The Concise Coaching Handbook

CHAPTER 7

Define Your Success and Use SMART Goals

We can each define ambition and progress for ourselves. The goal is to work toward a world where expectations are not set by the stereotypes that hold us back, but by our personal passion, talents, and interests.

—Sheryl Sandberg

Define (and Acknowledge) Your Own Success

The reason I’m so committed to you creating some sort of accountability system (preferably written or typed) is because of five very human tendencies.

1. We tend to forget what we’ve done.
2. Once achieved, we tend to take our own progress for granted.
3. We tend to minimize progress along the way, because our eyes are fixed on The Big Goal.
4. If the step we took didn’t produce the result we wanted, then we disparage having taken the step. ...