It’s a reality check. A true-to-your-highest-self accounting of where you want to be.

Need some inspiration? Here’s a list of some of the types of goals we coach clients to achieve.

The next step in the process, which involves assessing your current reality and identifying what’s in your way, really does require some coaching. If you’d like to dig deeper, set heftier goals, and dream bigger, we’d recommend you attend one of our community Design Your Life events coming up or, of course, join our online coaching course, Inner.U.

Inner.U LIFE is a 12-module program that gives you the tools to get yourself unstuck and thriving where it matters most to you: your relationship to your SELF, CAREER, LOVE, BODY, MONEY, TIME, and more. 

Through this program and personal coaching, we help people “human” better. And, yes, setting and achieving goals that are a match with your dreams is a part of that process.

Hey, there are definitely areas in your life where you have already achieved your goals and maybe even have acknowledged some bigger dreams. You were unstoppable. You said, “I got this,” and did. Whether, you were pointing to THAT job, THAT degree, THAT house, and, no matter what other people said, you did whatever it took to make that a reality.

Ask yourself…What dream did I make happen? What goals have I set and achieved already?

Then, when you’re ready to get honestly happy and achieve your goals and reach your dreams in every other area of life, from wherever you are, contact us.