Setting Goals & Action Plan

Hello and welcome to Living a Purposeful Life,

A 7 day challenge here on Insight Timer,

Crafted to support you to go after a life that feels aligned with your values,

Your goals and your unique priorities.

Congratulations for making it to the end.

I hope that you have a feeling of pride for giving yourself the space and time to reflect on what a more aligned life means for you.

My name is Kemi Neckferpil and I am delighted to be back with you on the final day,

Supporting you to step into your life with more clarity,

Alignment and agency over the direction of your life.

Over the last few days,

You have learnt new things about yourself and how you show up in your life and how you want to show up in your life.

In some areas,

There's probably not much work to do because you are already in alignment in those areas.

And if so,

Congratulations.

Do whatever you have been doing,

Keep doing it,

It's working.

But there will be other areas where you want to focus your energy and time because you want more alignment in those areas.

Seven day challenges like these,

Where you have concentrated time to focus and reflect are always powerful.

But what happens when the challenge ends?

Hopefully,

You have already taken some action,

Big or small,

To move toward a more aligned life in the last six days.

But taking action does not stop because the challenge stops.

This has been a foundation for you,

A springboard of sorts.

So how do you bring this awareness and agency into your life ongoingly?

As a coach,

I know there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to anything.

Alignment and purpose is different for every single one of us.

So what I want to do now is give you some guidelines to play with as you continue on your journey of personal development and moving toward a more purposeful,

Meaningful,

Fulfilling and aligned life.

We all know that taking action can be hard.

So I want to share ways that you can support yourself.

And this process will allow you to create an action plan that is going to move you beyond the challenge and into your day-to-day.

So once again,

Make sure you have your journal or a pen or notepad paper ready.

So the first part is,

Go back through your notes,

Your insights and your reflections from the last six days of the challenge and write down one action that you can take from each teacher's session.

For example,

It may be,

I can call my brother and say I miss him and would like to see him more often.

Or it may be,

I will ask my boss for more flexible hours,

Or I'll ask my partner to tell me how she is feeling,

Or I'm going to call the bank and ask about ways to start paying off my debts.

Just one action for each day means that you'll have six actions in your action plan.

Next,

Put next to each action how long it will take for you to complete that one particular action.

For example,

To call your brother to say that you'll miss him,

How long will that take?

One minute?

Maybe two minutes?

Asking your boss for more flexible hours,

That could maybe take 10 minutes to 30 minutes.

So just put down next to each action how long it will actually take you,

Because we forget to write down how long it will take us.

And when we do it,

Suddenly we go,

Oh my gosh,

I can move towards alignment by taking an action that's going to take me 60 seconds,

Whereas in our head,

We add so much weight to it that it feels like it's a year long action,

But actually it's a 60 second action.

Once you have put next to each of the six actions how long it's going to take you,

I then want you to order each of the six actions with the easiest at the bottom.

So the one that's,

You know,

You haven't done it,

You've put it off,

But it's actually quite easy for you to take,

Especially now you know how long it's going to take you.

And with the hardest action at the top.

Now you have an action plan with six actions.

You know how long each action is going to take you and you know which is the easiest action to take and which is the hardest action to take.

Now the next phase of this process is going to be dependent on your personality or,

And the current responsibilities and commitments and capacity that you have in your life right now.

So you are either going to want to tackle the hardest action first,

Just get it done,

Take it off of the list,

And just know that by doing the hardest action first,

Everything else feels easier,

Or you're going to want to take the easiest action first because taking the easiest action will gently ease you into moving towards the hardest action.

So once again,

This is your action plan.

This is about you knowing yourself and where you are in your life right now.

Remember I said at the beginning,

This isn't about judgment.

There's no,

I should take the hardest action.

It's what is relevant and reasonable for me right now that I can actually commit.

Which leads me to the next part.

The first step is always commitment.

How and what are you going to commit to?

So let's have a look at this.

It could be that you commit to one action of your six.

You don't have to do them all.

It is your life.

Or it could be that you are committing to all six.

Depending on the actions,

You could take them all today in just one day.

That's it.

Which will give you an incredible momentum and imagine how you would feel at the end of the day.

Or you could take one action for the next six to seven days.

Imagine how you'd feel at the end of the week.

Or the most powerful thing for you because of where you are in your life,

Your capacity,

Your responsibilities,

Maybe that you take one action a week or one action a month.

And that could literally be you putting in your calendar or in your phone alignment action today for the next six Mondays or for the next six months.

Imagine how you would feel at the end of six months knowing that you've taken an action a month to move you towards alignment.

Remember it's your life,

Your action plan,

At your pace,

In your time.

What is important is that you set yourself up to succeed.

Because when we feel a sense of success and momentum,

We keep going.

If you make it too big for yourself,

If your action plan is too big,

You are unlikely to take the first action,

Which will not move you forward.

So remember,

One action at a time.

And this leads me to my final suggestion,

Because I believe that we were never meant to do life on our own.

So tell someone,

Tell a cheerleader in your life,

Someone who supports your growth.

And it's very important,

The person that you choose to tell,

Or you may have more than one cheerleader,

But you only need one for this particular process.

Let that person know the actions that you are committed to taking so that you can achieve a more aligned life and have a bigger sense of agency in your life right now.

Now that person could be an accountability partner.

So every time you take an action,

You set up that you send them a text or you give them a call or leave them a voicemail and let them know you've taken the action.

It could be that you ask them to check in with you.

Once again,

Depending on who you are and your personality and who you know yourself to be,

What are the support systems that you need to move yourself into more alignment?

Needing and wanting support is part of the human experience.

It is not weakness.

It is strength to ask for what it is that we need from another person.

And if you feel that you don't have that person,

Because the reality is,

Is that not everyone has people in their lives that do support their growth and are kind of cheering for them and rooting for them.

So if you don't feel that you have that person in your life,

Tap into this wonderful insight timer community,

Because everyone in this community is a cheerleader.

So share in the discussion forum,

Your action or your action plan.

Not only will it hold you accountable to yourself and the community,

But you will definitely be inspired by the sharing and the actions and action plans of everyone else.

There is something incredibly powerful about knowing as you're moving towards a life of alignment,

There are people from all over the world doing this challenge and moving towards a life of alignment with you.

As I wrap up this challenge,

I want to say a thank you to you for doing the work,

The work of personal growth and healing.

Healing oneself is the hardest and most rewarding work that we can do,

Not only for ourselves,

But for humanity as a whole.

We don't just do the work for ourselves.

We do the work to make the world a better place for more people.

So on behalf of myself and the other teachers,

It has been an honour and delight to support you to move towards a more aligned and fulfilling life.

My name is Kemi Nekfer-Pill and remember,

One action,

One shift at a time.

Take care and thank you.