Enough or too much?

A coaching client set up a small business recently and set himself a timescale of 2 years to have the business up and running in the way he visualised it.  We talked a lot about the timescale and why he had decided it would take this long.  Eventually, he re-set the timescale, in fact, he reduced it by almost half.  What actually happened was that he achieved the goals he set for himself in even less time than that.

During our discussions, we talked a lot about goals in the comfort zone, stretch zone and panic zone.  The timescale he initially set for himself was in his comfort zone, and seemed so far away there was a real danger it wouldn't be achieved at all.  After talking about a timescale that really set him panicking, he decided on something which put him into his stretch zone: he could still sleep at night, but the goal was exciting and motivating enough to also get him out of bed in the morning.

Really getting the right goal is essential to achievement, as is having the right timescale, and then being able to break it down into manageable steps which keep you motivated and having a sense of moving forwards.  Getting the balance between making your goals truly achievable, but also exciting enough to keep feeling challenged is the key.  That's where the objective input from a coach will make the difference.

It doesn't always feel easy to do something new, or to tackle an old issue in a different way, so having support to keep going and stay on track is great:

'I'm always doing things I can't do - that's how I get to do them' - Picasso.