Goal-Setting Simplified with Debra Eckerling

Are you ready to create riches in your work and life? It's time for Shedding the Bitch Radio and TV, where you can discuss, debate, and get advice on how to discover and shed the bitches of fear, insecurity, self-doubt, and negativity so you can realize your dreams and life purpose and create and accelerate the riches in life you deserve. So let's welcome your ball of fire host, Bernadette Boas.

Good day, good day, good day everyone, and welcome to another awesome, awesome, uh, discussion on Shedding the Bitch Radio. Yes, I am Bernadette Boas, and guess what? We're also on Shedding the Bitch TV. So wherever you want to go and get your podcast or videocast, uh, you can check us out at blogtalkradio.com or any one of your streaming services, as well as on our Shedding the Bitch TV channel on YouTube. We're also streaming, by the way, on our Shading the Bitch Facebook and Twitter page. So, um, wherever you might be, come join us, and we're gonna have a great conversation today about Goals Simplified. So before I get there though, and before I introduce our guests, let me just make a couple of announcements because I always have to thank our new and ongoing listeners and viewers, because I'll tell you what You are just doing gangbusters in commenting and liking and sharing and tweeting and even giving us suggestions regarding experts and the topics that we bring each, um, each week to Shedding the Bitch. So we so appreciate that because we get more eyes and ears onto the program, and plus we're bringing to you exactly what it is that you're looking for. So very grateful for the— for all of you um, who are within our Shagging the Bitch community. I also need to thank our longtime sponsor NG Tax Solutions. They are a full-service, uh, financial and tax services company headed up by Debbie Smelling and her team. They're fabulous. They serve small to corporate-sized clients, but they also work with individuals on any of their financial and tax services, um, needs. So please check her out if you really want someone, um, who is powerful and very, very customer-oriented on your team, then check out ngtaxsolutions.com. Now I'm also so proud to have a local Atlanta, Georgia, uh, sponsor. I've known Jay and his team at Up Top Roofing of Atlanta for, gosh, about probably 10 or 12 years, and he just recently came to me and said, I absolutely love what you're doing within the Shed in the Bitch community. He's been a follower and a member for a good number of years now. And so I am so pleased to share the absolutely fantastic work, but more so the customer service that they provide. So if you are in the, you know, Atlanta, Georgia, and, uh, you know, surrounding areas, and you need some help at your home, then please check out Jay at up-toproofingofatl@yahoo.com. All right, um, I'll All right, so, but let's get into this subject that we're gonna be talking about today, Goal Setting Simplified, and our guest, Debbie Eckerlin. Deborah, I'm sorry, Deborah Eckerlin. Let me give a formal announcement or introduction. To get what you want, you need to know what you want. The DEB Method helps you create the foundation you need to define, plan, and achieve your goals. I want you to be listening for a few things, so does Deborah. Uh, we want you to be listening to what is the Deb Method, as well as how do you set yourself and your goals up for success. Lastly, how to find the time to work toward your goals and create the life that you want. Now, we pose a rich question to you each and every week, um, around the subject. So if you're joining, you might at first say, um, the subject might not be really relevant to me. Yes, it is. First off, it's about goals, but secondly, we'll create an opportunity for you to really consider for yourself a rich question. So your rich question today is, what is that goal or that aspiration that you have for yourself that you want to start pursuing? And maybe you just haven't crafted the goal in such a way that it will be almost abundance-attracting. And a roadmap for yourself. And Deb's gonna share exactly what she shares with her, with her own clients and audience. So goal-setting expert Deborah Eckerlin is the creator of the Deb Method system of goal-setting simplified. And she's the author of the award-winning "Your Goal Guide: A Roadmap for Setting, Planning, and Achieving Your Goals." Deb is on a mission to change goal culture in and outside the workplace. A corporate consultant, workshop leader, and panel moderator, she is the host of the Goal Chat Twitter chat, Goal Chat Live on Facebook and LinkedIn, and The Deb Show podcast. You can learn more about her, and you can learn more about her at thedebmethod.com. Also follow her, and I'll share this throughout the discussion, You can follow her on Facebook and Twitter @TheDebMethod. Welcome to the show. Excuse me. Welcome to the show, Deborah. How are you?

I'm great, and I'm so excited to be here. I love your enthusiasm and your energy. I know this is just going to be a wonderful conversation.

Oh, thank you. And yes, I'm very excited. I love, love, love this subject, and my community knows that. But before we get into all of that, kind of share with us a little bit about Deborah and where are you? What do you do in your free time? Help us to really get to know who you are before we dive into all the other stuff.

