Today is the first Monday of July which means our SOAR! Recipients, the SOARORITY forum and anyone else who would like to join in, gets a fresh Business Coaching Exercise!  I’d like to welcome one of our fabulous Business Coaches, Karen Buckley!  May her wisdom inspire you to take your business to new heigths this month!

More from me, my dad and an exciting opportunity for you–all to come this week!  Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July!  Oh!  Email me your Firework Photo-Recipe results!  I was thinking of posting a handful this week for everyone to see!

xoxo, Me Ra

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Why bother with Goals, Milestones and Actions Plans for the rest of 2010? by SOAR! Business Coach and Partner, Karen Buckley

Setting goals, milestones, and actions sound kind of boring, right?   They are a big ‘Should’ but not all that high on the list of priorities. Or we might write them up but never look at the list again!  Then, the “even bigger smuck” feeling sets in. (anyone else relate? 🙂 ) Setting goals, milestones, and action plans that work is a challenge for every woman (and man) we coach.

There was a moment, a favorite moment when I got why goals were so important.  Let me explain. I was complaining to another mom about the drudgery of cooking two dinners – one for my husband Rick and me and one of whatever the kid’s were willing to eat at that moment (burritos with only beans and cheese again?). I wanted my kids to eat everything and I was ready to force the issue.

My goal could have been to make my kids eat everything. Instead, I said to my mom friend,  “my goal is to make dinner more fun and interesting for us all this month. I will know I’ve made progress when we are all laughing, smiling and eating whatever is served.”

I planned simple dinners with variety, panache, and personality. Yes, burritos, but a ‘build your own burrito bar’ in cute bowls. Burgers and pasta made the menu. New items ranged from quiche, to pesto potatoes, salad from our garden (dad built a tower of carrot and celery sticks with lettuce stuffed in the middle), broccoli stir-fry and more. The message was clear – this is dinner and it’s the most fun. You eat or you don’t but there’s no cereal instead. (I learned that one night of starvation won’t kill them! 🙂

Thanks to my very silly husband we made every night totally outrageous. Have you ever seen a pre-dinner parade complete with kazoos? Eat on the trampoline dinner? By the time they reached their plates they were laughing and in contact with us. (versus bleary eyed from homework or tv)

After several nights of new food, I knew I was pushing it. So, I planned a BIG surprise – Strawberry Shortcake for Dinner! Red cocktail napkins, plate sized homemade biscuits, mounds of fresh strawberries, and a veritable vat of fresh whipped cream ( just a pinch of sugar). Flour, butter, fruit, milk. A healthy dinner! They ate and ate – big grins made it the most fun ever – and because I was so radical they never complained (much) again. (Plus, it’s a family legend now!)

Here we are in our bean and cheese burrito days…

Rule #1 on setting an Intention or Goal: Be sure it accurately reflects what you want. My goal was to make dinner more fun and interesting for us all. This goal got my creativity and inspiration going! I thought about it during the day, asked other mom’s for ideas. It gave me a lift!

A good goal gives you energy, draws your attention away from distractions, and wakes you up with inspiration. Look for 1-3 goals and write them down.

What are milestones? Those are the mile markers on your journey to the goal. A big grin dinner (for all of us – including me) was it for me. Then I knew I was on track and on my way to transforming our family dinners.

Set a milestone that gets you jazzed when you reach it. I’m finishing our book on the Nine Facets of Feminine Wisdom. It’s a lot of work! My milestone could be: finish the Wisdom Chapter. Kind of big and dull. A better milestone for me: write a core statement about wisdom as the touchstone for the chapter. That’s an intriguing challenge plus once I have that, the chapter is easy to write

What are your milestones? 1-2 for each goal please.

Action plans? Easy – the list of key next steps that are both timely and important that will move you toward your goal this week or this month. The caution? Don’t get caught in too much detail. Less is more. Focus on the “big rocks” first. (remember that blog in May?)  List 2 action steps for each goal. Make sure they are high-leverage, move you forward and doable.

Planning doesn’t have to take much time – make it fun and interesting like the dinners. Keep the goal in mind – building a business that gets you up every morning with passion and purpose.

What gets in the way? If you start – then stop – it’s probably good’ole resistance to change what is taking you down. Much as we want to do new things, we tend to keep ourselves locked into what we know with old repetitive ‘stories’ about ourselves or the world around us. Anyone hear themselves say, “No one wants to hear me say what I think.” “My childhood was too hard.” “I’ve tried before and I always fail.” Yuck! It’s time to replace those stories (even when we have a lot of proof that they are “true”) As a wise woman in my women’s group said last night, the only way to write a new life story is to take one step and another in a new direction.

Go for it! We are all cheering you on. Write them up and share your goals, milestones, and action plans on the Soarority. I’ll share a couple of mine with you! And, in case you think your kids will never grow up past the ‘I don’t wanna’ stage, here we are last week on the big island of Hawai’i for our 30th wedding anniversary.

With warmest regards,

Karen

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Passion and Purpose FREE Teleclass Wednesday, July 7 with SOAR! guest blogger Julie Watts being interviewed by Karen Buckley and Fay Freed. Sign up now to get the call in information.

Jump on in! Momentum in Business Success Coaching Group – starts August 4th on your telephone. It’s reasonably priced and the results are superb with a small group of  7 women!