• Life Designing, Values Coaching & Goal Setting

“To realise ones’ destiny is a person’s only obligation.”

From The Alchemist | Paulo Coelho

Values Coaching, Goal Setting and Life Designing is part of our DNA. Before you can look at your ideal business or ideal career, you first must look at your ideal life, and to do that you need to ‘know thyself’ and where you are going.

In order to know where you are going, you first must know where you have been. Our stories, values, roles models, interests and hobbies are the golden threads that guide us to who we are today and who we are aspiring to become.

Savickas & Glavin 2020, “As we grow in life, we experience both positive and negative events, from each of these we learn how to move from:

  • Pain to Passion
  • Tension to Intension
  • Symptom to Strength
  • Victim to Victor
  • And finally, we learn how to actively master what we passively suffer.”

They are the stories of our lives that shape us into who we are today, and once we have mastered them, they then become our greatest gift to help others.

What is Life Designing?

What is Life Designing all about? In this COVID VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) world we are operating in, the only constant is change.

This change causes disruption and uncertainty and cuts to the very core of our personal values and shakes us up.

It impacts our decision making, especially if we, or those around us have lost our jobs or businesses. It can make us feel stressed, anxious and at times depressed.

In any state, what this makes us do is reflect on our lives, and consider what is important, and what we want our future to look like, and what we want our ‘new normal’ to be. And, what we want to keep, and what we want to delete?

In fact, we are creating a life by design instead of by default, as we reskill and reimagine our future.

As leaders, in this environment, the best strategies we can apply to help our people and business, is Vision, Understanding, Clarity and Adaptability.  The ‘best practice’ of today needs to incorporate the ‘best thinking’ of tomorrow to succeed, and doing that together, is always better than doing it alone.

  • Life Designing, Values Coaching & Goal Setting

What are Values and why are they important?

Values are beliefs or ideals about what is good or bad and desirable or undesirable. Values have major influence on a person’s behavior and attitude and serve as broad guidelines in all situations. (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/values.html)

Our values are important because they define us. They inform our thoughts, words and actions and help us make decisions about how to live our lives. They help us to grow and develop and they help us to create the future we want to experience.

Every individual and every organisation is involved in making hundreds of decisions every day. The decisions we make are a reflection of our values and beliefs, and they are always directed towards a specific purpose. That purpose is the satisfaction of our individual or collective (organisational) needs. (Barrett Values Centre (BVC) www.valuescentre.com)

Why is living in alignment with your values important?

For those who want to be the best version they can be in various roles they have in life, living in alignment is critical.

Living in alignment is about matching your “real behaviors” with your “ideal values.” Living out of alignment is a source of stress, dissatisfaction and poor decision-making. (Think2Perform.com)

Our values often change over time, it is good to redo them each year. It is also a wonderful to share your values with your family and friends. You will be amazed at what you discover about one and another.

Values and vision enable us to cut through the chaos and the noise, to see the opportunities, to better position ourselves, our people, and our business for the future.

What is important about Goal Setting?

Goal Setting is powerful. It helps trigger new behaviours, helps guides your focus, and helps you sustain that momentum in life.

In the end, you can’t manage what you don’t measure, and you can’t improve upon something that you don’t properly manage. Setting goals can help you do all of that and more.

Goal setting can lead to greater success and performance. Setting goals not only motivates us but can also improve our mental health and our level of personal and professional success. (positivepyschology.com)

The Research

The research about Goal Setting from the Dr Gail Matthews of the Dominican University in California USA, clearly shows setting goals does lead to success. The most effective way to achieve this:

  1. WRITE THEM DOWN: Written goals are more successful then unwritten goals.
  2. SHARE THEM: Telling a friend further increases your success of achieving your goal.
  3. COMBINED APPROACH: Written goals + action plan + telling a friend + weekly accountability progress has the highest level of success for goal achievement. dominican.edu/sites/default/files/2020-02/gailmatthews-harvard-goals-researchsummary.pdf

What we know from our own experience of goal setting, is that
people are happier because they feel more in control about their
future because they have a plan on how to achieve it.

Where do I start?

Life Designing is where you start, it is all about YOU. It helps you re-evaluate what is important in your life and at work and allows you to design one that is meaningful to you. It can be run in teams, for businesses, for couples, for individuals, for clients, for retreats, in boardrooms, in parks, face-to-face or via zoom. It all works, and it covers the following 4 key modules:

  1. Your Values (30 mins)
  2. Your Wheel of Life (30 Mins)
  3. Your Goals (30 Mins)
  4. Your Key Motivators (30 Mins)

At the end of our session, you will walk away, knowing your top 5 values, key motivators, with clear goals on how to create a less stressful, and more meaningful, happy, and successful life for you.

Once you have learnt how to use the tools, you can use them with your partner, your family, and your friends. You will be amazed at what you discover and the positive impact it can have on those around you, at home and at work.   It has the “Butterfly Effect”.

What are the benefits?

As an Employer, it is a great way to enhance your people, improve culture and wellbeing, and most importantly show your teams you care, and they matter.

It is a way of giving back and helping them feel less stressed, anxious, and nervous about the current environment and more certain about their future.

When people live more in alignment with their core values, they are naturally happier at home and at work, therefore less distracted and more productive.

When people share their values, group cohesion is formed.

Just reach out if you would like to know more.

We will share how we are currently assisting Individuals, Business Owners, Financial Planning Practices, Corporate and Clubs and discuss how we could tailor it for you.

  • Book your own complimentary 30-minute call to “Chat with Cate”

    If you would like to know more about this workshop, just reach out and connect. We will share how we are currently assisting Individuals, Business Owners, Financial Planning Practices, Corporates and Clubs and discuss how we could tailor it for your needs, your audience, and your budget.

    E: coach@inspirationcafe.com.au.

    Book a call with Cate