Well, in addition to being a champion of all things goals, I'm just me. I'm just a regular person. Or I once described myself as The Girl Next Door, and a friend said, well, if the girl next door was a powerhouse, I am there. Like, you can't appreciate this. I know you can't. I just believe that everybody deserves the life that they want. And I know I'm jumping ahead, but really this is the core of who I am. I believe that people deserve, you know, a happy— I think you can have it all, but if you don't know what it all is, then you're just spinning your wheels and going in circles. So, and you mentioned before, I'm a little bit of everywhere. I do a Twitter chat, a live show, a podcast, because it's this mission I'm on, because I think that people are just— I was going to say now, but now has been now for, like, almost 2 years. So all the time, people, they go after what they think they should be doing or what people think, oh, you're good at this, do this, or whatever education they have. And I'm saying, okay, fine, but what do you want? And that's really what started all this up. I've been leading goal groups for years because I was, a gazillion years ago, I was doing events for Barnes Noble. And one day somebody walked in and said, will you start a writer support group? And I said, if you think people will show up, Okay. And who knew that that would start me on this path in my background? And so fast forward, I moved to LA. My background is communications and project management. So everything I do is like, talk about focus and attracting the things that you like, right? It's, it's, I am living proof, you know, you set goals, you do things. Set them again, do more of the things, but you really need that, okay, when I think about the life I want, what does that look like? And we've all been given this wonderful gift, if we can describe the pandemic that, of the pause button in our lives. So it's an opportunity to reassess. So I skirted the question, but not really. I will tell you the one thing that I absolutely love to do is I love dance breaks because I think that is— that's going to enrich your spirit, right? Any time of day.

So I—

so that— and I'm sure I'll reveal more, but it's not breakdancing, it's dance break, right? Exactly, exactly. In November, I decided that I was going to do Dance Every Day in November. I just said I was going to create a month. Because you need something to uplift your spirit and nothing does that like dancing. So I posed this challenge, but really every day you should be dancing, right? Just a little bit.

Yeah. Well, and where can someone find that challenge? Or was that a personal challenge for you or did you actually pose it to your community?

I posed it to my community. So if you're watching this, please connect with me on LinkedIn.

Okay.

And it's in my featured articles because I believe that Everybody should be dancing.

Yes, I absolutely agree.

It's the one easy thing you can do to brighten your day every single day.

Right. And if you're stuck, I would think, you know, the minute you get stuck or whatnot, put some music on, get up, start dancing, get that energy flowing, and you'll probably get unstuck, right?

Well, exactly. It's really just about shaking up the energy. And even— and I do a lot of— because my background is in writing, I I talk about Your Goal Guide, but it's actually my third book, my first traditionally published. But I've been a member of the writing community because my community started as community for writers. Now it's writers, creators, and entrepreneurs. And I always say you should always be— should— I try not to use that word. It's very helpful to be working on more than one thing at once because if you get stuck, you can jump over and make progress on something else and then jump back. Work.

Oh, I love that. That's a great tip. That's a great tip. I'll put it in the form of a tip for you. It's a great tip to start multiple things so you don't get stuck— when you get stuck in one thing, you can move to another. Oh, that's awesome. Now, are you in LA still?

Yes, I'm in— I've been in Los Angeles, uh, since the end of '97. So I'm— I— this— I spent the summer I turned 10 in LA, and I always knew I'd move back, so Eventually I moved back and it's the energy, it's creativity, technology, or you could be whoever you want.

Exactly.

Right?

I absolutely agree. All right. So with all that said, with all that said, you moved into the Goal space, but what makes it unique when you say that it's goal setting simplified? What is that ingredient or lack of that makes it simplified goal setting versus what everybody else talks about?

Well, I believe changing your life is challenging enough, so I just made the instructions really, really simple.

Right.

Right. And so I'll back up like one more second to my background. So I mentioned that I started this goal group, I restarted it, it transitioned into Writers, Creatives and Entrepreneurs, was live and online. Now, completely online, which is great. And about 3 and a half years ago, so like beginning-ish of 2018, one of my communications clients was going away and I said, okay, this is a sign for me to fully step into what I was meant to do, which is to help people figure out what they want and how to get it and make a plan for their goals because I've seen this power. And my name and the system I have been doing for years work together perfectly. So, so the D.E.B. Method really is the simple instructions, goal setting simplified. D.E.B. stands for determine your mission, explore your options, brainstorm your path. And what I focus on is the foundations because there are A ton of people out there will tell you how to achieve your goals, but really not that many, surprisingly, like me, who say, okay, but what do you want?

