HGD Crossroads

Tag: Goal Investigation Session

  • HGD Crossroads Week 13 Action Plan

    HGD Crossroads Week 13 Action Plan

    Hey Goal Investigator, if you have been following the Action Plan from week 1, then you have been taking Action for a full quarter. Well done. 

    • Find time for your goals
    • Review your month and set the plan for the coming month
    • Happiness List
    • Evaluate your week and plan the next

    Finding time for your goals

    As you travel your Crossroads Journey and living your life you may start to get busy. The Time Finder is a tool that you can use to help you find time to take action on your Crossroads Journey. This article also has a PDF that you can download and print it out. 

    Review your month and set the plan for the coming month

    In this exercise you will review the month that has just been and in the same exercise you will plan the coming month. This article will guide you through the steps. You will need your weekly planner/dairy, and your Crossroads Journal. 

    Happiness List

    If I am being honest, I have slipped a little on doing daily Happiness Activities. But that is okay, I have noticed and I will rectify that today and go to bed a little earlier than I normally would have and read an extra chapter in the current fiction book I am reading. 

    Evaluate your week and plan for the next

    As you were introduced to last week, do an evaluation of this week and make a plan for next week. And if you are part of the HGD Crossroads Journey community you will have access to the Weekly Tracking form where you get to ask a question about your Crossroads Journey. Module 1 is free, you just need to add it to your cart, then you will get instant access to down load the workbook, and a link to the Google Classroom where you can access the Weekly Tracking Form and the discussion threads.

    This concludes this weeks Action Plan. You have found time for your Crossroads Journey. You have reviewed your month and set a plan for next month. You are renewing doing daily Happiness activities, and you have evaluated your week and planned the next.

    Do you need help with navigating your Crossroads Journey? Book in for a Goal Investigation Session or WhatsApp Goal Investigation Support.

  • HGD Crossroads Week 11 Action Plan

    HGD Crossroads Week 11 Action Plan

    Welcome, Goal Investigator. This is the Week 11 Action Plan. This week you will investigate your Relationship Life Area. You will examine how to deal with overwhelm. Continue working with your Happiness List and your weekly tracking. Also look at planning your week.

    • Your Relationship Life Area
    • Dealing with overwhelm
    • Your Happiness List
    • Weekly Tracking

    Your Relationship Life Area

    The purpose of evaluating your relationship life is to have a clear picture of where you are now, where you want to be, and to set out a plan of action that you would like to try. Use your Crossroads Ultimate Planner or your journal that you are tracking your Crossroads Journey in

    Dealing With Overwhelm

    Do you feel overwhelmed and consistently have tightness in your chest or belly? Are you getting headaches more often? This article will give you some tools to try to help minimise the overwhelm. Over time, you will learn what works for you.

    Your Happiness List

    Some more items you can add to your Happiness List are memories that make you happy. If you don’t want to, or you can’t do an activity from your happiness list. Just take a few moments to think of a memory that makes you happy.

    For more about the Happiness List, read more here.

    Your Weekly Tracking

    Tracking your activities each week will help you stay focused, see what you have achieved in the week that has passed, and help you work out what you want to focus on next week. Use your journal or Ultimate Crossroads Planner.

    Tracking your weeks helps in a few ways:

    • So you can see what you have achieved in the past week.
    • Record your accomplishments
    • So you can evaluate how your week went.

    Planning Your Week

    To help facilitate your weekly tracking, it is a good idea to have a plan for the coming week. It helps you to focus on

    • What you want to achieve in the coming week.
    • Taking baby steps towards your goals (short-, mid-, and long-term goals).
    • Allocating time for the tasks you need to get done in the coming week
    • Balancing priorities

    Do you need help with navigating your Crossroads Journey? Book in for a Goal Investigation Session or WhatsApp Goal Investigation Support.

  • Weekly Tracking

    Weekly Tracking

    Tracking your activities each week will help you stay focused, see what you have achieved in the week that has passed, and help you work out what you want to focus on next week. Use your journal or Ultimate Crossroads Planner.

    Tracking your weeks helps in a few ways:

    • So you can see what you have achieved in the past week.
    • Record your accomplishments
    • So you can evaluate how your week went.

