Second Cup: Start a goal club

0:03Speaker 1:Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's tip is that if you are working toward a goal, you should consider forming a club with other people pursuing their goals. Even if they're pursuing different goals, you can all support each other as you try to succeed. So it's no secret that many of us fall by the wayside with our goals. You meant to train for that half marathon or eat five servings of fruit and vegetables or apply to go back to school, but you know, life gets busy. We tend to prioritize the things that we know other people care about or expect. A goal club helps create that accountability. Think of something like Weight Watchers. Yes, the organization has provided education and such, but the group meetings are a big reason some people find it effective.

1:13Speaker 1:You're not trying to lose weight on your own. You're doing it with a group of people who share your goals and who are cheering you on. So if you have a goal that you are perhaps struggling with, consider forming a goal club of people who can help you in your pursuit. This could look different for different situations, but one possibility is to recruit a group of friends or colleagues who share the same goal as you. Maybe you and two of your colleagues are all trying to save up for down payments for your first homes. You can check in with each other weekly to make sure you are keeping spending reined in and that you have moved the proper chunk of each paycheck into a savings account.

1:56Speaker 1:Or maybe you and two friends are all trying to write books That's the sort of goal club I am familiar with. For fiction or memoir, you can check in weekly on how many pages you have written, or perhaps for nonfiction, the steps you have taken toward producing a proposal, finding an agent, and so forth. You could also have a goal club composed of people working toward different goals. Your goal might be to save up for a down payment on a house within three years. One friend might be looking for another job. Another might be trying to declutter her house. But all of you are setting a goal, identifying action steps, and tracking your efforts and progress. So you are well positioned to encourage and support each other.

2:41Speaker 1:You can meet up for coffee once a week or so and discuss what you've done. Or else, text or email your encouragement. For busy people, goal pursuit can fall to the bottom of the to-do list. But if you know you're getting together with a goal club, you won't want to go to the gathering unprepared. So you are more likely to take the goal-related actions you intended to do. When you encounter obstacles or get discouraged, a team of people is there to help you keep from giving up.

3:14Speaker 1:To make this work, it might help to have a recurring agenda to keep your gatherings focused. First, everyone reports on the intentions they set at the last meeting and what they've done since then. Next, people take turns reporting on any obstacles they've encountered, as well as any questions or challenges they want feedback on. For a smaller group, people could troubleshoot right after each person reports. For a larger group, you could rotate which person you troubleshoot for as a group during the session. Then, everyone can set their intentions for what they'll do before the next meeting.

3:49Speaker 1:You may be wondering how a goal club is different from the organic support you'd get from your friends as you pursued a goal. But I think the main way to think about this is to consider a book club. You could just get together with friends and maybe discuss books or maybe not. But people join book clubs in order to know that everyone is expecting to read the same thing and that they will be getting together to discuss what they have read. In a goal club, You meet regularly and with an agenda to focus on your goals.

4:23Speaker 1:You are not catching up on life in general and maybe discussing your goal pursuits and maybe not. Everyone is aligned on why you are getting together and how you'll spend your time. And that makes it more likely that you will achieve your goals. If you create a goal club, I'd love to hear about it. You can reach me at laura at lauravandercam.com In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening. And here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at LauraVanderkam.com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeart Media.

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