Story

Goals Club is the idea that refuses to die! Here’s some of the story as to why.

In 2009, whilst working in Coventry as a resident teacher and Dean of Students at a leadership college for people leading in non-profit situations, I came across LMI. This was huge. LMI offers a series of development programmes for managers and leaders which provide great content but also, crucially, incredibly simple and effective practices that support the application of those ideas so that they make a big difference in peoples lives.

For me the greatest of these practices was goal setting and the best resource was the LMI Goal Planning System.

I knew about SMART goals already. I’d set some goals from time to time at the start of a new year. I’d run projects, led teams and been active in all kinds of different areas – church leadership, school governor, football coaching etc – but I’d never learned to use goal setting as the means to consistently focus on the most important things and head in the direction that I wanted to go.

Everything was a bit hit and miss. I was OK in school, but never did as well as I could. That pattern continued through my twenties and into my mid-thirties and that fateful encounter with something wonderfully simple and incredibly powerful.

It wasn’t the lure of setting fantastic, fanciful goals that I found most exciting. It was getting things done, consistently, that took my life in the direction I wanted it to go. It was building better relationships with my kids, keeping healthy, getting things done round the house, having family adventures and, of course, making progress in my business to keep the bills paid and food on the table!

All of these ‘small victories’ have, over time led to some great things and big changes in our life.

Goals Club was first conceived in 2011 as a means to help people that I was working with on LMI management and leadership programmes to keep going with what they had learned, much of which centred around setting personal and business goals.

In 2013 I was joined by two of my LMI colleagues at the time, Chris Waters and Martin Norbury, and we ran Goals Club together through 2013 / 14. During this time we gave Goals Club an official launch, developed the resources, hosted podcasts and mastermind sessions and generally had great times exploring the incredible world of goals and helping our members, mostly business owners, to take giant steps forward toward their goals. As our respective businesses developed, Goals Club increasingly took a back seat and was ultimately parked until this relaunch in 2018.

Both Martin and Chris remain friends, and friends of Goals Club, and I look forward to their occasional contributions in these latest GC adventures. Both are still involved with helping business and people set and achieve their goals, as am I, and you can check out what they’re up to here:

Martin Norbury – http://myadvocatementor.com/

Chris Waters – http://www.chrisnwaters.com

To fill out the story, a personal journey is part of the reason I feel so strongly about the value of goal setting. In 2010 my wife developed a very nasty and mysterious condition called CRPS. This is a horrible disease – severe pain all the time – and it lasted until an amputation in 2017. During the preceding eight years we learned so much about the value of goal setting. In the midst of extremely difficult times, small goals kept us sane.

For my wife it was a case of, ‘What’s the one small goal I can achieve this week?’ As a family it was the same. Focus on achievable goals. Places to go. Adventures to have. Games to play. Punctuating horrible times with moments of progress and victory, fun and achievement. I have nothing but amazement and admiration for how my wife managed to maintain good mental health and even stayed positive for much of the time. What I’m sure of though is that what we’d learned about the power of goal setting helped tremendously.

So this is where Goals Club is coming from. A desire to share some simple ideas, in the simplest and most down-to-earth and practical ways, that may help others to get life, and work, heading more in the direction they want it to go.

Goals Club, therefore, exists as a means to share the incredible power of goals with as many people as possible, especially with those who would not normally ‘do goal setting’.

The aim is to make this inspirational, of course, but hopefully you’ll find what we share here to be down-to-earth, practical and something that helps you in the highs and lows of your ‘normal’ life.

I believe wholeheartedly that goal-setting shouldn’t just be in the hands of the world’s super-rich, super-successful high-achievers. I believe the simple practice of setting goals can help you make your life more like you want it to be. Wherever that leads you, we call that VICTORY!

“Success is the progressive realisation of worthwhile, predetermined personal goals.” (Paul J Meyer)

Goals Club has been an idea I’ve lived with for many years now and something I just can’t shift. I have to do it! If it helps you in some small or perhaps large way, I will be delighted.

Welcome to Goals Club!

There is no formal membership and Goals Club is free (there are some resources you can buy which are incredibly helpful but entirely optional). ‘Becoming a member’ is your choice…a choice to embark on some great adventures which involve gradually but definitely moving your life in the direction that you’d like it to go.

Follow on Twitter / Connect on Facebook / Subscribe to this blog (right side of this page) – sign yourself up however suits you best and get involved…and please do share your successes. We love to hear about big and small victories in your life and work that have come about as a result of setting definite goals.

Goals Club is curated by me, Nick Howes, whilst drawing on contributions from many colleagues, friends, clients and collaborators who have been part of these goal setting adventures!