The Life Design News

Past Newsletters

Create Your Future!

In the past newsletters I have been sharing my experiences as to what works best to enable individuals and groups to develop themselves in a balanced way. To keep things simple and memorable, I formed them into an acronym called "NICHE". This process is about identifying and creating your own "NICHE" in life.

Nourish Balance - The first element is to nourish balance by developing a vision for your life. What in the best of all worlds do you want your life to look like? What kind of lifestyle to you desire? What is your ideal day? What do you need to change in your life?

Invest in Your Skills - It then becomes essential to identify what your top skills are. What do others seek out from you? How are you investing in your natural talents? Do you have a professional development plan?

Clarify your Values - think about what matters to you most right now. What do you really care about? What must you have in your life today? What is missing or in conflict now? How are you fulfilling your values in your daily life?

Help Others and Yourself - We also need to keep in mind that we are not alone on this journey! Think about the people you care about in your life. Who have you not seen in a while? Who do you respect or learn a lot from? Who do you admire? Why not pick up the phone and call them to get together?

Engage! - By reflecting on these elements, you can ready yourself to set goals to move forward into the New Year!

Take Action: 10 Steps to Creating Compelling Goals!

The aim of this process is to enable you to select your highest priority goals and maximize your chances of achieving them!

List all of the things you want to achieve for yourself in the next year. Include personal and work related outcomes.
Prioritize the goals you have written down. Choose the top three and complete the remainder of the Steps for your top 3 goals.
Think of what you want rather than what you don't want. Write down what you really want. Ask: What would I rather have? What do I really want?
Imagine what it will be like to achieve this goal. Identify evidence that will let you know you have got it.
- What does it look like?
- What does it sound like?
- What does it feel like?
Decide the context in which you want this goal. Imagine the goal as specifically as you can. Ask: Who, where, what, when, how... specifically?
Check to be sure the goal is self-maintained, in other words that the achievement of the goal is down to you alone. Ask: What will I be doing to reach this? If it is not self-maintained, go back through the steps and re-write the goal so that you and you alone own it.
How does having this goal fit with who you are and who you want to become? Is it in alignment with your values? Ask: Is this an expression of who I really want to be?
Check consequences of achieving the goal relative to your life and relationships. Ask: Who (what) else does this affect?
Do you have the resources and choices to get your outcome? Ask: What resources do I need to get the outcome?
What action steps will you now take to achieve this goal? Are the steps the right size? If they are too large, break them down into smaller steps. They need to be small enough that you could complete an individual step inside a day’s activities. Take a step.

Wishing you much success in your journey!

Rob