Goal evaluation

Hello coaches, having done my evaluation for my goal last month, I’m not quite sure if I’m being kind to myself or simply letting myself off the hook for not prioritising it better.

The goal was to practice decluttering and letting things go using a minimum baseline approach.

What went well – I cleared away clutter on a windowsill, cleared out the rubbish from my handbag and went through my sock draw and got rid of all the socks with holes in them. I applied a minimum baseline approach and finished every decluttering task I started. So technically I achieved my goal.

I also gained some self awareness about why I find letting things go difficult and had some really funny conversations about it with my partner, which felt loving, connected and hilarious.

What didn’t go well – I only decluttered three things in the entire month, with many bigger decluttering tasks left undone.

What would I do differently – perhaps prioritise it more effectively to get more things decluttered, but at the same time I am not prepared to give myself a hard time for not achieving my goal properly. Loads of other great stuff happened in the month, as I re-enngaged with an old hobby, I said yes to a freelancing opportunity, I’ve met up with friends, had first appointment to get started with IVF and had some difficult and loving conversations with my partner.

Despite the fact I’m aware that letting things go and decluttering is challenging for me, I’m not particularly interested in setting another goal or extending this one to keep focusing on it. There’s other stuff that I want to work on and I think I will carry on just occasionally decluttering something to give myself practice, but without giving it the focus that centering a goal on it would.

BUT, there’s this part of me that thinks I should have achieved my goal properly and fully, like I should get an A* in decluttering before moving onto the next goal. This is something that I find tricky with working with goals. When I pick a goal which I manage to throw myself into, keep in focus throughout the time period and achieve clear results (or even fail spectacularly) then its straightforward. But what about occasions such as this, where I sort of achieved it, but it doesn’t really feel that way because there’s so much room to have done it ‘better’?

 

 

Answer:

You get to decide the story you tell about yourself and your goal, period.  Let this sink deep into your bones. It sounds to me like you’re already on your way to recognizing this. What if you took the next step and really committed to it? Look at what you’ve written here, even copy/paste it into a word document. Edit out all the parts where you aren’t the hero in your story. Edit out the “what-ifs and “buts.” Add in the wins and the perfect choices you made. How was this last month a raging success? What was awesome about it? See what comes up and bring back and questions or models you find.