The Career Confidence Podcast
The Career Confidence Podcast
61. Setting Intentional Goals
Say goodbye to rushed resolutions and hello to crafting a vision for 2024 that's not just a list on a page, but a sustainable, fulfilling journey you'll embark on with joy.
This episode isn't just about setting the stage for a year of achieving your biggest goals; it's about understanding the 'why' of your dreams and leaving the 'how' for later.
With thought-provoking questions and a step-by-step process, I'll lead you through envisioning a future that resonates with who you are and who you aspire to become.
Turn off those notifications and take yourself on a goal-setting date to make this experience fun and exciting.
Get your free goal-setting spreadsheet HERE.
Work with me
The Unbound Lawyer coaching program HERE.
Book discovery call HERE.
Connect with the host:
Website: https://marijaduka.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marija-duka/
Instagram: @marija.duka
Welcome to the Career Confidence podcast, the podcast for driven lawyers wanting to step out of the traditional path and build fulfilling and purposeful careers. I'm your host, maria Duka, legal counsel and career coach, helping you navigate your career with intention and confidence. In this podcast, we don't show away from having real conversations about topics that matter to us. Driven AF go-getters From manifesting your dream career, negotiating the salary you deserve, creating your personal brand, knowing when it's time to pivot. We cover these topics and so much more. You ready, let's dive into today's episode.
Speaker 1:Happy New Year, my friend. I'm so excited to be back in your ears in 2024. I hope you had a restful break over the festive season. I hope that you had some time to reflect on your wins in 2023 and, yeah, just had some space for you to have some fun and create some beautiful memories with your loved ones. I had a very nice break. I had a couple of weeks off from both work and business and it was just such a really beautiful, spacious time. I actually spent the first week of my holidays cleaning the house. That's when you know you're well and truly in your 30s when you spend your holidays cleaning your house. But you know, I enjoy it. I love decluttering and just having things nice, clean and fresh before the start of a new year. And then the second week I caught up with friends, I spent time with family, I went to the beach. It was just really nice. To be honest, I actually felt really rested and ready to come back to work and business in the new year.
Speaker 1:Now, speaking of the new year, obviously this is a time where everyone's setting intentions. They're setting their goals, their new year's resolution and all of that, and rather than getting caught up in the hype and starting to create goals from a scarcity mindset place, I wanted to create this episode for you so that when you are creating your goals, you make sure that they are intentional and they mean something to you. So in this episode, I'm going to take you through a process that I take my clients on, a process that I use myself when setting goals, so that you ensure that your goals are sustainable and something that you're actually going to achieve. Right. Like we all get caught up in the hype of it all, we're also. I don't know why there's this sense of rush, like January 1st comes along and we all feel, unless we set all of our goals by January 1st, we somehow feel behind. But I just want to say that's not the case, and even if you don't feel like setting any goals or intentions until February, you know that's totally fine. If you love taking January to unwind and enjoy, enjoy the summer, that's also fine too. There is no rush because, at the end of the day, these are your goals and you're in competition with yourself and no one else, and you don't need to be in a rush and setting goals that don't mean anything to you. So let's dive into a process that I take my clients on to ensure that you set intentional goals, sustainable goals, ones that you are actually able to achieve and feel proud of at the end of the year. So let's do it.
Speaker 1:The first step is to create the vision that you see for yourself for the year. I think it is really important to allow ourselves to dream right. We're always so quick to set the goal without actually envisioning what we want the year to look like ahead. And when you are envisioning and I'll take you through some prompting questions to assist you with this when you are envisioning, I want you to let go of the how. So how am I actually going to achieve that? I know that, as lawyers, we love to have the steps straight away and know the how we're going to get there straight away. Well, I want you to Put that to the side and, as much as it feels like it's a thought that's pulling you in, try to ignore that Voice about how we're going to make this work, or the judgy voice. Let's just focus on creating the vision first and allowing ourselves to dream. So, when you do this exercise and you ask yourselves these prompting questions, which I will be talking about in a moment, take some time for yourselves, like, switch off your notifications and Make this a fun experience.
Speaker 1:Always tell my clients, you know, take yourself on a date, on a goal-setting date, so you know whether, if you want to go to your favorite cafe and just you know, order your favorite coffee and your favorite meal and bring a Notepad or your computer with you and, you know, create that space for you. Or whether, if it's setting up a space in your home and you light a candle and you just make this like a ritual. I feel like by making it a ritual, you will feel more connected to yourself, to your vision and what you're really wanting to achieve this year, without getting caught up in the how or other people's goals. So make sure you do take yourself on a goal-setting date and and Schedule that into your calendar now. If we don't schedule it in, it just doesn't happen. So block out an hour in your calendar. You know. If you're driving right now, then you know, do this when you're not driving, of course, when it's safe to do so. But if you, yeah, sitting down or walking when you're doing this, put it in your calendar now when you are going to take yourself on a goal-setting date.
