How to GROW your goals

The GROW model is very widely used in coaching as a way to clarify and create highly achievable goals. Going through this process with a coach or on your own will help you to form goals with a much higher chance of you successfully achieving them. Whatever your level of motivation, using the GROW model will take your further and help you develop even more confidence to work with your goals.

The GROW model was developed by Graham Alexander (not the footballer!) in the UK after he had been influenced by, the Inner Game concept and brought that process to Europe. Alexander was one of the first pioneers of coaching and is still active in coaching at top level today. The model was later developed jointly with another early UK coaching innovator, Sir John Whitmore. The model was first applied in the corporate coaching market, which suggests that the model has been tried and tested in a situation where results are the main priority. It is a process that has transferred well in to the more general lifecoaching arena as well as being a valuable tool for individuals working without a coach. Part of the strength of the procedure is that as well as showing how to clearly set goals it allows you to analyse and deal with any obstacles that might have got in the way of achieving the goal.

The GROW model is also referred to as the T-GROW model and this variant is a more comprehensive way of working. The T stands for the topic and is the general area of life that you would like to experience better results in. General areas could be finances, career, health and fitness and relationships. Once the T has been chosen it is time to consider what a perfect '10' would be in that area. If everything in that area of life was exactly as you wanted it to be, what would it look like? When you have that clearly expressed it is time to assess where you are now in relation to the perfect end result. So, if the perfect end result is a 10 out of 10, what would your score be now in relation to the 10? When you have decided on a number, whatever that number is, what would one more than that look like? For example if you are currently at a 3 out of 10 in relation to your perfect end result, what would a 4 out of ten look like? This then becomes the raw material for forming your goal and working through the process. The process continues with a more thorough analysis of where you are in relation to your new goal, including what resources you have to help you move forward and what obstacles might be in the way. Having completed this step, it's time to explore options for moving forward. There is no need to be critical in this stage, it is about generating possibilities that can be assessed later during the final stage. In this final stage you decide which of the ways fr going forward you will start with and place definite time constraints of the performance of these actions. The process continues with review of actions and their effectiveness and any changes that this review suggests.

The first stage for coaching or working alone is to decide what the overall life area is that you
would like to make changes in. Examples of general areas are, career, finances, relationships, health and fitness, personal development. This list is representative rather than exhaustive. What you want to work on may be very obvious, or not depending on your individual circumstances. If you are working alone and not sure what you want to change, you might try completing a Wheel of Life assessment (hub coming soon).

You might ask yourself, what is important to me? When you have a list, you could ask, what are these things examples of? This will give you a general idea of which area of life you want to work on. The Wheel of Life is an excellent tool for this initial stage setting. Your task for this step is just to know what area of life you want to work on. If you already have a clear goal then you are already there and you can proceed to the next step.

After deciding the general area to work on, there are different ways to engage with forming a goal.
One way is to create a vision of what 10 out of 10 would be in that area. It is worth following this process through even if you already know what your goal is. Taking time to lay stable foundations will help you refine your goal, and make its achievement more likely. Write the story of what a perfect 10 would be. Create your vision in as much sensory detail as possible. What would you see, hear and feel if you had this 'perfect 10'? Following this method, the next step is to assess roughly where you are now in relation to 10 out of 10. Give yourself a score. Then, whatever your score is now, 3 out of 10, for example, what would one more point be? So what would 4 out of 10 look like? This then becomes your goal.

An alternative way is, if you know what your goal is already, then count that as 10 out of 10 for now and assess where you are in relation to that goal. Then form a clear understanding of what one step closer would be, and that then becomes your interim goal.

Goals start with the question, 'what do I want?' There is much written about expressing a goal with the best chance of achieving it. The SMART acronym is one such formula. The essence is to express goals in the positive. For example, 'I own a new model BMW in metallic blue', rather than ' I don't have an old car any more'. Much is also made of expressing goals, 'as if now', that is as if you have already achieved them. Some writers attribute this to the principle of cognitive dissonance, which means that you set up a tension in your system by holding a goal that is not current reality, and your body/ mind system attempts unconsciously to bridge the gap. Another explanation is that if you language a goal as being in the future, it will stay in the future. Whatever the explanation, it ha become standard practice to express goals in the positive and the present, for example, 'I am now the top salesman in my area'. A third principle is to set goals that are in your sphere of influence. Thus setting a goal to become a millionaire by winning the lottery, would not be taken as well formed! If you are doing this process as you read, the SMART formulation is as good as any. Take your goal through this SMART process before moving on.

SMART stands for:

• S is for specific

• M is for measurable

• A is for action focused

• R is for realistic

• T is for timed

So for example, instead of saying, 'I want to earn more money'. A 'smarter' version would be, 'By Christmas day 2011, I earn £X'

If you are working through this page with your own goal, take a moment to reform your goal according to the SMART criteria.

The next stage goes back to looking at your current reality in more detail. What have you done so far towards the goal? What skills, resources, networks, contacts, tools do you have that may be useful in moving you forward? How much time do you have to give to this goal? What are you actually prepared to do to achieve it?

This is also the place to list potential obstacles to achieving the goal.What is in your life currently that might work against you moving on this goal, and what can you do to mitigate any such obstacles.

It is valuable to spend time on this stage. The clearer you are about the reality of your reality the more real your options will be for moving forward, and the clearer it will be what your first step is going to be.

On the foundation of where you want to go and where you are now,you can begin to generate options for getting there. At this stage we you are only interested in ideas. They do not have to be realistic, (yet). Just start to list possibilities that may move you towards your goal, either all the way, or part of the way. This is time to be creative and to continue to discover ways around the obstacles you noted in the previous stage. A good question to ask yourself during this stage is, 'how else could I do this?'

You do not need to produce a detailed plan at this stage, just a list of actions you could take that you believe would take you towards your goal.

Now you have a goal, and you have assessed where you are now in relation to the goal and prepared a list of potential ways of moving towards that goal. It is time to choose what you are going to do first. There may be an obvious choice, or there may not. If not, just choose one and start!

Make sure you make very clear time decisions regarding your choice of action, when you intend to start it and when you are going to finish it.

So now you have chosen which of your options makes the most sense to start with, and you have decided when to start and when you intend to be finished by, check in with how motivated you are to take the action. Out of ten, how motivated are you to take the first step? If it is any less than 7 out of ten, what could you do to increase your motivation. Perhaps you need to choose another action to start with? Perhaps you could make it more of a game, and more fun? You need to take responsibility for finding what 'floats your boat' and then doing it!

So begin with the first action and notice what happens. Make sure you keep to a time schedule and review what makes sense for a next step. Keep stepping and reviewing and charting the next place to go. repeat this formula until you have achieved your goal!

The T-GROW model is used extensively in a coaching relationship. Of course you can follow the process through on your own to good effect. You will need to be very careful when it comes time to take action to make sure you timetable action steps and reviews in to your routine.

When working on your own it can be helpful to compile a list of everything you would need to do in order to achieve your goal and everything you are prepared to do to reach the goal. If the two lists match, all well and good, you are well motivated to take the necessary action. If the two lists are not matched and the prepared to do' list is less developed than the 'need to do' list, you really need to consider if this is a goal you want to commit to achieving, or is it something you want but are not prepared to do much about? Both are perfectly fine, but you will save yourself a lot of angst if you determine the difference as early as possible.

Here are some links that might be helpful:

Why having goals doesn't always work and what to do about it!

Time Warrior time management

Straightforward Goal Setting

What is Lifecoaching and how will it help me?

NLP 101

Life coaching: Is it the new magic?