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How to Create Goals In Teaching & Life That ACTUALLY Stick in 2025! [#162]

Click below to listen to episode 162,How to Create Goals In Teaching & Life That ACTUALLY Stick in 2025!:

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Key themes from How to Create Goals In Teaching & Life That ACTUALLY Stick in 2025!:

  • Most Goals Fail Due to Missing Pieces: Most people abandon their goals within two weeks not because they’re lazy, but because they focus only on what they want and how to get there. The missing pieces? Aligning your thoughts and feelings to support consistent action.
  • The Self-Coaching Model Helps You Rewire Your Mindset: Achieving goals requires more than action steps—it demands the right mindset. The Self-Coaching Model connects your thoughts, feelings, actions, and results, ensuring you’re not working against yourself as you pursue your goals.
  • Progress Over Perfection: Live in “The Gain”: Measuring success based on how far you’ve come (the gain) instead of how far you have to go (the gap) helps you stay motivated, appreciate your progress, and avoid the frustration of constantly moving the goalpost.
  • Anticipate Obstacles and Strategize: Identifying potential challenges and creating strategies to overcome them—such as setting boundaries or building habits—ensures you stay on track even when life gets in the way.
  • Goals Are Tools for Growth, Not Self-Worth: Goals are not about becoming a “better person” but about overcoming subconscious blocks and uncovering your capabilities. You’re already whole and capable—goals simply help you explore what’s possible.

Did you know that most people abandon their New Year’s goals within just two weeks? Shocking, right? But it doesn’t have to be your story this year. Whether it’s professional milestones or personal aspirations, I’m here to share strategies that will help you break the cycle and build goals that stick. This blog post is inspired by one of the most impactful sessions from the recent Educate and Rejuvenate Winter Event. Get ready to transform your approach to goal-setting and make 2025 your best year yet!

Why Most Goals Fail – And How Yours Can Succeed

According to research, 85% of people give up on their New Year’s resolutions by mid-January. Why? It’s not because they’re lazy or incapable; it’s because they’re missing a crucial piece of the puzzle. Most goal-setting advice focuses solely on what you want to achieve and how to get there. While these are important, they leave out two game-changing factors: your thoughts and feelings.

To achieve your goals, you need to rewire your mindset, align your emotions with your actions, and create a plan that works with your brain, not against it.

The Secret Framework for Thriving in 2025

The process I teach is based on my three-step framework from my book Educate and Rejuvenate. It’s simple but incredibly effective:

  1. Observe Yourself – Get in touch with your current thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
  2. Choose Your Direction – Define clear, intentional goals aligned with your values.
  3. Align Yourself – Take consistent actions while reassessing and adjusting as needed.

This framework isn’t about perfection. It’s about progress and building momentum toward what truly matters to you.

The Power of the Self-Coaching Model

One of the tools we use in this framework is the Self-Coaching Model, which helps you connect your thoughts, feelings, actions, and results. Here’s how to use it to set goals that stick:

  1. Start with the result. Define exactly what you want to achieve.
  2. List the actions needed. Break down every step required to reach your goal.
  3. Identify the feelings that drive action. For example, confidence or motivation.
  4. Reframe your thoughts. Choose beliefs that cultivate those positive feelings.

For example:

  • Goal: Organize your classroom supply cabinet.
  • Actions: Create an inventory, declutter supplies, and set up labeled storage.
  • Feelings: Focused and motivated.
  • Thoughts: “I can organize one step at a time.”

Why Goals Are More Than “To-Do” Lists

Goals are not just about ticking boxes—they’re opportunities to uncover limiting beliefs, develop resilience, and align your actions with your desires. When you measure your progress not against some ideal but against how far you’ve already come, you shift from living in “the gap” to living in “the gain.”

As Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy explain in The Gap and The Gain, focusing on progress instead of perfection helps you appreciate how much you’ve accomplished and keeps you motivated to move forward.

Obstacles and Strategies: Preparing for Success

To make your goals stick, you need to anticipate challenges and prepare strategies to overcome them. Here’s how:

  1. List potential obstacles. What might derail your progress? For example, lack of time or unexpected interruptions.
  2. Create a strategy for each. If a colleague drops by to chat after school, politely let them know you need to stick to your schedule.
  3. Break goals into manageable steps. Assign a timeline to each step to keep yourself on track.

Building Habits That Last

Habits are the backbone of goal success. Whether it’s tracking your progress with an app like Streaks or using a pen-and-paper habit tracker, consistency is key. Remember, small daily actions compound into big results over time.

What’s Next?

If you’re ready to dive deeper into this process, join us in the Educate and Rejuvenate Club. Inside the app, you’ll find full replays of the Winter Event sessions, live coaching calls, meditations, and so much more.

Pro Tip: Unlock a 14-day extended trial by filling out the form inside the app modules for extra time to explore!

A Note About the Podcast

As we focus on enhancing our content and resources, the Educate and Rejuvenate podcast is taking a short break. But don’t worry—you’ll still get monthly bonus episodes from my live Teacher Goals sessions. Be sure to stay connected via Instagram and our email list for updates!

Let’s make 2025 the year your goals thrive. Download the Educate and Rejuvenate App (in the Apple App Store & Google Play) today and start creating the life you want—one intentional step at a time.

