Here are some questions for your own time to discover more about yourself. Often we can become frustrated or deflated over feeling powerless to change ourselves or our circumstances. Of course, there are many “self-help” exercises. Here are what I would deem the essentials to get back on track, or just to renew and reflect on the goals you currently have…

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Summary Ideal future

Write an article or a piece about yourself about what you’d like your life to look like. The important point is to just dream and let your mind wander.

Specify goals

Think of at least 2 goals from the following categories:

• Yourself - how can you better yourself, consider exercise and relaxation time as well as hobbies you wish to pursue.
• Relationships - consider friends, colleagues and family when you are thinking about improving your relationships.
• Career - think about the roles you would like to move into or a goal to discover what you might wish to do.

Prioritize

Now order these goals in priority order, regardless of their category.

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Goal Matrix

For each of the goals you have created in the previous exercise, enter a row in your Goal Matrix. The columns are explained in the sections below.

Here is an example of a goal you might have:

Goal	Motive	Impact	Strategy	Monitor
Pro-actively put the bins out each week.	Bins start to smell and it can affect my relationship with my spouse as they think I don’t love them.	Gain respect with the neighbors and re-gain the trust of my spouse.	Add a Calendar entry on bin day when I am free so I can put the bins out.	Record when I forget and why I forgot. Modify my strategy.

Motives

First, confirm this is really important to you. If its important for someone else then ensure that you are happy committing time to it. Is it going to be fulfilling or is it just that circumstantial? Does it fulfil part of the dream you wrote above?

Impact

What is the impact to your personal life, and to others around you? How might this change your future in terms of increasing your responsibilities? Are there any other wider impacts to your community etc?

Strategies

Consider things that might stop you, like fear of success, being too busy or procrastination?

• Planning - are there related things that need re-planning?
• Scheduling time - do you need to buy a calendar or start using an online calendar with alerts?

Monitoring

If you don’t have a note taking routine, maybe now is the time to start? Otherwise ensure that you have the tools to hand and review and record your progress at appropriate intervals. This will help you update any strategies to steer you toward success.