We've almost come to the close of another year, and the new year is awaiting us with possibilities. I have the pleasure of welcoming Monique Malcolm of Keep Chasing the Stars to the blog today. She has really unique insights to share on how we can best achieve our big dreams... my favorite bit of wisdom is at the very end!
How do we achieve the big goals we set out there for the new year?
How did you get started as a coach?
It happened organically. I spent a few years teaching middle school so the desire to educate and help people figure things out was already there. Coaching felt like the most logical next step for me.
What do you find most of us struggle with in terms of setting goals?
The dreaming and planning phases are easy but when it comes to execution, that's where things stall out. There are a variety of reasons why this happens. The three most common reasons that I find are the motivation fizzles, life happens or the fear of having to step up and get it done takes over.
What's the game changer to achieve our goals?
You have to be clear about the work that's required to get what you want. It's a really straightforward thing to do, but most people skip over this step. This is exactly why New Year's resolutions fail. Achieving your goals takes work. There will be days where the work is easy and other days it will just suck, but you still have to do it. We don't spend enough time considering the amount of effort we will have to put out to get what we want. Once you reconcile with the work required and commit to doing it, your progress will be explosive.
Tell us about the Visionary Journal and what you hope people might get out of it.
I was really intentional not to make the Visionary Journal revolve around to-do lists. Planning around your to-do list is ineffective because it doesn't reflect your goals.
The Visionary Journal was designed to be actionable and to force you to plan ahead. There are very few goals that can be achieved being short sighted and planning day-to- day. You really need to be thinking about the big picture and how everything (especially your goals) fits together. I hadn't found a paper planning system that reflected that philosophy so I created it. My goal with the Visionary Journal is to help big dreamers become even bigger doers.
If you're intentional about the actions you take on a daily basis I promise you the payoff will be ten times greater.
Monique Malcolm of Keep Chasing the Stars talks about her Visionary Journal.
Are you making any New year's resolutions? What do you recommend to clients?
No, I don't have any New Year's Resolutions. The things that I want to improve about myself, life and business I've already started working on now. I know the excitement of a clean slate at the beginning of the year prompts people to want to make huge life changes, but you don't have to wait until some opportune time. It's a New Year, yes, but you get a clean slate every minute of your life. Don't wait. Make the change now so that it will be a habit by the New Year.