Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that if you are working toward a goal,
Speaker 1: you should consider forming a club with other people pursuing
Speaker 1: their goals. Even if they're pursuing different goals, you can
Speaker 1: all support each other as you try to succeed. So
Speaker 1: it's no secret that many of us fall by the
Speaker 1: wayside with our goals. You meant to train for that
Speaker 1: half marathon, or eat five servings of fruit and vegetables,
Speaker 1: or apply to go back to school, but you know,
Speaker 1: life gets busy. We tend to prioritize the things that
Speaker 1: we know other people care about or expect. A goal
Speaker 1: club helps create that accountability. Think of something like weight watchers. Yes,
Speaker 1: the organization has provided education and such, but the group
Speaker 1: meetings are a big reasons some people find it effective.
Speaker 1: You're not trying to lose weight on your own, You're
Speaker 1: doing it with a group of people who share your
Speaker 1: goals and who are cheering you on. So if you
Speaker 1: have a goal that you are perhaps struggling with, consider
Speaker 1: forming a goal club of people who can help you
Speaker 1: in your pursuit. This could look different for different situations,
Speaker 1: but one possibility is to recruit a group of friends
Speaker 1: or colleagues who share the same goal as you. Maybe
Speaker 1: you and two of your colleagues are all trying to
Speaker 1: save up for down payments for your first homes. You
Speaker 1: can check in with each other weekly to make sure
Speaker 1: you are keeping spending reined in and that you have
Speaker 1: moved the proper chunk of each paycheck into a savings account.
Speaker 1: Or maybe you and two friends are all trying to
Speaker 1: write books. That's the goal club I am familiar with.
Speaker 1: For fiction or memoir, you can check in weekly on
Speaker 1: how many pages you have written, or perhaps for nonfiction,
Speaker 1: the steps you have taken toward producing a proposal, finding
Speaker 1: an agent, and so forth. You could also have a
Speaker 1: goal club composed of people working toward different goals. Your
Speaker 1: goal might be to save up for a down payment
Speaker 1: on a house within three years. One friend might be
Speaker 1: looking for another job, another might be trying to declutter
Speaker 1: her house. But all of you are setting a goal,
Speaker 1: identifying action steps, and tracking your efforts and progress, so
Speaker 1: you are well positioned to encourage and support each other.
Speaker 1: You can meet up for coffee once a week or so,
Speaker 1: and discuss what you've done, or else text or email
Speaker 1: your encouragement. For busy people, goal pursuit can fall to
Speaker 1: the bottom of the to do list, But if you
Speaker 1: know you're getting together with a goal club, you won't
Speaker 1: want to go to the gathering unprepared, so you are
Speaker 1: more likely to take the goal related actions you intended
Speaker 1: to do. When you encounter obstacles or get discouraged, a
Speaker 1: team of people is there to help you keep from
Speaker 1: giving up. To make this work, it might help to
Speaker 1: have a recurring agenda to keep your gatherings focused. First,
Speaker 1: every one reports on the intentions they set at the
Speaker 1: last meeting and what they've done since. Then, next, people
Speaker 1: take turns reporting on any obstacles they've encountered, as well
Speaker 1: as any questions or challenges they want feedback on. For
Speaker 1: a smaller group, people could troubleshoot right after each person reports.
Speaker 1: For a larger group, you could rotate which person you
Speaker 1: troubleshoot for as a group during the session. Then every
Speaker 1: one can set their intentions for what they'll do before
Speaker 1: the next meeting. You may be wondering how a goal
Speaker 1: club is different from the organic support you'd get from
Speaker 1: your friends as you pursued a goal. But I think
Speaker 1: the main way to think about this is to consider
Speaker 1: a book club. You could just get together with friends
Speaker 1: and maybe discuss books or maybe not, but people join
Speaker 1: book clubs in order to know that everyone is expecting
Speaker 1: to read the same thing and that they will be
Speaker 1: getting together to discuss what they have read. In a
Speaker 1: goal club, you meet regularly and with an agenda to
Speaker 1: focus on your goals. You are not catching up on
Speaker 1: life in general and maybe discussing your goal pursuits and
Speaker 1: maybe not. Everyone is aligned on why you are getting
Speaker 1: together and how you'll spend your time, and that makes
Speaker 1: it more likely that you will achieve your goals. If
Speaker 1: you create a goal club, I'd love to hear about it.
Speaker 1: You can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
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Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.