Covid 19 – Reviewing our long term goals

Covid 19 special – Long term goals

As you start to emerge from lockdown and hit play on some aspects of your lives, we think this is the perfect time to review, reflect and reset your goals.

You may find that some can no longer be achieved or may have been postponed, so our five step process should help bring clarity on what you want to focus on. Especially as it can be very tempting to simply wait until everything gets back to normal before making any real progress.

In our other blog posts we talked about accepting the new normal and using your skills and experience as a professional coach to get through this difficult time. So again, we have looked through our coaching manual and want to share this five step process to help you review your own personal goals, before helping friends, family and clients do the same.

Focus on the future

When looking at your goals, remember to focus on the future so you are not disappointed by any lack of progress or overwhelmed by the current situation. This will also help you check if your long term goals are still relevant or achievable, and if the timeline you originally had in place now needs to be updated.

Agree short term goals

Once happy with your long term goals, the next stage is to break them down into more manageable pieces or a series of incremental steps you can deliver in the short term. This will really help you regain control and reduce any stress you may be feeling right now. Having these short term goals, building towards something more meaningful in the future, will also help boost your resilience so you have the energy needed to make the progress you want.

Challenge yourself

It’s important to set goals that will challenge you (especially if you feel your life has been on hold) and may be the additional motivation you need to help kick-start this next phase as we start to move out of lockdown. But be realistic about what you are able to do and check Government advice so you can stay safe and keep a social distance where needed.

Adapt to changes

The current lockdown has taught us to be agile and adaptable, so remember this when reviewing your goals and think about how you will monitor any progress you are making. Having milestones in the diary will help keep you on track, but it’s also important to think about any possible blockers or things that can go wrong. We don’t want you to focus on the negative, but we do want you to go into this with your eyes open and aware of any obstacles. Remember, this can include your ability to sabotage, so by listing out any possible risks to success, you can identify what you will do if that situation arises or how you will spot it and stop it getting in the way.

Share your goals

This can really help make your goals seem more real and motivate you to achieve them, because somebody else will be checking. They may also help you spot when things are not going to plan or identify any support you need, because feeling supported can be a real motivator and boost your resilience just when you need it.

To ensure you have the best possible chance of achieving everything you want, it may be helpful to focus on these three areas when you review your long term goals:

• Outcomes – What you want to achieve and by when
• Procesess – What you need to do to make it happen
• Identity – What habits or behaviours you may need to change or adapt

We are all in the same situation and it’s ok to feel disappointed or frustrated if you are not able to make the progress you want. But this is a great time to review, reflect and reset your goals, before other priorities take over and you no longer have the time or opportunity. Many of your friends and family or clients will be in a similar position, so reach out to them and offer to talk. You can also see how they are feeling, how they are coping and then use our five step process to help them review what they want to achieve long term.

This global pandemic has shown us that we may not always be in full control of what is happening, but we can control how we react to it and what impact it has on what we do or don’t achieve. Please use this time to focus on staying positive and share that energy with the people around you.

And finally

We are constantly adding content to the site, so please check our on-line shop or read some of the other blog posts written by our team of international coaches.