What are *your* life's goals?

Is a question that regularly comes up in coaching conversations especially where "success" (different, more or otherwise) is stated as a goal.

Here is what has emerged from the many conversations where my clients have explored this topic for themselves

Quiet time for reflection helps with this process

Reflect on Your Passions: Write about the activities, subjects, or causes that give rise to a sense of excitement and fulfillment within you. What are the common themes or threads you see? How might you incorporate them into your long-term goals?

Visualize Your Ideal Life: Sitting quietly imagine your life in five, ten, or twenty years time. What does your ideal life look like in terms of relationships, health, career and, personal fulfillment? Describe this vision to yourself in detail (for best results write it out or draw a map to make it more "real") and consider what steps you can take to bring it to fruition: what are you already doing? what do you need to start doing? What will you have to leave behind or stop doing?

Identify Your Values: Reflect on the principles and values that are most important to you. What do you stand for? What kind of legacy do you want to leave? How can you align your life goals with these core values to create a meaningful and purpose-driven existence?*

Explore Your Strengths and Skills: List your strengths, talents, and skills (please, no false modesty tell the truth here). What are you naturally good at? What can you do to use these strengths to pursue goals that are both challenging and rewarding? Consider how you can further develop these skills to achieve success in your chosen endeavors

Set SMART Goals: Use the SMART criteria (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) to set clear and actionable goals for different areas of your life, such as relationships, health, career, community, personal growth, and finance. Try breaking down each goal into smaller, manageable tasks, and create a timeline for achieving them

*the amazing Brene Brown offers a simple activity to help you with this step. Alternately the equally amazing Jean Balfour offers a similar Career Values tool