    Weekly Tracking

    • Focus of the week
    • Top 3 Tasks of the Week
    • Resources required
    • Accomplishments of the week
    • Weekly Tasks/habits
    • Weekly Notes
    • Top 3 Action Steps for next week

    Focus of the week

    Looking back at your weekly plan, what was the focus of the week? Now evaluate whether you stuck to the direction or if you deviated from the focus.

    What were your top 3 tasks of the week?

    • What were the top 3 tasks of the week?
    • Did you complete them? If not, why?
    • And what did you do instead?

    Resources required

    • Did you have all the resources you required this week?
    • What other resources did you need?
    • What resources did you not need?

    Weekly Tasks and Habits

    • Did you get all of your tasks and habits done this past week?
    • What did you do instead?
    • What would you do differently?
    • What will you not do again?
    • What have you got outstanding?
    • What are you transferring to next week?
    • What will you be stopping? Why?

    Weekly notes

    Have you got any other notes about the week that has passed?

    What is the focus for next week?

    Now that you have reviewed the week that has passed, what do you want to focus on this week?

    Are you feeling overwhelmed in your Crossroad Journey? Book in for a Goal Investigation Session or WhatsApp Goal Investigation Support.

  • Planning Your Week

    Planning Your Week

    To help facilitate your weekly tracking, it is a good idea to have a plan for the coming week. It helps you to focus on

    • What you want to achieve in the coming week.
    • Taking baby steps towards your goals (short-, mid-, and long-term goals).
    • Allocating time for the tasks you need to get done in the coming week
    • Balancing priorities

    Focus of the week

    I find it helpful to have a focus of the week. This way, as you live out the week and start to get sidetracked by all of the things, you can come back to the focus of the week and prioritise what is important and what can wait.

    Action steps and tasks for the week

    List out all the action steps and tasks you need to get done this week. You can do this in your Quarterly OR Ultimate Crossroads Planner, or you can use a Task Tracker.

    • What tasks do you need to do this week to move your goals forward?
    • What personal tasks do you want/need to complete this week?
    • What work tasks do you want/need to complete this week?
    • Are there any other tasks you need to complete this week?

    As you carry out your week, this list may change. You may realise that there are tasks you don’t need to do now, and postpone them or maybe delete them entirely. Also, new tasks may come up. Refer back to your focus of the week so that you can prioritise them.

    Daily tasks:

    • Once you have your master list of tasks for the week. Decide what day each task needs to be done.
    • Not all of your weekly tasks have to be assigned to days if you prefer some flexible time.
    • You could block out some flexible time in your days for the tasks that are not assigned, or for those tasks that just pop up.

    Daily habits you want to track

    You may have daily habits that you want to track. If you are using one of the Crossroads Planners, then put these in your weekly tracking and tick them off each day you do them.

    Appointments for the coming week

    If you haven’t already, as soon as the appointment is made, put it in the weekly calendar now.

    Resources you will need this week

    Think about your tasks and action steps for the coming week, and list out all the resources you will need to complete the tasks. This will help you to get organised.

    Top 3 tasks of the week

    Now that you have an idea of the tasks that you need to get done this coming week, what are the top 3 tasks that you have to do? These three tasks are what you have to get done no matter what.

    Do you need help with navigating your Crossroads Journey? Book in for a Goal Investigation Session or WhatsApp Goal Investigation Support.

    ​

  • Dealing With Overwhelm

    Dealing With Overwhelm

    Do you feel overwhelmed and consistently have tightness in your chest or belly? Are you getting headaches more often? This article will give you some tools to try to help minimise the overwhelm. Over time, you will learn what works for you.

    Idea Playground: Overwhelm

    Use an Idea Playground to dump everything that is going on in your life. Get all your thoughts and feelings down on paper. Use a mind map or a freewriting exercise for the Idea Playground.

    Things to think about:

    • Out of everything that is going on, what items are important to you?
    • What tasks have deadlines or are time-bound?
    • What items are for your wellness/health?
    • What tasks or items are about your relationships?
    • What items are about your financial life?
    • What items can be delayed?
    • What items have to be done now?
    • What items can be deleted?
    • What can you do to help with your mental health?
    • Can you break the task down to smaller action steps?

    Use your Happiness List

    Once you have dumped your overwhelm in an Idea Playground, refer to your Happiness List and do one of the items from the list. Or think about something or someone that makes you happy, such as a happy memory from your childhood or adult life.