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Read the transcript for How to Create Goals In Teaching & Life That ACTUALLY Stick in 2025! [#162] below:

 

Did you know that most people abandon their New Year’s goals within only 2 weeks? Let’s change that for you this year with your goals in teaching and life. In this episode, I’m sharing one of the most powerful sessions from the lives from our recent educate and rejuvenate winter event. How to create goals that actually stick. This replay dives deep into the mindset shifts, planning strategies, and tools that will help you build momentum and achieve what matters most to you in 2025. And if you want even more, I’ll tell you how to access the full series inside the educate and rejuvenate app. Let’s make this the year that your goals thrive in 2025. Let’s go. Welcome to Educate and Rejuvenate, the podcast to help you revitalize your teaching, renew your spirit, and reignite your passion for life.
I’m your host, Kelsey Sorensen, a former teacher, current homeschool mom, published author, and certified life coach. Whether you are a teacher in a traditional classroom, homeschool from your kitchen table, or anywhere in between, I am on a mission to help you not only survive as an educator, but thrive. Get ready to up level your skills with incredible insights from guest experts and discover the missing piece, rejuvenating yourself. Are you ready to both educate and rejuvenate? Let’s go. Hey, friends. Welcome back to educate and rejuvenate the podcast. Today’s episode is one I am so thrilled to share. It is a replay of my live session from the winter educate and rejuvenate event.
It’s called how to create goals in teaching in life that actually stick. And it’s packed with tons of tools to help you set yourself up for success in 2025. While the event has ended and the general admission access has closed, I want you to know that it’s not too late to listen to this session. That’s why we put on the podcast for free for everybody. And it’s not too late to get all of the replays either. When you join us in the educate and rejuvenate club, you’ll unlock every session from the event, including the ones that came before and after the session you get for free today. Those additional replays are game changers. They’ll help you break down your goals step by step.
In fact, just last night, as of when I’m recording this, I brought on 3 amazing women to break down their goals. 1 of them hadn’t even started doing this process that I talk about today, and we did it live on camera. And then the next 2 had done it, but then we, like, went in and we dove even deeper, and we clarified some things that they weren’t sure on. And everybody in the chat, it was just hopping, and everybody was, like, wow. We gained so much clarity just from watching this. So I want you to watch it and gain all that clarity too. If you’re like me, you might still be easing into your goals for the year. Like, yeah, you’re listening to this as it goes live.
We’re getting closer to midway through January. It’s still the beginning, or no matter what, you could be hitting play on this episode anytime. But the beginning of a new year is not the only time you can work towards making your goals. And also, maybe you’re just starting your goals 2 weeks into the new year. That’s so much better than giving up on them 2 weeks in. Right? Little baby steps. Even if it takes you 3 or 4 weeks to break down your goals and then just little baby steps each week, you’ll be so much further than people who went all in for just 1 week and then let it all go. Right? We just wanna stay consistent.
Right? I just I’ve been working on mine and little baby stepping it, and you can do it right along with me. So jump into the Educate and Rejuvenate app. And if you’re an Educate and Rejuvenate club member, you’ll find all the replays there. And if you’re not, I would love for you to opt into the extended 14 day trial for full access to the club. Now when you go into the app, you might see the 7 day trial. That is where you can check out right through the Apple App Store or Google Play. That’s new. But if you want to unlock the extended 14 day trial, just go into any of the modules in the app.
You should find it’s a form you can fill out to unlock it, and you’ll get better pricing if you decide to renew. But, also, you have a full 14 days where within that time, you could easily watch the sessions or come and try out a coaching call. Come and see if it’s right for you. It’s no risk, and then you can cancel before the charge if it’s not for you. But trust me, this is the perfect opportunity to check out the sessions, the coaching replays, the meditations, and everything else the educate and rejuvenate app has to offer. And one reason you might wanna take me up on that too is I do have one big announcement. We are actually going to be taking a short break from Educate and Rejuvenate, the podcast. And when I say a short break, I mean in the long term, it’s a short break, but it’s kind of relative.
Like, it might not be until later this spring or end of the school year until we’re regularly dropping weekly episodes again. This was a really tough decision, but it’s a necessary one that I found as we’ve been doing lots of reflecting on 2025. We have a lot of exciting projects going on beside behind the scenes. We’re revamping our website, improving the app, making sure everything is clear on what what goes where and making it a seamless experience for everybody. And I also want to while we’re doing all that, I want to work on bringing you even better, more intentional content. So instead of having an episode every single week all the time, we are going to start doing seasons of the podcast that are really honed in and focused and planned and well intentioned, and I have a lot more time to think over the content I want to deliver to you in each episode. So it’s gonna be bigger and better than ever. It’s kind of like how I talk about less is sometimes more.
Right? Because if you are working so many hours a week as a teacher, for example, and you decide, oh, I need to cut back so I can, you know, have time for these other things in my life, it doesn’t mean you’re a less effective teacher. Right? It means that during the time you’re doing it, you’re so much more effective. And that is the plan with the podcast too. I didn’t want this I kinda got ahead of it because it was starting to feel just a little bit like a hamster wheel. And I’m like, you know what? I don’t want the podcast to be something where I feel like I just have to do this because I have to get something out there because I always want it to be valuable content. But in the meantime, the thing you’ll never find me dropping anytime soon is weekly coaching live in the Educate and Rejuvenate club every week, and I will also be doing a monthly live on the teacher goals platform about the book. So I’ll be sharing those replays here as bonus episodes. So you won’t feel like we’re completely gone here on the podcast.
