Transcript

TIFFANY KAY, Speaker, The Academy for Chief Executives
One of the things we do know, is that words don't teach, experience does. So this is an opportunity we'd like to give one person who'd be willing to come up and volunteer, just for us to take you through the process of what does work in relation to goal-setting.

So in headline terms, when you think about a goal, what's the goal that you want to achieve.

ANDY
The goal is to get my third book written.

TIFFANY
To write your third book? Excellent. So that sounds like it's important to you. Why are you being held back?

ANDY
It's basic time management. Writing a book takes a huge amount of time...unless you work with an expert like Mindy.

TIFFANY
So what do you think about about finding the time to write a book. How are you feeling?

ANDY
It frustrates me.

TIFFANY
Have you noticed that Andy's physiology changed - that's the key thing here. Actually, Andy's physiology if you're thinking about 'I've not got enough time to write the book', do you see the shoulders went forward? And he noticed immediately, great catch, I'm not standing tall. Ok, so if you ever want to do your physiology of a problem state, you know what it is, don't you?

ANDY
Absolutely. Stand up.

TIFFANY
That's the success strategy - shoulders back. So I want you to go back now to the thought of having written the third book and doing exactly what you said so it's about the credibility, it's about the positioning - and you've achieved all of that. How do you feel now?

ANDY
Proud. Happy. Relaxed. Thinking about my fourth book!

TIFFANY
So you're proud, you're happy, you're relaxed. How does that compare to how you're feeling before?

ANDY
Well I'm happy when I'm like that because I get the buzz.

TIFFANY
Tell me about the buzz.

ANDY
You just love what you do. In my case, I'm enthused about it. I tell everyone about it.

TIFFANY
When you're in that place, nothing matters does it? One small thing that you could do that would move you closer to that?

ANDY
I've already decided that I'm going to sit down and make the time to, properly, over Christmas, when I'm delivering less, and I'm going to mind map out the book, so I know where I want to go with it.

TIFFANY
Ok. And if between now and Christmas, what's one small thing that you could do that would keep that momentum going so you could continue to be inspired?

ANDY
I need to keep a focus on it. I need to keep reminding myself that that's what I'm going to do. I don't want to get in the position of saying I must start it now when I'm in the middle of other deadlines, but if I'm focused that at that time I'm going to sit down and that's the task I'm going to complete, then I'm happy with that.

TIFFANY
What would need to happen between now and then for you to know for sure that you're going to be inspired to do that mind map at Christmas.

ANDY
I know what I'm going to do, I'm going to write a date in the diary around that time when I'm going to do it.

TIFFANY
Fantastic! Thank you very much.

KATE TRAFFORD, Speaker, The Academy for Chief Executives
You know when your next step is small enough when it feels like a no-brainer to do it. But, as Andy said earlier and he was bang on, wherever we get in life, it's just the cumulative effect of all the small steps that we take, is it not? Enough small steps, really focused in the right direction, and you really will get there. It's not only possible, it's completely inevitable that you will get there.

So Tiff and I don't really know whether if you were to invite us to speak to your groups, you'd like to hear more on this. We love to talk about this topic, and it seems to be very popular around new year for some reason, I don't know if that's a coincidence!

But really, what we'd just like to leave you with is, remember, effortless success is what it's all about. If it's starting to feel like hard work, you're working too hard. When everything's in alignment, it no longer feels like hard work. You might be busy. You might be productive. You might be all over the place, but you are loving it and it feels like a natural unfolding of what you want, day by day, moment by moment. Some of that is to do with goal-setting and some of it is do with alignment on the inside, and alignment on the outside of you and the people around you.

We'd like to thank you and thank the Chairman for giving us this opportunity, and to Andy for volunteering. Thankyou so much.