Reflect, consolidate and move forward...

As the end of the year is rapidly approaching, it is a good time to reflect and
review the last 12 months, to celebrate your achievements, appreciate your efforts and to analyse what stopped you from achieving your goals (if any) and resolutions that you set yourself at the beginning of the year.

Sometimes I find I can be quite hard on myself if I haven't accomplished everything I set myself to achieve, but then I wonder if the goals I set were realistic or if any goal I haven't achieved was that important to me anyway, because if I really really wanted it to happen, I would have found the time, energy and motivation, and would have done everything in my power to achieve it, right? Then, I think to myself that maybe I expect too much from myself? Sounds familiar?

Whatever the reason may be, I think it is crucial to take time to think about what is really important to you and what you would like to accomplish in the year to come. If the goal you are setting really matters to you, then you are more likely to find the motivation and drive to achieve it. To help you appreciate your accomplishments and set important goals you may want to consider some of the questions below:

Reviewing the last year:

What have been your 3 biggest achievements / accomplishments of 2013?

What are you most proud of achieving?

What are the top three lessons you have learned this year?

What one personal quality have you developed most in 2013? (For example: patience, empathy or courage etc.)


Planning the year to come:

What are your top three priorities for the coming year?

What makes it important to you?

What would your end goal look / feel / sound like?

What would the outcome be if you achieve your goal?

What would be the consequences of not achieving your goal?

How will you achieve your goal?

Who can support you in achieving your goal?

When will you achieve it by?

You don't need to wait until January to make a list of your New Year's resolutions. Your goals can be set any time of the year, all you need is a pen and paper. I hope that these few questions will help you with successful goal setting.

Good luck!

Time to reassess your priorities?

It has been a while since I’ve written anything. This year has been truly life changing for me and it’s been very busy at the same time. As some of you may know, I gave birth at the end of January to my lovely son Tomas. I also got married at the beginning of October so it definitely has been a very hectic and exciting year so far.

I have to admit that as much as I love, and continue coaching and helping others to improve their lives, my primary focus and priorities for the last year have been elsewhere….

Priorities are usually strongly connected to our value system, therefore what is important to us determines our priorities and what actions we take. Our actions speak for themselves, so if you notice that you are not taking action, maybe you should take time to review your priorities?

Our values and priorities change over time, but what is interesting is the fact that we tend to stop, question and look more deeply at the things that matter to us in light of a big life event such as illness, birth of a child, divorce, redundancy… Usually, when these things take place, people start appreciating their life more, start spending more quality time with family and friends, and look after their health more, but why does it take something major to happen before we take the time to think about what is important to us? Why do we get so immersed in things around us that actually are not that important? Maybe if we took more time to set our priorities correctly, we would place more attention and energy where it belongs and take action to improve our life and live the life we want to live.

So if you have lost your motivation, or noticed that you are drifting away from one or more of your core values, or simply haven’t taken action in the area of life that is important to you, then maybe this can be a good time to review your values and priorities?

Here is an exercise to look at what matters to you and to help you to gain alignment with what truly matters.

1. Write a list of the most important aspects of your life. These "aspects" will vary depending on your values and what matters to you in your life. Examples can be: Family, career, health / fitness, spiritual growth, friendship, money, fun, travel etc. Out of all the “aspects” of life you listed, which ones are the most important to you?

2. Make a list of the things you spend most of your time doing and thinking about. Now, be honest with yourself even if you are not proud of the activities and thoughts you focus on. Take inventory of your day today (as well as the past few days, weeks and months) and make a list of what you spend your time and attention on. Does it correlate with your values and priorities?

3. Compare the two lists and see how you can get them even more aligned. Don’t get discouraged if you notice that the lists are not very compatible. Instead spend some time investigating what you want to eliminate from your agenda and what you can do to spend your time and energy on what really matters to you!