There’ll be at least 1 monthly episode from that teacher goals live. And if you were in the club, you’ll still have a coaching call every single week from me, plus the bonus ones we have from our other coaches each month too. And you’ll have so much to explore there in the app. I just wanted to let you all know now so it’s not a surprise. We’ll have one more episode next week, and then we’ll be starting that break where we’re going to get intentional, dive into our podcast data, get some feedback from all of you on how we can improve the podcast, and relaunch it later this year back and even better than ever with themed seasons. Very intentional. It’s going to be really great. So while we step back to plan our next chapter, make sure you’re on our email list so you don’t miss any updates.
And if you’re ready for deeper support, make sure that you join us in the educate rejuvenate club because that’s how if you’re like, wait, Kelsey. I look forward to this episode in my feed every week. It doesn’t have to go away because I do a coaching call every week with our members. In fact, you could join me live. A lot of times I’m teaching. Sometimes I’m coaching. But every week, you can check out the replay and listen to it in the app just like a podcast. So again, if you have not yet downloaded the educate and rejuvenate app, you can do a 14 day extended trial when you find the forms in the get started here or really any of the modules that you can find.
We’re really making sure it’s easy to find. It’s everywhere in the app, that 14 day extended trial to check it out, educate and rejuvenate club, and give it a try. Okay. Now let’s dive into today’s episode, how to create goals in teaching and life that actually stick. Let’s go. Let’s dive into how we’re going to create goals that actually stick in 2025. Now Now I want you to know, according to most studies, most people and I actually looked it up after I made these slides. It’s 85% or it was 85 or 88% of people abandon their New Year’s goals within just 2 weeks.
I wanna know. Does that surprise you, or does that not surprise you? Let me know in the chat. Now for me, it it doesn’t surprise me, but it does make me kind of sad because I’m like, we all set these intentions. We think of this new year as this great new start, a fresh beginning. And then 2 weeks in, we’re just like, same old, same old. 2024 was rough. 2025 is gonna be rough too. Ugh.
All of that. Right? And what I really want for all of us is for us to thrive in 2025, and that was actually the name of my prerecorded session that you may or may not have seen yet. But I wanna and, again, Thrive doesn’t mean everything is perfect. Right? It doesn’t mean that things are always amazing and that we never get stressed out, but it does mean that we are making great progress towards our goals, towards those very intentional things that we want to build, that we want to create in 2025. I see that most of you in the chat are saying you are not surprised about this statistic. Here’s what we’re gonna do about it. Today, we are going to talk about it. And the reason we tend to fail at goals a lot of times is not because we are lazy, but most people fail on goals because they only focus on I wanna know.
Whenever you’ve focused on a goal, do you focus mainly on what you want the goal to be, how to measure it, and action steps to get there? Right? We focus on those things. But something is missing, and that’s what we’re going to be focusing on today. Because a lot of times, like, yes. This is what I wanna do. This is how I’m gonna know when I get there. Yes. It’s really smart. You wanna have those things.
Action steps, of course, we have to do those things. But, again, if we don’t do some of these things that I’m going to talk about today, we’re going to be working against ourselves. So this session is for you if you regularly think things like, why can’t I follow through on my goals, I wish I could stay consistent, I have no time for myself, and you want this year to be different where you can actually meet your goals without sacrificing on being a good educator, a good parent, a good whatever it is, fill in the blank. Right? Now for today’s session, you are going to want to maybe have a paper and pencil ready. So in this session, we are building on what we’ve already done. And, yeah, if you weren’t there, it’s totally fine, but it might be great for you to refer back to those sessions. I’m going to do a quick recap. So what we covered in my first prerecorded session titled thrive in 2025, we went over my 3 step coaching framework that that started for my educate and rejuvenate book, and now it’s really what I teach in the club and here when I do these events and presentations and everything.
So what we want to do is observe ourselves, choose our direction, and align yourselves. And this is what helps you to create the life you want to overcome burnout, all the things. We just need to get in touch with ourselves, our thoughts, our feelings, our nervous system, decide where we want to go, and that’s what we do with goals. And then align ourselves is just, like, following that path that we created and redirecting as needed, reassessing as needed. I talk all about it during the prerecorded session. So if that’s all kinda going over your head, don’t worry about it. We’ll talk a little bit more about it here. But also, we’re really just diving into one specific tool rather than the overarching framework as we set our goals.
We also talked about how observing yourself, that means getting more in touch with yourself, can lead to meaningful change when we create our goals. Because, again, if we don’t understand what we’re thinking, how we’re feeling, we can’t move in the right direction with our goals. We also talked about the self coaching model, which we’re going to talk about more in-depth today. That’s the tool within the framework that we’re going to be utilizing the most over these next 2 days. Okay. So what we are going to cover today, we’re going to cover why we set goals for 1. We’re going to talk about what’s likely missing most of the time when you’ve set goals in the past and how it’s not your fault that you haven’t reached them. We’re going to talk about how to utilize the self coaching model to create goals with all the components you need for success, and that is one of my favorite tools we use as coaches to help you and that you’re going to be able to use yourself.
It’s called the self coaching model because you can learn how to use it on yourself and be your own life coach almost. So first, let’s talk about why we set goals. Reason number 1 is that goals help us uncover blocks that keep us from seeing our capabilities. A lot of times we have these limiting beliefs, these thought patterns that we’ve always had, and a goal gives us the opportunity to rise above them, to break through those limiting beliefs, those I can’t do that, I can’t lose the weight, or I can’t create work life balance, or I can’t finish my teaching certification, or I can’t get this organized. I’m a disorganized person. Like, you might have these thoughts and feelings about it that are keeping you from being able to do it. And it helps us see, like, how far we have already come. Like, we can try to get into a positive mindset with our goal.
