If you just feel stuck, how do you get unstuck? What I do with my coaching clients, and what I do to coach myself, is GROW.

GROW stands for:

Goals
Reality
Options
Way Forward (or Will)

When I coach, I see my clients as having the best answers to their questions. My job is to help them become more self-aware, fully develop their goals and options, and help them choose the best ones.

When you take responsibility for creating your life, you become much more invested in the work and the outcomes. You also become more successful.

Begin with the end in mind. What do you want? If you aren’t clear on that, it’s going to be much more difficult to get there.

Goals: Which part of your life do you need to change? Your career, relationships, physical fitness, spiritual development, what?

Some of the great questions I use to figure out my goals come from the book, Coaching For Performance, by John Whitmore. If you’re looking to improve your career you might ask yourself questions like:

• Imagine 1 year in the future – what would your ideal work situation be?
• What would a typical day be like? Describe it in detail.
• What part or parts of that ideal work situation do you desire most?
• How important, on a scale of 1 to 10, is each one to you?
• Now, what is your work goal?
• If that seems to big a goal, what are some smaller, more attainable goals that will get you on your way to your ultimate goal?
• When would you want this goal achieved?
• How would you know you achieved it?

There are times that just getting clear on your goal will get you unstuck. Most of the time, however, you’re going to want to go further to ensure success.

The next step is being brutally honest about your reality.

Reality: Objectively look at your current situation. A key here is owning the responsibility for where you are and what it will take to get where you want to be. Self-awareness is crucial to getting unstuck.

Staying with a change in career as the example, start with some questions like these: 

• What is your current reality at work?
• What is your reality on what it would take to change that?
• What and who don’t you like in your current work situation?
• What and who do you like in your current work situation?
• How much of this do you see as under your control?
• How could you make it something you could control?
• What makes your work meaningful?
• What do you see as your purpose in your work?

Now that your clear on what you want and where you are, you need to come up with options.

Options – What options do you have for changing things? (Let’s use the example of having a goal for a new job.)

• What might you gain by changing jobs or starting your own business?
• What might you lose?
• How do you make sure the same things you don’t like about your current job don’t crop up again in your new job?
• How would you find it the new job?
• How else?
• Where would you find it?
• Where else?
• What would you have to change to get that job?
• What could you do to change that?
• What’s been holding you back from these options?
• What else could you do?
• If you knew the answer, what would it be?
• What advice would you give a friend in this situation?
• Of all the options you’ve come up with, which 3 do you like the most?
• Which would make the biggest difference in your life?

You’ve come a long way, but if you stop here you really haven’t done anything meaningful. You must take action. It’s time to plan the Way Forward.

Way Forward (or Will): What specific actions will you take to achieve your goal?

• Which options are you going to take action on?
• What actions have you taken on this so far?
• How did those actions work out?
• When will you start?
• How will you know when you achieve your goal?
• What’s your deadline for achieving your goal?
• On a scale of 1 to 10 how strongly do you feel you can achieve your goal on time?
• If it’s not at least an 8, what can you do to make it an 8?
• Do you need to take smaller actions you believe you can achieve in order to ramp up to bigger ones?
• What can you do to stay motivated when you hit obstacles?
• Why do you want this goal? How can that keep you motivated?
• How often should we review your progress to keep you on track?

This is just a small look at how the GROW process can help you get unstuck.

You may need to improve your education, skills, and talents to get where you need to go. But, your goals, options, and solutions for what you want – and why you want it- are inside you. It’s time to start pulling them out.

Let’s GO!

I have personal coaching available now. Click here to learn more.