Sticking to Your Goals in Lockdown – Refine, Define & Align

Lockdown – a time to re charge, re energise and bring out the recipe books. A few positives that we can do while we’re in lockdown. It hasn’t been the easiest time for some of us, yet for the rest of us, it has been a time to reflect and refine what matters to us most or rather, think about where we really want to spend our time moving forward event in a post-lockdown world. Now lockdown hasn’t been the easiest period of our lives to stay motivated on a consistent basis. But it’s really a time to think – if lockdown is a difficult period to stay on top of your goals, how else will you achieve your goals even in a post-lockdown world?

In this blog post, we’ll be sharing a few tips on the RDA MODEL - how you can refine your goals, how you can define your goals and how you will align with your goals.

There’s many resources floating around us quite like this topic – and it can all be quite overwhelming for a person. If you’re finding yourself in a muddle of resources – perhaps try and figure out what technique or method of goal setting works for you? Don’t be so caught up on collecting a bunch of techniques at a short-term expense. Stick to the techniques that you believe will help leverage your potential for the long-term. We must first acknowledge however, that everyone has different goals that points to the direction of what they want to achieve in life. Whatever way you reach your goals is all that matters, and how you can make the most out of the process of reaching your goals may also be an inspiration to others. So whatever tips you have on goal sharing – it doesn’t hurt to share it with others. More knowledge that we can either share or receive will give us the 1% boost that we need to stay on track to achieve our goals – even if we think we don’t need it.

Overview of the RDA Model of Goal Setting

At simple, the RDA model is a simple yet effective way to set your goals by understanding what you want as an individual and where you envision yourself to be putting more time towards. Are you willing to invest more time in learning more about A rather than B because you (not others) believe it may be more valuable to your learning path and goals entailed? For example, are you willing to invest more time in a specialised area to work in? Are you willing to pick up the skill of X rather than Y? Or rather, are you looking to balance your time between both? On the back of this, are you looking to set the goal to improve your multi-tasking abilities?

Refine

The most challenging step out of all – what goals do you have in mind, and which are you willing to focus on (prioritise) more than most goals in mind? This step will involve you to:

• ‘Lay out’ your goals on the table,

• Understand each goal,

• Understand why you have this goal in mind (focus on the bigger picture) and;

• Ultimately group the goals that are like each other.

The act of refining may involve you having an initial of 10 goals to 4-5 goals in mind – not saying you need to remove goals but rather to reiterate characterising these goals and making it much easier on yourself.

Define

If you’re an individual who finds yourself with many goals – try grouping your goals that have similar characteristics and ultimately having the same purpose. If you’re an individual who has nailed down your goals to a specific – still ask yourself, what goals are you looking to prioritise? Keep in mind, to keep these goals as SMART as possible.

This step is to really make it easier for you to understand what is it that you ultimately want to achieve (what the bigger picture is).

Align - 1% Progress versus 0% Progress

The next step namely will be how you break these goals down into actionable steps by aligning your actions to the path of achieving to that goal or goals in mind.

The final and ultimate step is ultimately to take actionable steps or align yourself to the goals that you have set for yourself. It can be as simple as if you have set a goal to maintain a balanced headspace, perhaps an actionable step would be journaling at the start and end of the day.

Goal in Mind? Maintain a Balanced Headspace

What does this mean? Manage your emotions ‘better’.

Purpose? To stay level-headed in a professional and a personal environment.

Actionable Steps to Achieve Goal?

· Each morning (to set the pace for the day)

· Each night before bed (to recap on your day and perhaps how you can get better).

Something as simple as setting yourself a task – even if it requires five to ten minutes of your time – is all you need to help you make progress to your goals. Any progress is better than no progress, right?

Incline -

The very last but most tip in mind, how will you aim to stay consistent on these actionable steps to achieving your goal?

Think about how you will continue to maintain your motivation, performance, and focus. CHALLENGE yourself to go beyond these goals.

For those who have made it to the end of this blog post, we hope you enjoyed it and have taken some sort of inspiration in putting your head to focus on your goals. Whatever it is, motivation can be challenging at times but just remember that each day you will be proud of the day before, and so on.

If you would like to see any posts similar to this or have any blog post ideas that you want us to share, please head on over and email us at coachingatletsfaceit@gmail.com – we’ve got more to come!

And lastly, a big shoutout to Lauren and Mia for their own project ‘Lockdown Lounge’ – not sure what it is? Well head on over to find out some of the goodies they have prepared for all of us in lockdown - https://lckdwnlounge.wixsite.com/lckdwnlounge

If you’re a first generation student or working professional, I would love to hear from you.

If you have any questions at all - please don’t hesitate to reach out and +1 to your network.

You can check out more of our blog posts here or my collaboration with TinyAsk here.

And, if you haven’t already, check out the services that we have on offer at Let’s F-ACE It that continues being designed to help support all students and young professionals on their career building journey.

PS. Why not sign up for our monthly newsletters? We have exciting news rolling up through the next few months and are excited to share this with you all soon.

FAUZIA HUSSEIN

Founder

A current Small Business Consultant at Salesforce and UTS Alumni currently undertaking a Juris Doctor of Law, Fauzia is a driven individual and is passionate about helping others.

Speciality: Resumes (ALL) & Cover Letters