We that’s why we we spent a whole session before this one reflecting on how far we’ve come before we talk about the goal. Right? We wanna see where we are, get great understanding of where we are now, and so we can figure out where we want to go. And I’m going to talk about this concept called the gap in the game. When we look at the gap, we are comparing where we want to be, comparing ourselves to where we want to be. Right? And that is not going to serve us in meeting our goals. In fact, that is when we will likely not meet them and we’ll be working with a lot of resistance to meet them. It is also when even if you do hit the goal, you’re not likely to feel any better about yourself. That’s why a lot of times, like, I even just earlier today saw a reel from a nutrition expert, and she was like, you can, lose all the weight, like, all the weight you want to and still hate your body because it’s not about the circumstance, which is what we talk about with the model.
It is about how we’re thinking. And so it really gives us that opportunity to understand where we are where we are coming from, how far we’ve gone, how far we’ve come, how we’re already amazing how we are. We do not set goals. You’ll notice that reason number 2, neither of the two reasons we’re going over, is to become a better person because we are already a whole and complete person. The reason we set goals is to overcome these subconscious blocks to give us the opportunity to get out of the gap that we constantly live in and get into the gain and see how amazing we already are. And because I’m that amazing, why why not do this thing? Why not see what’s possible? So I wanna show you these images about the gap in the game because it’s really going to give you a great understanding about that. So this is a concept that was created by Dan Sullivan. He is the strategic coach, and he and Benjamin Hardy wrote this incredible book called The Gap and the Gain.
It’s kinda geared towards business owners, but it’s really a life skill to be able to live in the gain rather than the gap. So basically, either way, you’re starting at the same point. You’re starting where you are right now at the beginning of 2025. Right? But if you’re comparing yourself versus where you want to go, you’re visualizing the ideal versus where you are, then you’re in the gap. Right? You’re just like, like that. And it’s constantly moving usually. Right? You’re like, like, when it when you get there, you don’t know stuff how you come. You’re now just moving the goalpost to the next thing.
And so you feel failure. You feel frustration. You feel disappointment. You have this you’re always just wanting to chase the next ideal. But when you’re in the gain, you’re still starting in the same place, but you measure versus how far you’ve already achieved. Like, oh, like, I’m a teacher. I’m, like, already teaching, doing amazing. For example, if that’s you, if you’ve already gotten in the classroom, at one point that’s where you wanted to be.
Right? Like, how amazing that you’ve come this far. And now if you’ve done that, you can definitely get a cabinet organized, or you can definitely do whatever it is that you want to do. Right? So the gap is where our brains, our negative reptile brains, tend to go naturally. But what we’re doing with goals is we’re training ourselves to get into the game. Here’s another visualization of it because I just like to offer multiple visuals because, you know, we all learn in different ways. So it’s kind of seeing the starting point. Visualizing the starting point not as today. The starting point is maybe beginning of 2024, maybe the beginning of your teaching career, maybe the beginning of whatever your goal is when you first thought you maybe wanted to do that.
Think of that as your starting point, and what progress have you already made to get to the ideal point. Reason number 2 why we set goals is they are anchors guiding us towards what we want. If we don’t understand where it is we want to go, then we’re just kind of all over the place. We might not be able to be as intentional with our time. We might not be able to, we’re trying to balance all the things and juggle everything possible, but we’re not simplifying and streamlining and moving towards the thing we really want, which is what I call alignment, when it’s like we’re crystal clear on what it is we want, and we’re going after that and kind of letting everything else just be whatever it’s going to be. Right? They give us clarity and help us make intentional adjustments along the way because we we create a plan, and that’s what we’re doing today. So they help us to choose the direction that we’re headed, which is a part of the coaching framework that I talked about in my prerecorded session. So that is why we set goals.
Those two reasons. Again, neither of them are so we can become a better person or because we’re not good enough the way we are right now. Again, this is the framework we talked about at the beginning of this event, like, in the prerecorded session and at the beginning of the December 30th session. We talked about observing ourselves. That’s where we really just try to understand where we are now because we need to understand where we are now in order to create a map of where we wanna go. Because think about it. Like, you’re at a friend’s house or, like, you’re trying to drive to a friend’s house, and it’s the first time you’ve never been there, and you call and you’re like, I can’t figure out where I am. I think I’m on the wrong street.
I think I’m lost. The first thing they’ll say is, well, where are you right now? Right? We need to understand where we are now before we can make a map to where we wanna go, and that is what observing ourself is all about. The next thing we want to do is choose our direction, and that’s what we’re doing now. We are choosing what it is we want to create in 2025. So much of what we’re doing during this event live right now is choosing the direction we want to go, creating our goal, creating our plan. And then throughout the year, we’re going to need to align ourselves. We’re going to need to, continue to look at the plan, continue to do some of the things we’re going to talk about. They’re going to help us, not just, like, create the map and not use it, but to be like a compass and keep us guided on the path to reach our goals.
So that is, in a nutshell, what we’re doing. So remember, most goal setting programs have you focus on clear, specific results of what you want to achieve and action items to get there. Now I wanna know before I tell you, I wanna know what do you think is missing here that might be getting in the way of reaching our goals? Tell me in the chat for those of you who are here live. And if you’re on the replay, which some of you a lot of you probably will be, just think about it to yourself. Can’t know where to go if I don’t know where I am. Yes. That is so important. Right? We need to know where we are going.
Absolutely. Perfectionism. Yeah. That is definitely something that can get in our way. Right? 100%. And that’s one thing we’re going to talk about too. We’re going to talk about strategies. We’re talking about that even more tomorrow.
But we’re we’re going to talk about strategies that are going to help us to not just throw in the towel. It’s not all or nothing. Right? I talk a lot about all or nothing thinking in my book, educate and rejuvenate, and that we think it’s, like, everything or nothing. Right? And that’s something our brains do. It’s a cognitive distortion. It’s not real. So it doesn’t have to be that way. Our mental struggles are ways we think at the moment.