Speaker 1:Now let's get into the prompting questions. So here are some prompting questions to help you and vision what you want this year to look like. So take a breather and Imagine it's the end of 2024 and you're reflecting on the year that was. What do you see or feel when you think about the person you have become? Beyond your technical skills as a lawyer, beyond your identity as a lawyer, what do you see? What projects or matters did you work on that excited you, that made you feel so Passionate and like you were really making a difference and moving that needle forward for both the organization where you work for, but also for yourself? What client wins did you have? How did you grow and develop? What did you learn? These are just some prompting questions to get your brain juices flowing. Now you might have other Questions that feel more line to you. Just take your time to Write down what is coming up for you Now, reflecting on what comes up for you when you answer these prompting questions, write down a theme or something that Comes up really strongly for you, something that's pulling at your heartstrings, because we all have that.
Speaker 1:One thing that you know. It's this whisper at the beginning, you know, and then it starts to become stronger and stronger the more Space we give it. So what is coming up for you really strongly that you would love to achieve this year? If it's one thing that you're Going to achieve by the end of the year, what would that be? Now, of course, when we're creating the vision for Ourselves for the year, there are going to be some things that we need to let go of in order to Get that vision into our reality, into our world. I Because sometimes there are things that we might not be consciously aware of, but there are things that, when we give ourselves the space that we really do need to acknowledge that we need to let go of that are actually stopping us from achieving what it is that we want. So ask yourself this question what do I need to let go of or do less of to achieve this vision of mine? Now, this could be. These are just examples. These may or may not ring true for you, but these are just examples.
Speaker 1:So maybe you're resisting visibility because of the fear of being seen. In that case, you need to let go of this fear of being seen and attach a positive meaning to being seen. So, rather than thinking, oh you know what will people think? Or I am afraid to show up as my true self because that fear of judgment, rather than thinking that, maybe switching that over to, if I start to put myself out there for speaking opportunities as an example, then other people will get to witness and learn from me, because I actually have something to say, I have something of value to bring. So switching it in that way may help to alleviate that fear of being seen.
Speaker 1:Or you might be resisting taking action because of the fear of failure or the unknown, or it could be letting go of a certain process that takes up too much of your time, or maybe you're someone that likes to have control and you take on too much work because you feel like if you don't do it, no one else will do it. So just feel into that for a moment. What do you need to let go of or do less of to achieve your vision for 2024. And then ask yourself what's the next action I need to take to move forward on the thing that I'm most resisting, knowing that there's no such thing as failure. So what's one thing you can do today to move through the thing that you're scared of, that you're resisting, that's holding you back.
Speaker 1:And now, now it's time to map out your steps. So you've had space to envision what you want your year to look like. You've acknowledged what you need to let go of and next it's important to now map out all the steps required of you in order to achieve this goal for yourself. So just literally brain dump every single thing that you know that you need to do to get closer to this goal of yours. Again, no judgment, no, how, don't worry about the timing just yet. Just brain dump everything that you need to do.
Speaker 1:Okay, now this is the fun part, where you get to turn those goals or that goal. It could be one goal, which is fine, or it could be more than one Now turn that into reality. The best way to do this is to take everything that you have brain dumped so all of the steps that you have brain dumped and organize these steps into a plan. Now I have got a gift for you, because I really want you to achieve your big vision this year. I really do want that for you because the more of us that are achieving those big, beautiful goals of ours, the more we are saying to people that we can do hard things. We can do things that we may have previously thought that we were not able or capable to achieve, and then that starts that momentum for other people as well. Without you ever knowing, you will inspire other people to also chase their dreams too. Thank you. So the gift that I have for you is a quarterly goal-setting spreadsheet, and with this quarterly goal-setting spreadsheet, you can literally put in all of the steps that you outlined into an actual plan with a time frame, because once we have the steps and we have a time frame, then we're more likely to achieve it. That creates that you know that fine in our belly that accountability that we need to achieve our goal. So for you to download this by the way, it is free, it is a gift from me to you Simply go to my show notes and click on the link there, pop in your email address and you'll get this straight into your inbox.
Speaker 1:Now. I hope that today's episode provided you with a clear framework for you to set the vision for the big, beautiful goals that you have, and not only that, but for you to actually have an action plan to achieve those big goals. I'd love for you to share your goals with me. Go on to LinkedIn and DM me what your vision is for 2024. I would love to support you and cheer you on Now.
Speaker 1:If your goal is to make your next career move or to elevate in your current career, then I would love to support you through my signature 12 week private coaching program called the Unbound Lawyer. Simply go on to MariaDukacom so that's M-A-R-I-J-A-D-U-K-Acom forward slash unbound dash lawyer and book in a free discovery call today and we can chat about how I can support you to turn your goals into a reality in 2024. Until next time, have an amazing week ahead and I'll chat to you soon. Bye, thanks for tuning into the Career Confidence podcast, like what you learned today? Why not share this episode with your work, bestie, and leave us a five star review on? Wherever you listen to your podcast on, we'd absolutely love to get into more years and help more women, just like you, build fulfilling and thriving careers. Until next time,