Right. Right.

And that really is— it's the secret ingredient. That's not a secret, but that's really— first of all, yes, the instructions are easy. It's brainstorming exercises and free writing and really thinking about. I mean, the first step in Deb is visualizing, right? Well, just, yeah, let's get easier on the method.

The method. She's so pumped up. The Deb method. So, um, D is for determine your mission. Your mission. E is explore your options. Options. And B is brainstorm Your path. Your path. Okay. So those are like the 3 ingredients of which you're saying that the D is the visualization.

Well, so it's— there are 3 letters and 5 phases within each letter. And it's actually the first half of my book goes through the DEV method in detail. And then the second half gives you strategies for success. But the breakdown, the real, the simple simplified breakdown is so determine your mission is when you think about the life you want, what does that look like? Where are you? Where do you want to be? What is the mission behind what you want to do? Because that fuel will really drive you and help your purpose. And then once you have that mission, you can simplify it even more into a motto. So my motto is goal setting simplified. And that is the compass. So anything and everything I do is on that lens of simple. So whether I'm having a conversation or my book or leading a workshop or doing corporate work, the idea is to make everything just easy, just easy. So the D is really the foundation of the foundation. The E is explore your options. That's the research phase. So you know you want to build a business or you want to become a known expert or you want to change your either job or career or you want work-life balance. Those are the 4 buckets, right, that I managed to squeeze every single goal into. What does that look like for you? So you want to be a known expert. What does that mean? Does that mean you want to write a book or create a course Or get interviewed or start a podcast or a blog or what, what does your brand of thought leadership look like? You want to start a business. What is that business? So Explore Your Options is, uh, it, well, it starts with directed journaling, which is, oh, flash your tip sign or whatever it is. This works if you need to figure out your path or make a decision or whatever it is that you need to, to think. Because when we figure out things, when we try to figure out things in our head, things go in circles, right? It's that swirling motion like the cartoons. When you write it down, it really enables you to objectively look at the opportunities out there. So directed journaling, it works very simple. Schedule 3, 4, 5 15-minute sessions with yourself, and the entire purpose is to free write the answer to a question or series of questions based on a theme. So what do I want? I wanna be a thought leader. Well, what does that mean? Should I start a blog? I like blogging. Oh, but a podcast would be great 'cause I like talking even more. And you just go with whatever strikes you.

Right.

And do this 3, 4, 5 times. And the secret of this one is don't look at any of your babblings until you've completed the exercise because then you can go in and find the common themes. You may have thought you wanted to do one thing, but when you did your journaling, you maybe mentioned it twice, but something else that just popped into your head, you wrote about it like 15, 20 times and you need to pay attention to those things that you're passionate about because that's where you're going to put your energy. So you can use this to hone in on the things of interest and then do your research, reach out to your connections, your connectors, do reading, watch videos, educate yourself so you can make an informed decision about what's next for you. So that's explore your options. Brainstorm your path, very similar in concept. Write down everything you need to do to achieve these goals.

Creating action plan. It's almost turning it into an action plan, right?

It is exactly it. But the idea with this is you want to write down your personal and your professional goals, benchmarks, tasks. You want easy things, you want stretch goals, you want dream goals. And then you divide and conquer. So organize it into categories, and that way you can see what you need to do, right, to create your new reality.

Awesome. All right, so a load full of questions from that discussion, uh, which is what interviews are all about. So, um, what percentage of the people that come and work with you have come with, come to you with their goals in their head and not even on a piece, a scrap piece of paper?

I would say all, or okay, 90%, because when I do my one-on-one coaching, what I'll say is, they say, what should I bring to the meeting? And I say every note you have, every thought you have. Because what we'll do is I say, give me an hour, I'll give you a plan. So we take everything that's in their head and make a plan. But we go back to starting. When you think about the life you want, what does that look like? Where are you now?

Right.

And future bio is also really important. And even with changing times, you can still strive to achieve certain things. It just might look a little different. You may have wanted to speak to sold-out audiences in person. Well, now you wanna speak to sold-out Zooms. It's just, it's an adjustment. It's not that kind of a change.

But that's fun, right? I mean, I know it probably is stressful for your clients who are just trying to get, something achieved, let alone the fact that they have so much change going on around them. But if they can embrace— do you talk to them about embracing change as something exciting and fun and curious and adventurous, not to be viewed as stressed and anxiety?

That is all I do. Now understand, my book came out in January 2020, and the whole purpose of it was to help people embrace change. Whether it was by choice or by circumstance.