    Take a pause and breathe.

    When you notice all the symptoms of being overwhelmed and you start rushing around, pause and take some deep breaths. Keep doing breath work until you feel calmer and can think again. Then do a couple more breaths just to be safe.

    Break your task down into smaller steps.

    When you are feeling overwhelmed by a big task or project:

    1. Do an Idea Playground to dump all of your thoughts, feelings, and tasks that you can think about the task or project.
    2. Create a Task Tracker and list out all of the tasks: task, due date, start date, finish date.
    3. If you can, break the tasks down into small action steps

    Prioritise what is most important to you.

    Another thing to take into account when you are dealing with overwhelm is to prioritise those tasks that are important to you. This way you are rewarding yourself at the same time. Plus, you will be more invested in the task.

    ​

    Funny thing, as I was trying to write this article, I started to get overwhelmed, so I took some deep breaths and broke the article down by creating the headers. Then I took each section at a time.

    ​

    Do you need help with navigating your Crossroads Journey? Book in for a Goal Investigation Session or WhatsApp Goal Investigation Support.

  • Evaluate Your Relationship Life Area

    Evaluate Your Relationship Life Area

    The purpose of evaluating your relationship life is to have a clear picture of where you are now, where you want to be, and to set out a plan of action that you would like to try. Use your Crossroads Ultimate Planner or your journal that you are tracking your Crossroads Journey in.

    Your relationship life area includes:

    • Family
    • Partner or relationship
    • Friends
    • Team members
    • Clients
    • Managers
    • Other relationships

    Your current Relationships Life Area

    • What does your current relationship life look like?
    • How do you feel about your current relationships?
    • What actions do you currently take in your relationships?
    • What are the consequences of the action you are currently taking?

    Your future financial life area

    Next, you will look at what you would like to change:

    • What do you want your relationships to look like?
    • What are your thoughts and feelings about the changes that you want to make?
    • What actions do you want to take instead of the ones that you currently take?
    • What are the consequences of these new actions?

    Trial plan of action for your relationships

    Now that you know what your relationships currently looks like and what you want it to look like in the future. It is time to create an action plan to help you get to where you want your relationships to be in the future. This trial should have a timeframe of three months or less.

    • What is the path you are going to trial?
    • How long is the trial period? Set a date and put it into your diary.
    • What is the focus of the trial path?
    • What does success look like?
    • What action steps do you need to take? Give them deadlines.
    • What tools and resources do you already have?
    • What tools and resources do you need?
    • What are your first three action steps?

    Remember to add the action steps to your diary or planner, and track your actions in the weekly tracking. And most importantly, start taking action.

    Do you need help with navigating your Crossroads Journey? Book in for a Goal Investigation Session or WhatsApp Goal Investigation Support.

  • HGD Crossroads Week 10 Action Plan

    HGD Crossroads Week 10 Action Plan

    Welcome back, Goal Investigator. This is the Week 10 Action Plan. This week we will look into your financial life area, where you are now, where you want to be, and create a plan to trial one of the paths you have uncovered. You will also continue to work with your happiness list and your weekly tracking.

    • Your financial life area
    • Your Happiness List
    • Weekly Tracking

    Your financial life area

    Back in week 1, you would have done your life assessment and reflection that would have given you a snapshot of what your financial life looks like. It may have even given you a goal to work on. This week you will evaluate your financial life in more depth. This will help you to have a clear picture of what you need to focus on in your financial life.

    Your happiness list

    Your happiness list is important as it is a list of things and activities that make you happy. Doing something from your happiness list daily will not only be a reward for achieving your goals, but it also brings a little bit of happiness to your life regularly. This will help with your mental health as well by increasing your:

    • Endorphins that help with reducing stress and blocking pain.
    • Dopamine, which helps with your feeling rewarded, motivation, and pleasure
    • Serotonin, which helps regulate your mood and long-term well-being
    • Oxytocin, which helps build social bonds, trust and love.

    If you read last week’s Action Plan, you will know that I am slowly getting the ingredients to create my own makeup. The next item I will be making is mascara; the ingredients I have to buy will also help with the other makeup products on my make list. Making my own cosmetics makes me happy, and it lets me know what ingredients are in my products.

