Goal Setting: Play to your strengths

Play to your strengths
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When I am assisting my clients develop the strategies they need to get on with their lives I always advise them to "play" to their strengths.

It's no good saying you want to climb mount everest if:

a) you don't like the cold
b) you don't like camping (where you can almost guarantee to be cold and wet at some point during your trip)
c) you haven't hiked let alone attempted to climb a mountain before
d) you're not willing to train to at least overcome your lack offitness
e) you would prefer to be sitting at your desk writing your novel

Whilst some of the above can be overcome by sheer determination - wouldn't it be easier to play to your strengths - and if you're not sure what those are - you need to observe your day, but better still get someone else to tell you (if you can't work it out). Actually it's not a bad thing to do - just to compare their reality with yours.

When you begin to play to your strengths you begin to see what is and is not possible. When you play to your strengths you get so much more done than if you are struggling to learn something new.

Am I saying you shouldn't learn something new - no, not at all, because the new stretches your mind. The more "new" you can add to your repertoire, the sooner you will find whether your new is your real strength amd that's where you should be devoting your time and energy.

It sounds like I am contradicting myself - but I'm not. Your goals have to be believable TO YOU. If you don't believe you would enjoy climbing Mt Everest, then you won't do the training, you won't do the conditioning and you won't be able to write your book about the experience when you get back.

So - play to your strengths when determining your first goal list for 2009 - spend some time between now and christmas working out just what it is you are good at - then ask - and what do I want 2009 to look like?

With many thoughts

Elle