Yes. Right? The ways we’re thinking about it. Where you are and what you’re already doing. Positive yes. Positive self talk and strategies for dealing with setbacks instead of giving up. Letting others define what my success looks like. Right. Yeah.
If it’s all about what other people think, scope is this personal, professional all your life, some just for professional development or personal development or whole person. Great question. This can be for either. It can be for professional development. It can be for personal development. What I talk about in my book is I usually recommend focusing on 2 goals at a time, and, usually, I do one professional and one personal. And you can utilize the same process for either one. Negative self talk, self doubt, comparing ourselves to others, celebrating the small steps.
Yeah. Giving up after one setback, lack of a clear plan, self doubt, too much to do with my current teaching position to keep up with studying, and find little time to do PD that I think would help me find more time being organized. Or you’re like, yeah. It’s this vicious cycle. I don’t feel I feel like I don’t have time so that I don’t have the time to do the things that’ll help me to do the thing I wanna do or to have more time. We are going to be talking a bit about time even more so on tomorrow’s session because we’re talking about the ways to not just create the goal plan, but to stick to it. And a lot of that is that we need to make sure that we have time to do the things we need to do for these goals. Right? Not good planning, past failures, feeling overwhelmed.
Yes. Such good answers. All these things can get in our way, and I would say they’re all correct. And then one of the things I did wanna talk about is during the prerecorded session, we learned the self coaching model. Right? And now we are going to learn it backwards to help create our goals. Let’s do a review of the model. So, basically, with the model that we talked about, like, when you think about even, like, SMART goals or whatever type of goals. Right? We we get very specific about the plan.
We get very specific about the things we wanna do, what we want to achieve, what we want the results to be. Right? But as we learn in the self coaching model, if we’re still thinking the same thing and feeling the same way again, we were talking about the negative self talk or the ways we think about it or, you know, what what everybody else thinks and, again, what we think about what everyone else thinks. Right? If we still have those same thoughts and feelings that we had before when we weren’t able to achieve the goal, then we’re going to be having a lot of resistance towards meeting those goals. So, again, if we create goals only based on actions and results, but we still have those same thoughts and limiting beliefs about it, we’re working against ourselves, essentially. So what we want to do as we’re creating our goals is we want to use every part of this self coaching model. Yes. We want to be very crystal clear about the result. We want to be able to measure it.
Yes. We want to fully break down the action plan of all the things we need to do to get there. But, also, we need to pay attention to, how do I need to feel to do those things? Because if I feel terrible or if I’m feeling scarcity about time or if I am feeling overwhelmed, if I am feeling stressed, if I’m feeling anxious, it’s gonna be hard to get myself to do those things. Or if I’m thinking I just can’t do this, There’s not enough time. All of these things, worrying about it, or, I ate a cookie. I just better not do any of it. Right? If if it’s about health or whatever. Right? We need to be able to also really pay attention to, and I would say this is probably the most important thing to pay attention to with our goals, is what we’re thinking about it and how those thoughts are making us feel.
Because those thoughts and those feelings are what drive our actions. Literally, with this self coaching model, what we learned, This is based in cognitive behavioral therapy. It is not the circumstance, which is the lack thereof of doing the goal or how much time we have or whatever, that causes us to have certain results. Right? It is what we think about it that drives how we feel, that drives what we do or what we do not do, and what we do creates our results. Right? But what we do is based on how we think and how we feel, so we need to pay attention to those parts. So what we are going to do is we are going to work this self coaching model backwards. So you’ll see before, we had the model. We were looking at how our thoughts create our feelings, create our actions, create our results.
That’s kind of the unintentional model, like what’s just happening naturally in life. What we’re going to do is we’re going to get very intentional using the self coaching model as a tool to create our goals. So we are going to, yes, we’re going to first get crystal clear about the result that we want. Then we’re going to come up with what are all the things I need to do to make that result, but then we’re going to keep going. How do I need to feel so I actually do those things? And if I wanna feel that way, how do I need to be thinking about it? So we’re going to be doing all of this as we break down our goals. The way we’re going to do that, again, is we’re going to look at the results. Here, we’re going to start with the end goal in mind. What is it you want to achieve? That goal is going to be a result.
If your goal is I know we saw 1, to finish a teaching certification. Or if your goal is to I mean, one of my goals is a health goal, so I use that as examples a lot, to, like, lose a certain number of pounds or to gain a certain percent of muscle tone or whatever it is. Or if it’s to organize your closet or if it’s to finish an ESL endorsement, or whatever it might be, put that in the result that you made the goal, whatever it is. Your actions are all the specific things you need to do. But then for the feelings, we need to tap into the emotions that drive those actions. So if we want to do those things, how do we need to feel? Do I need to feel confident? Do I need to feel, calm? Do I need to feel excited? Do I need to feel motivated? What is it that I need to feel? Do I need to be more present? And then our thoughts. Right? What beliefs are going to help cultivate the feelings that we need to have to do the actions that we need to take to meet that result? And then the circumstance what I actually have us do usually is to you can either define your current situation as a neutral fact. Right? So you can put, like, I am currently or my cause is currently like this, or a lot of times with a goal.
So you have a choice. You can decide. It’s kind of as much an art as it is in science with the model. You can decide if you wanna do it like that or in the workbook, actually, you say just literally put down, I set a goal to do this. Because sometimes even the thought of the goal can drive, like, oh, I don’t know if I can do that. You know? So you can pick because you’re doing it what what you think works best for you. Because, again, you know yourself. Right? So I wanna show you an example.