    Another thing that makes me happy because it takes the stress out of getting dressed is to have a capsule wardrobe. I have recently acquainted myself with Courtney Caver’s Project 333 (https://amzn.to/3SJ8m3v affiliate link). The principle behind Project 333 is that you have 33 clothing and accessory items and you wear them for three months. It’s not a challenge about restriction or probity; if something wears out or you realise it’s not suiting your needs, then replace it. Then, in three months, change over some of the items that aren’t suited for the season you are heading into.

    Here in New Zealand, we are heading into spring, so my wardrobe will need to cater for wet, cold, windy days that will head into warmer, wet, windy days. At the start of the season, I will need to carry over some of my cold weather items, but also factor in some lighter clothing items for the days that it is warmer. Layers are important for spring as the temperatures during the day can fluctuate dramatically.

    Weekly tracking

    Tracking your activities each week will help you stay focused, see what you have achieved in the week that has been, and help work out what you want to focus on next week. Use your journal or Ultimate Crossroads Planner.

    • Weekly Tracking
      • Focus of the week
      • Top 3 Tasks of the Week
      • Resources required
      • Accomplishments of the week
      • Weekly Tasks/habits
      • Weekly Notes
      • Top 3 Action Steps for next week

    This concludes this week’s action plan. Now you will have:

    • A plan for your financial life
    • Added to your happiness list
    • Continued your weekly tracking.

    ​If you are feeling overwhelmed and at a crossroads in life, book in for a Goal Investigation Session or purchase a WhatsApp Goal Investigation Support Pack.

  • Your Happiness List

    Your Happiness List

    The purpose of Your Happiness List is so that you have a list of activities and things that make you happy. As we get busy and overwhelmed with life, we often neglect the things that make us happy. This exercise is designed so that you have a quick reference list of things that you enjoy doing. In your diary or journal, create a list of things and activities that make you happy when you do them.

    This will help with your mental health as well by increasing your:

    • Endorphins that help with reducing stress and blocking pain.
    • Dopamine, which helps with your feeling rewarded, motivation, and pleasure
    • Serotonin, which helps regulate your mood and long-term well-being
    • Oxytocin, which helps build social bonds, trust and love.

    Items on your happiness list could be:

    • Self-care – giving yourself a facial, getting your nails done, giving yourself a mani/pedi
    • Activities – reading a book, watching a show or movie, going for a walk in nature, hugging your pet, working on your car, building something, painting something…
    • Crafts: embroidery, painting, knitting, crocheting, decorating cakes, other crafts that you enjoy
    • Anything else that makes you happy.

    Uses of your happiness list:

    • Daily to bring a little bit of happiness into your life.
    • As a reward for accomplishing something on your Crossroads Journey
    • An emotional boost  when you are feeling down
    • After you have done some work on your sabotages and roadblocks as a pick-me-up.

    Revisit your Happiness List regularly and keep adding to it. Over time, you will have a variety of activities and things that make you happy. It will once again become natural to regularly do activities that make you happy, and you will become happier for it.

    If you are feeling overwhelmed and at a crossroads in life, book in for a Goal Investigation Session or purchase a WhatsApp Goal Investigation Support Pack.

  • HGD Crossroads Week 4 Action Plan

    HGD Crossroads Week 4 Action Plan

    Welcome back, Goal Investigator. Thank you for coming back. This week you will review your Crossroads Journey to see where you are and what you have achieved so far. You will envision what your life will look like in six years. You will also look at what you want to achieve in the next twelve months, then break it down into what you want to achieve in the next 3 months and break that down further into what you want to achieve in the coming month.

    This week the action plan covers:

    • Review your Crossroads Journey
    • Idea Playground 6 Year Time – Envisioning your future
    • The Quarterly Plan
    • The Monthly Plan
    • Your Next 3 Action Steps
    • Your Happiness List
    • Weekly Tracking 

    Review your Crossroads Journey

    It is a good idea to review your Crossroads Journey frequently and keep following the Weekly Action Plans; you will be guided on when you next need to review your Crossroads Journey. You will need your weekly tracking and the document where you keep your Crossroads goal notes.

    • What have you been focusing on?
    • What action steps have you set yourself over the last 3 weeks?
    • What actions have you taken so far?
    • What actions did you take instead?
    • What action did you not take?
    • What have you got outstanding?
    • How did you celebrate your achievements?
    • What will you be focusing on next?

