A very human attempt at working on my professional (stretchy) goal
Original post on LinkedIn.
“Sharing online is easy. Just tell stories in an authentic way.”
NOT FOR ME. 🙋♀️ 🙈
This has been my “professional development goal” for the last 6 months (or as I like to call it... my stretchy goal).
Here is my non-linear journey for making progress on this goal.
This is for you if you are curious about how to keep momentum on a development goal as a real human that struggles with goals sometimes (or life, lbh). I also share a bunch of tactics if you are working on a similar goal.
And if you want to set a stretchy goal for 2022... make sure you add this to your calendar.
I have designed a goal-setting workshop specifically for people who like challenges but avoid, ignore, or dislike goal-setting.
My Stretchy Goal
Be more “me” online so people can connect with me + the Work Well Warriors movement
Place I started:
2/10. I get nervous or go blank about what to post. I avoid it, get busy, second-guess myself.
Brain drama 😱 along the lines of...
I don't want to look silly
I don't want people to judge me
I don't want to seem like I'm trying to force "funny"
I don't want to bother people
I'm just not a social media person
Process for working on my stretchy goal:
The main thing was setting myself up with the Warrior Formula. I share a bit more about that here & we dive deep in Dial In - our foundational program for resetting work on your terms.
Here is how it played out:
1 - Clear picture of what “good” looks
"I feel really comfortable online. I “go first” and share my own story about work & life on my terms. I invite others to do the same - to share, to think, to explore. I am showing up regularly, with plenty of videos. I cut out the irrelevant stuff & share stories that connect emotionally. I show a wide range of my emotions."
2 - Tactics I tried over 6 months
“Live everyday in May”. My kicking off point. Created our Instagram account (finally), and made sure to do at least 1 story every single day. Success.
Took a Storytelling Mastery course from one my coaches Shoshanna Raven. Completely perfectionism’ed (can that be a word?) my way out and didn’t post again for months because I couldn’t do it “right”. Fail.
Facilitated our Dial In program. Bought in more stories. The journey of Work Well Warriors, why I am here advocating for work & life "on your terms". SUCCESS. Yay!!! Learnt telling stories is less scary with faces on the Zoom screen.
Joined a coaching group around confidence & leadership (again with Shoshanna Raven). Starting to think about myself differently & how to care less about what people “might” think… and anchor on talking to other humans who value seeing a friendly, real face talking about doing things on your terms. Success.
Started collecting random ideas in my phone, notes section, google doc, Trello board. Now overwhelmed with many half-formed ideas. Mixed success > fail. (still haven't revisited yet).
Commit to 3 x posts a week. Success!
Testing Point:
I quit my job. And that came with TEARS. Puffy, juicy, red-eye tears.
And as I was writing my announcement post, I realised... sh*t. THIS is the bit I need to share, isn't it. 😂
I leant in. I shared the first picture of me crying on social media. Post here.
I realised how far I have come to get here. 💚
The Overall Journey:
Working on a skill-based stretchy goal, the starting point was still the clear & compelling picture of what "good" looks like. From there I alternated:
Practice: just gettin' in and doing it.
Learning: for when I wanted to level up and get new inputs. Note... this is NOT doing the thing. And in fact it was doing a course that meant I STOPPED for a couple of months 😂
Coaching: loooove being in the energy of other amazing people doing the thing. It also helps having a mentor or someone doing the thing in the way you want to. Great when I lost the momentum on my own.
More Practice: yep. No escaping this one.
Final Thoughts:
Stretchy goals aren't about the end picture. They are who you BECOME as you experiment & play with them.
Big hugs & see you at the stretchy goal-setting workshop!
💚 Steph
Share with me: what does good, gritty, stretchy, fun goal-setting look like to you?