The very first time I did this, goal setting using the model was not actually something I was taught during my certification. It was actually when I was doing and we have somebody who was talking about teaching certifications, so this might really apply to you too. Or it could apply if you’re doing a teaching observation or really any sort of thing where you’re, like, doing a test or whatever. So I had to do a test to certify as a life coach. Well, actually, I had to do a test, and I had to do a final call with an instructor, and that’s what this was about. But what happened was, though, I scheduled 2 calls back to back. I scheduled 1, like, my final practice session. We got 20 practice sessions, and then I was like, I’m gonna just schedule 1 right before the actual certification call so that I feel just extra prepared, extra good.
You know? And then so I did that 20th call, and it went, like, terrible. I knew that because I was so in my head about this needs to be really good, like, so much pressure putting all this pressure on myself. Right? So then I was not feeling confident. I was feeling nervous. I was feeling scared. Right? Which just a nervous or scared feeling lead you to take the actions that will help you to do well or to not do well? Right? Not do well. So what I did, I had 20 minutes after I finished that call that was terrible, and this shows that how quickly this tool can help you to rewire your mindset because I had 20 minutes. I was panicked.
I was like, oh my goodness. I am not going to pass this time because if what just happened happens again, I would not have passed, and I already knew it. So what did I do? I was like, well, you know what? Part of what I learned in this certification was this tool of the self coaching model. So I got out literally this sticky note right here that’s on the screen, and I used this model. And I actually I didn’t do it backwards. I mean, I did kind of work it backwards. I just wrote it out forwards, but at the bottom, I put I passed my call, then I thought about all the things I needed to do to get that result I wanted. Right? And it’s really messy because I just literally am showing you the actual sticky note I did on it.
It shows that it can be messy. It doesn’t have to be pretty, but I put result, I passed my call. Actions. See how I put a lot of actions? I didn’t put just 1. I put a whole ton. Right? But intercall with curiosity. So again, going in with curiosity instead of, like, am I gonna pass? No. It’s not about me.
It’s about the client. Right? It’s it’s about our student. It’s about whoever else. Right? And again, all my actions, those don’t really matter for you, but again, I put all the actions I needed to do to pass. Then I put the feeling as confident. Right? In order to do those things, I couldn’t come in thinking that thought, oh, I hope I pass. Like, I think that’s what, like, originally in that first one is, oh, I hope I do good. And that led me to feel like, oh, I don’t know, like, nervous, scared, unsure, which did not lead me to do these things.
But then I did this model, suddenly I felt really good, and I passed with flying colors. And I did an amazing job, and I passed on the very first try. And I know other people who did not, so I was proud of that. So, again, this tool helped me to completely rewire in a span of 20 minutes. So this is a powerful tool. And that is the first time I worked it backwards, and I was like, okay. This is what I’m going to use to set my goals, like, for long term too because and with long term, we we’ll come up with multiple feelings, multiple thoughts that we want to feel because it’s a long term thing. You’re not gonna be thinking and feeling the same thing all the time, so you need to come up with as many thoughts and as many feelings as can support your goal.
Because it’s not just one snapshot in time. It is, like, a full goal. Right? So here’s another example, organizing a cabinet of school supplies. I think somebody literally said that theirs was to get organized, so maybe this will help you. So goal example number 1, organizing a cabinet. So results is I actually did it backwards this time the way I do it now. I write the result. I write my classroom supply cabinet is neatly organized and easy to maintain.
Then for the actions, like, again, you could write even more actions. You’ll probably want to. I just wanted to fit this on the slide. So, again, creating inventory, decluttering supplies, all the things you need to do, basically. Right? Feelings you wanna feel, focused and motivated. You could even write more. You can write as much as you want. I encourage you to write as many as you can think of that will support you.
Thoughts? I can get my cabinet organized one step at a time. Again, I would even encourage you to write as many thoughts as will support you in reaching your goal. And then the circumstance here, the way I did it was just I set a goal to organize my classroom supply cabinet by the end of the month or by the end of the year. What whatever it is. Right? Depending on what that cabinet’s like. Right? Okay. So we’re going to do this with your goal, but first, we want to get clear on what your goal is, so we can break it down. We don’t wanna just go to a model when We don’t even know exactly what we want.
We need to get clear. And we also need to know where we are. So if you’re not even to the point where you’re ready and know what that goal is going to be, that’s fine. But from here, you’re going to need to know what is one specific result you want to achieve in 2025. And we want to focus on one goal at a time. You can repeat it for another goal if you’d like, but just start with one. It can be professional. It can be personal.
Doesn’t matter. Just pick one to start with, and then you can repeat the process for as many as many times as you want, for as many things as you want. So if you’re live, tell us in the chat. Answer that question. What is one specific result that you want to achieve in 2025? I want to be present at home with my students. I want to improve my health and fitness. My thoughts, 4 PM is the cutoff, and I did enough. Whatever is not done will be here tomorrow.
Love that. Love love love that. So we’re seeing some goals start to trickle in. Give myself grace. If it is out of my sphere of control, let it go. Jennifer says, this is a great way to think of goals, especially the big ones. It’s like backwards planning for teaching. Yes.
Exactly. And, actually, when I taught this and I haven’t taught it to this extent, but when I mentioned it before, that’s been said before. It really is is like, we’re teachers. We know backwards planning. Right? This is what we’re doing for our own goals. Gloria is going home 15 minutes after contract time. I love that. And I love when it’s, like, specific so we can see it.
Right? There are some aspects from these other ways we’ve set goals we want to keep. Right? We still wanna be specific. We still want to be able to measure it. We just also wanna look at what thoughts and feelings we need to have. Right? Organize my digital files. I teach pre k through 12, and I feel like I’m drowning in my resources. Oh my goodness. Yes.
