My coaching goals used to hold me back from success.

They were perfect.

Too perfect?

Yes.

I was living the coaching dream (inside my own mind)…

…instead of living it in reality.

I had created a Perfectionistic Goal: a goal that relies on circumstances to be perfect in order to achieve the goal.

What kind of goal should you set instead?

Set Inconceivable Goals:

Inconceivable goals rely on you growing beyond your own expectations of failure.

Inconceivable goals rely on you growing beyond your own expectations of failure.”

An ‘Inconceivable’ goal is a big, hairy, audacious goal…

…a goal that makes you wonder how you will ever achieve it.

You actually expect to fail.

With an Inconceivable goal you write down all the reasons why it’s impossible…

…and those reasons become the impetus for your action steps.

For instance…

REASON IT’S IMPOSSIBLE: You can’t get a paying coaching client because you can’t sell.

becomes…

ACTION STEP: Learn to enroll clients.

Every time you find a reason why you can’t succeed, you decide to learn something…

…which improves your beliefs about what’s possible…

…which inevitably gets you closer to the finish line.

Every time you find a reason why you can’t succeed, you decide to learn something…which improves your beliefs about what’s possible…which inevitably gets you closer to the finish line.”

Inconceivable goals thrive on failure as the mechanism for your growth…

…and ultimately, your achievement of what you once thought impossible.

Perfectionistic goals crumble at the slightest hint of failure.

Perfectionistic goals assume that life will be perfect at some point in the future…

…because perfection only exists in an imaginary future.

For instance…

…you tell yourself you’ll succeed when the kids start going to school.

Then, when the kids are in school…

…you decide that success is only possible when the kids go away to college.

See how the goal escapes your grasp?

Always one step ahead of you?

You think that you’ll start your coaching business when you get your certification.

Then, once you’re certified, you decide to wait until you get your ADVANCED certification!

Always chasing rainbows!

The perfect time is always one step in the future from where you currently are.

My first coaching client got a great deal.

My first client forced me to appreciate the difference between Perfectionistic Goals and Inconceivable Goals.

She got 4 coaching sessions (1 hour each) for $50.

NOT $50 per SESSION.

$50 for the entire program.

Her sessions usually ran longer than an hour…

Does my achievement sound like a win?

It certainly wasn’t my ‘perfect’ goal.

But I made a giant leap towards achieving my Inconceivable Goal.

It was going to be impossible to make good money as a coach…

…if I remained a coach who makes NO money at all.

Getting that first client transformed me…

…into the kind of coach who could achieve my inconceivable goal.

So I took the family out to dinner and celebrated!

(which also cost more than $50.)

But this goal wasn’t about making enough money to go on a dream vacation…

…it was about making the impossible POSSIBLE.

The next month I signed a new client for $595 / month for 6 months.

A friend of mine enrolled her first client about the same time.

Same deal…

4 sessions for $50.

She decided it was way too little money to live on…

…because she had her heart set on a Perfectionistic Goal…

…to make a full time living as a coach FROM DAY ONE.

In her mind, she failed to achieve her goal (i.e. perfection)…

…so she gave up on her dream to become a coach.

It was a tragedy….

…because she was a really good coach.

What went wrong?

• She was expecting to reach her perfectionistic goal.
• She didn’t accept where she was.
• She didn’t pivot from failure to action.

She felt that if she wasn’t able to make ‘perfect money’ now…

…she never would.

So she saw her experience as a failure instead of a win.

And threw away coaching for a different business…

…instead of staying the course and seeing it through to the end.

Perfectionistic goals presuppose that things aren’t good enough for you to succeed right now…

…hoping that somehow/someday the stars will align…

…and you will arrive at your destination.

Which basically means you are rejecting your present self.

…or judging yourself so hard…

…that you won’t take your first step in earnest.

You won’t start blogging…

…because you aren’t a good writer yet.

You won’t create a website…

…because you want to buy new clothes for your photo shoot.

Perfectionistic goals keep you in an unattainable fantasy.

It’s fine to have big goals…

…but if you swing the bat so hard that you miss…

…you’re going to strike out.

As a coach…

…do you want to hit your Perfectionistic Goals so badly…?

…that you fail to even get on base?

We all have an ideal in our heads about our coaching businesses…

…but invest your emotions in your Inconceivable Goal…

…the goal that allows you to win on your way toward the extraordinary.

Concentrate on the base hits, and eventually you’ll score.

Colette “Inconceivable” Coiner