James' Story

James has registered for a goal setting course. He tells his friends about it, and they laugh and say that it sounds like a waste of time. They ask him "what do you want to do that for?". James just shrugs, and tells them that the school counsellor is making him do it.

"What do you want to do that for?" James thinks about this question a lot in the week before the class starts. He realises that he's not satisfied with the way things are going for him at the moment, and if he wants things to change, he's going to have to do something about it.

A week later, James is sitting in the goal setting workshop, and the trainer starts talking about how important it is to understand exactly where you're starting from if you're going to get where you're going. This makes a lot of sense to James. It's harder to reach a destination if you don't know where you're starting from, and you can't track your progress if you don't know what your starting position is. Elite athletes know exactly where their fitness is at, and where it needs to be.

The first exercise they do in the course is to complete a life chart. James gives himself a rating from 1-10 in six different areas of his life. He's happy with how things are going with his friends, but he realises that he's not doing as well as he would like in other areas, especially his schoolwork.

James is still not sure if the goal setting workshop is going to help him at all, but he decides that he's going to give it a go. He's got a good idea of where he is at the moment in his life, and he's not satisfied with it. He knows that he probably can do better, and he can already think of some changes he'd like to make. It might not sound like much, but it's a start...

Activity

Create your own life circle. This exercise will give you a snapshot of where you are in your life right now.

What you need to do:

1. Print out a copy of this worksheet: File:Life chart worksheet.pdf
2. Give yourself a rating from 1-10 in each of the areas listed on the chart. Mark your score in each area with a dot.
3. Join the dots together. Does your life look balanced? What areas do you need to work on the most?

Case Study

Stella's Story

Stella has been talking with her aunty Maria. Maria is a life coach and she's encouraging Stella to set some goals and make an action plan. There are lots of things that Stella wants to do: she wants to get her school work back on track, she wants to make some friends at her new school, and she wants to work on her fitness. It all seems overwhelming, and Stella doesn't know where to start.

Maria suggests that Stella set herself a 24 hour goal. "You don't have to do everything all at once," she explains, "it takes time to make these kinds of changes. Why don't you start by setting yourself one small goal? Something that you know you can do and will be easy to achieve."

"Well, I suppose I could start by going for a run", says Stella. "That's something I could do in the next 24 hours". "That's perfect," says Maria, "you'll have made a start on working on your fitness. I'll give you a call tomorrow night to check that you've done it!".

Activity

Set yourself a 24 hour goal.

What you need to do:

1. Choose the area of your life you think you most need to work on (for example, you might choose fitness, friends, or schoolwork). If you've completed the life circle exercise above, you'll have a good idea about what you need to work on the most.
2. Decide on one action you can take that will make a difference in that area of your life. It doesn't need to make a big difference, just something that will be a positive step and can be achieved in 24 hours. Important! Make sure that the action you commit to is something that you are absolutely sure you can do.
3. Tell a friend, a teacher, or a member of your family exactly what you are going to do, and ask them to check if you've done it in 24 hours time.
4. Did you achieve your 24 hour goal? If you did, take a photo that represents your goal and post it to this Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1194154@N25/. If you didn't, write down the reasons why you weren't able to achieve it, and what you could have done differently.