Hannah, one specific result I want to achieve is to move the rating scale on my t test evaluation to the category above what I am in now. Love that. Love that goal. So whether or not you’re here live, just think about that goal. A few reflection questions before we do in our own model, and these again, we did a bunch of reflection questions questions last week, but these are geared towards your goal when you have your goal in mind. Remember, we are setting these goals to remove those subconscious blocks and create direction, so we need to get in the right head space. Right? We need to make sure that we’re coming to this goal from a clean place, not from a I need to be better or, I’m just so disorganized or, I can’t believe I stay so late at school. I’m just so terrible.
We wanna make sure we’re coming at this from a clean headspace. So let’s think about why do I want to achieve this goal? What is the actual reason? For those who there are several of you right now who’ve just said that you want to go home at a certain time. Is it because you want more time with family? You want more freedom? Think about the why behind it. What will be the same when I reach this goal? So what I love about what’ll be the same and what will be different is it’s helping us recognize that it’s not, like, that we are better or it’s not always better here or there. There will always be different problems. For example, if you leave earlier, maybe less is done at school, but that’s a worthwhile trade off. Right? So it’d be things that are the same. Maybe you’ll still have the same job.
Maybe you’ll still do some of the same things. You’re still gonna stay a certain period after school that you decide, like, how much time you decide. It’s just more intentional. What will be different? Maybe you’ll have more time at home. Right? How do I imagine or how do I feel when I imagine reaching this goal? So how do you feel right now when you imagine that you’ve already achieved that goal? So that can really help us to be able to visualize how we want to feel along the way too when we realize that that feeling isn’t only accessible when we get there. That feeling is accessible right now too because and I say this in my book too. A lot of what we do well, actually, not a lot of what we do. I learned this from Bert Castillo, who I did my life coaching certification with.
But the things we do, we do because of how we think they will make us feel. Like, everything we or is everything we want in life is because of how we think it’ll make us feel, and that just blew my mind because we want to be more organized because, oh, I’ll feel better when my space is more clean, or I’ll feel better when I’m not at school all the time. Right? And we think it’s the circumstance, but it’s actually available to us right now. We can tap into that feeling just by imagining being there or just by switching how we think about it. Like, oh, it’s possible that I could get there. So even when you’re not there yet and you realize you can tap into that feeling right now, it helps, like, make it not as scary that, like, oh, what if I don’t reach this goal? It’s like, it’s okay. The way I want to feel when I reach that goal, I can feel that now as I work towards it. Right? For example, weight loss is always a good one because there’s so much mind drama behind it.
I think that when I get there, I imagine just feeling like I love myself. Like, I’ll feel so much better. It’s like, well, guess what? Even though you’re not there yet, you can still love yourself right now. And in fact, that’s the only healthy way to go about it. So few more questions. How do I feel when I imagine reaching this goal? Oh, we already did that one. Sorry about that. How will I celebrate when I achieve this goal? Right? We wanna celebrate when we get there.
We also wanna celebrate your wins along the way, like, little tiny wins, like those little 1% improvements. How will we celebrate those? And celebrate can be something really simple. It can just be, like, I text a friend, and we sell, like, you know, acknowledgment. It doesn’t have to be, like, I buy myself something every time. I mean, it can if you’re really motivated by that or that’s something you love, but it can just be, like, how am I gonna celebrate? Who am I going to tell? Then we also want to look at what measurable results will I see when I achieve this goal. So we want to understand when we get there. We want to try to make it as not vague as possible, as specific as we can so we actually know we’ve achieved it. If you have a goal where it’s like, I just want to feel better about this or do this or whatever, you might want to also think of a way to figure out when you get there or what exactly it is.
Just get a little more clear about it. Figure out how you can quantify it. Then we want to work the self coaching model backwards, which we talked about. Right? So use set goal 2 fill in the blank. That’s the way I prefer to do it. Literally just make the circumstance the goal. So, again, this is what we’re doing. We’re looking at the result.
What’s our result? What actions will we take to get there? What feelings do you need to fill those actions? What thoughts will you need to feel that way? And then you set a goal to fill in the blank. That’s what we’re going to do. And then we’re going to dive even deeper. So we’re gonna work the self coaching model backwards. And then once we do that, we also want to think about what are all the things that are likely to get in our way as we reach or as we’re trying to reach our goals. Right? Because we’re working the and then you can even work that into your model and keep adding to it, keep adding to the actions. Right? So what’s likely to get in your way? So eve think of every obstacle you can, and, yes, that sounds overwhelming to think of all the things that might get in your way. And you might be like, wait.
I wanna think about the bad things. I wanna think about the negative things, but it’s because we wanna have strategies for it. Right? We wanna be prepared. So is it that for example, several of you were saying that you wanna leave school by a certain time. What’s gonna get in your way of doing that? Is it going to be a colleague coming into your room and being like, oh, hey. Let’s chitchat. Is it going to be maybe the way you do your planning or the way you have things organized that you’re just gonna see something and it’s going to trigger you knowing yourself? Like, what is going to keep you from doing what you wanna do? Again, just think of all the possible obstacles that could get in your way. Then once you’ve listed every obstacle that could possibly get in your way of reaching your goal, then you’re going to come up with a strategy to go along with each one.
Then we’re going to break down a detailed to do list of every step needed to reach your goal and assign a timeline or a deadline to each step. And, again, it doesn’t have to be pretty. I did that model on a sticky note that completely changed my experience with the certification as we talked about. So it can just be in a Google Doc. Like, make it easy if you’d like what’s getting in your way. Right? We’re thinking of all the potential obstacles that are happening, and then we’re going to come up with a strategy for each one to kick those obstacles to the curb. This is where you can do the breakdown of every single little thing that you can check off and what date you want it by. And then keeping like, creating habits.