    Your happiness list

    Keep adding to your happiness list and keep doing activities that make you happy daily. Also, as you achieve milestones on your journey, do something from your happiness list. Have a variety of activities on your list, with different costs so that there is always something you can do that makes you happy. Or even when you want a break from taking action on your goals. Just keep a balance between doing what you need to do to achieve your goals and what you want to do to make you happy.

    Envisioning your future

    Use an Idea Playground mind map and free writing exercise to envision what you want your life to look like in six years. As you envision what your future looks like, think about your holistic life. Your holistic life encompasses your financial, relationships, and wellbeing life areas. Think about:

    • Everything you want in your holistic life.
    • What does your financial life look like? 
    • Who is in your life? Who is your partner? 
    • What is your relationship like? 
    • Where do you live? 
    • What does your house look like?

    The next twelve months

    Now that you know what you want your life to look like in six years, what do you want to achieve in the next twelve months? You can break it down into quarters or use an Idea Playground. As you do this exercise you may need to review what you want to achieve in six years, and work out what you need to achieve in the next twelve months to start making what you envisioned real.

    The quarterly plan

    It is time to start getting the details fleshed out. You will now plan what you want to achieve in the next three months. As part of your quarterly plan, you will also plan what you need to achieve in the next month. 

    • What is the focus for this quarter?
    • What does success look like for you this quarter?
    • What are your top 3 action steps?
    • What do you want to focus on in months 1, 2, and 3?

    The monthly plan

    In this exercise, you will expand your focus from the quarterly plan and flesh it out into an actionable monthly plan. 

    • What other action steps do you need to achieve and when do you need to complete them?
    • What is the focus of the next month?
    • What does success look like for you this month?
    • What resources do you need this month?
    • What action steps do you need to take this month, and when do you need to take them by?
    • Out of these action steps, what are your top three action steps?

    The weekly plan

    Last week you were introduced to the weekly plan; you will continue to use the format to create your weekly plans.

    • What is the focus for the week?
    • What are your top 3 action steps?
    • What other action steps do you need to take?
    • What resources do you need for your action steps?
    • What appointments do you have this week?

    Weekly Tracking

    Continuing your weekly tracking will make it easier for you when you do your monthly and quarterly reviews as well as to keep you accountable for your actions. Also, it will help you on the days when you are feeling overwhelmed to see how far you have come.

    • Focus of the week
    • Top 3 Tasks of the Week
    • Resources required
    • Accomplishments of the week
    • Weekly Tasks/habits
    • Weekly Notes
    • Top 3 Action Steps for next week

    Now that you have reviewed your journey so far, updated your happiness, envisioned your future and worked out what you want to achieve this week, go and start taking action. If you need help, you can book in for a 1:1 video Goal Investigation Session or purchase WhatsApp Goal Investigation Support.

  • Case File: Sydney Blake’s Goal Investigation Session 1

    Case File: Sydney Blake’s Goal Investigation Session 1

    Goal Investigator Profile

    Name: Sydney Blake

    Age: 46

    Gender: Female

    Crossroads: 

    • Sydney is an empty neaster, her children are grown and are living there own lives. 
    • She is trying to choose what to do with her life now that it doesn’t revolve around her children. 
    • She has to choose what she wants to do for her occupation and has been trying to decide between:creating products (home fragrances such as candles, reed diffusers, soaps and the like), to increase her part-time cleaning jobs to full time work, or to become a freelance copywriter.
    • She has some debt from decisions she has made in the past
    • She is currently in a relationship, but doesn’t see her family much. She has a few close friends who she meets up with a few times per month.
    • She has a few hobbies and leisure activities: she likes to read and stream series and movies, she likes to crochet and do craft things, she wants to take up a hobby or activity that requires joining a group.
    • She has recently been diagnosed with osteoarthritis and high cholesterol
    • She doesn’t exercise as much as she know she should
    • Feeling in control: for the most part she feels she is in control of her life
    • Feeling relaxed: except for being a bit restless now that she has more free time on her hand, she is mostly relaxed.
    • Living conditions: she lives in a tiny house with her partner, they have realised that living in a tiny house isn’t working for them anymore and are wanting to buy a small standalone house in a rural setting.
    • She doesn’t have another life area that she wants to explore.