Right? They’re gonna help support your goal, but building habits that stick. So what habits will support you in reaching this goal? So you can list all the habits here. And find your own way you wanna track it. Again, some people might like to do it digitally. There’s apps like streaks or Habitica that will help you track your progress. Or if you’re an educate and rejuvenate club member, we do have tracking for habits you wanna have right in the app. We also have this habit tracker where, again, you can just use pen pen and paper pencil version and track those habits right in here. So that is what we’re talking about today, breaking down your goals.
Now I would love for you to finish this in the next 24 hours, or do as much as you can. Don’t even need to finish it. In fact, you can be just barely started. I can help you fill out too. So don’t feel again, don’t be perfectionist about it, but do what you can on it because I would love for somebody to come back tomorrow. So tomorrow, what we’re going to do is we’re going to first, before we even get to new content, it’s really helpful to see it actually done. It is amazing to come on and get an outside brain. Like, I love it when I get a coach to help me with my stuff because we, a lot of times, ourselves, even for myself, when I’ve gone through certification and everything, We have blind spots in our own thinking.
Anyway, so live coaching and refinement. We’re going to refine your goals. We’re going to look at tools that are going to help us continue to follow through the rest of the year. So we’re gonna look at habit tracking. We’re gonna look at our mindset. We’re gonna need to learn about an intentional schedule. So those we heard talking about lack of time are going to talk about what we can do about it. Boundaries, community, those are the main things we’re going to touch on as far as how those things can help you with creating your goals in or make not creating your goals.
We’re creating them today. And I feel like that’s actually the easier part. Right? The easier part is creating the plan. It’s not necessarily easy. It’s a lot of reflection and breaking things down and taking the time to do it. But creating the plan is one thing. Following it is another. Right? So we’re going to talk about that too because I want to set you for success as much as I can in the time that we have together during this event.
And, again, even if you aren’t coming on screen, you’re still gonna get help by watching other people. It is incredible how much we learn just from seeing other people get coached. I feel like sometimes you learn just as much because you can really analyze it and see, like, oh, yeah. It’s so helpful. I hope that session left you with some powerful takeaways and gave you some clarity and inspiration to help you break down your own goals. Now, if you wanna see this happen, if you wanna see three examples where I help other educators like you fully break down their goals using this process, Make sure to get into the educate and rejuvenate app. If you’re a club member, you’ll already find all the replays there. Or if you bought a platinum pass to the event, you’ll find it under the winter educate and rejuvenate conference platinum pass access.
Now if you are not yet a member, I encourage you to try out that 14 day trial so you can continue watching this series and break down your own goals and get even more feedback with it. The educate and rejuvenate app is available on the App Store, Google Play, Play, or on desktop, and there’s a 7 day trial. You can start directly through the app. But, again, the pro tip, go into any of the modules and unlock the 14 day trial because then you’ll have longer to explore and check it out. And if you renew, you’ll get special pricing if you claim your trial right away. Again, it’s easy to cancel if you decide it’s not for you. It’s just the best way to explore the club with absolutely no risk. Just a quick reminder, we’ll have one more episode in your feed next week before we start a short break.
I will miss popping into your feed weekly, but we’ll be back later this year with even more intentional, value packed episodes with seasons. Before that, we’re going to take surveys and make sure it’s exactly what you want in the coming year. And we’ll also sprinkle in bonus episodes like my monthly teacher goals lives. Make sure we stay in touch on Instagram and our email list. We’re not going anywhere. We’re still gonna be here supporting you all the time. Just taking a break from recording the podcast, but I’ll be with our members each week. So if you want something to replace your podcast in the feed, make sure to check out the educate and rejuvenate club so you can get the weekly coaching.
But other than that, I will see you next week on the final episode for this season of the educate and rejuvenate podcast before we start our intentional planning for the next one. Thank you for joining me on educate and rejuvenate the podcast today. If you’d love what you heard in this episode, be sure to hit subscribe so you don’t miss the next one. And if you’re hungry for even more, be sure to check out the book that I wrote. It’s called educate and rejuvenate, a 3 step guide to revitalize your teaching, Renew Your Spirit, and Reignite Your Passion For Life. It takes everything you learn here on the podcast and that I teach our members inside the Educate and Rejuvenate Club into a guidebook you can refer to again and again. 1 of our early readers said it was like clarity for her brain. Plus, it’s not only a book.
With your purchase, you’ll get a full PDF guide with exercises and links to videos and more so that you can not only consume, but apply everything that you learn. If you’re ready to make educate and rejuvenate, not just a podcast you passively listen to, but a lifestyle that you put into action, it’s time to grab your copy on Amazon today, or head to educateandmergerume.com/book to read the first chapter and the introduction today.

 

More about Educate & Rejuvenate: The Podcast

Being an educator is beyond a full-time job. Whether you’re a teacher or a homeschool parent, the everyday to-do list is endless. Between lesson planning, grading, meetings, and actually teaching, it probably feels impossible to show up for your students without dropping the ball in other areas of your life.

Educate & Rejuvenate: The Podcast is the show that will bring you the teacher tips, practical strategies, and inspiration that you need to relieve the stress and overwhelm of your day-to-day. Your host, Kelsey Sorenson, is a former teacher and substitute turned homeschool mom. Tune in weekly to hear Kelsey and her guests cheer you on and help you thrive as a wife, teacher, and mommy. Because with a little support and community, you can do it all. To access every single Educate & Rejuvenate resource, join the club at educateandrejuvenate.com/club.

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