Oh, perfect.

And then 6 weeks later, everybody got changed by circumstance. So I spent last year with that exact message. This is a good thing, right? You have extra time because you're not commuting.

Yeah.

How much commute did you do back when you went to the office? Great. 20 minutes round trip. Wow. Okay. That's an hour and 40 minutes each week. Even if you take an hour a week to work towards your goals, that's like free time.

Yeah. No, that's awesome. That's an excellent point. Excellent point.

So, in answer to your question, yes, that is all I do. Change is good.

Yeah.

Because so many people, and I did my stint in corporate as well, I would see people commuting that, well, this one example in particular, she was commuting 3 hours to work every day. She did not like her job at all. And she didn't see that there were other options there. Right. And I know so many people who were doing that long commutes to a job that even if you like your job, great. So what can you do during the commute time? What can you think about?

Right.

What is the hope factor?

Yeah.

What is the dream? Because we have that control, even if it's a little, even if you can't make like this huge, big life change.

Right.

What is it that you can create that's going to give you that, that zing, that excitement? And then that's going to leak into other parts of your life. And then you create big things. So, right, right, back to simple.

No, absolutely true. It's absolutely true. So something happened here. Um, so what do you do, or what's your process for helping those that are coming to you but they're not necessarily ready to kind of be vulnerable, you know, be vulnerable and to open up and to, and to really admit their goals and their dreams? Do you find that that's an issue for many people? And if so, then how do you kind of handle that and guide them through?

It's really interesting that you pose that because I've had clients, people that I've met that have literally come to me 5 years later and said, Deb, I'm ready. If someone is not ready, then they shouldn't be working with me. And I use the should word, but I mean it that way. You need to be ready to move forward with your life because— and I had a client I once put on hiatus because she was writing— hiatus. I said, why don't you take the summer off and we can regroup in the fall? And we didn't, which I knew was going to happen, which was fine. But she was writing a book because everybody said you have such good stories. 'You should write a book.' She was not writing a book to tell her stories. And every week it was, 'Oh, okay, homework. Oh, I didn't do it. I got distracted with this and this.' And I— that's when I said, 'You know what, let's take a break. Let's regroup. You have other priorities.' And that's another huge thing. People need to be aware that sometimes not yet is fine.

Yes, that's awesome. Yes, absolutely.

I have another client and I talk about her in the book. This is one of the clients that I met and several years later she had just had a baby and it was like the goal coaching was her present to, I'm going to get that book done. I'm going to work with Deb. And we had a couple sessions and we got her Um, we got our plan in order, and then we're supposed to touch base in a month. Crickets. 2 months. Crickets. I think after 3 or 4 months, I said, you know what, she'll come back when she is ready. And I think it was about a year later that I got this beautiful email from her saying, Deb, I keep meaning to write you. Uh, what had happened is I overwhelmed myself. And I just could not work on it. But I did the other things you told me, like the fun things, the things that bring me energy. And now my book is finally almost done. When can we meet to make the plan? So that self-awareness, right, goes back to the foundational stuff.

Absolutely.

Where you are in life now is going to be different than where you were 3 months ago and where you're going to be in 3 months. So knowing, going back to what do you want? If you don't know, fine, do more journaling, do more exploration, but give yourself the gift of time to figure that out because that's, it's the time, the space, and the energy. So make an appointment with yourself once a week to either do the dreaming or the journaling or just give— take a walk. What is your process? What can you do? And very also know thyself. What can you do that gives you energy, right? That is going to help you do that. And yes, it's— we all have responsibilities. We have loved ones. We can't all say, but wouldn't it be nice? Oh, I'm going to start from scratch and do nothing else but figure out my life. That's not realistic.

Right.

But what you can do is look at your life and where you have pockets of time and schedule in that me time to figure out your goals if you don't know what they are yet. But you know what? We know.

We do. But that's why I also asked about whether or not people are forthright or they're willing to acknowledge them. Because there's so many fears and insecurities probably come up for them, right? Oh, I don't want to acknowledge it because then I'll be held accountable. I don't want to acknowledge it because what if I fail? What do you find to be the biggest challenges that your clients deal with?

The biggest challenge they deal with is fitting their life, their wants, into their life. Because, oh, I, I need this job and I need that. We're overthinking. That is another huge, huge problem people have is they want to do everything. Guess what? You can't. It's, it's a whole multitude of things. But another thing I, I say, I also work with people who they have, they're going to a specialist for their business goals, but they meet with me first. So they can go into those meetings with their mentors or JV partners or whatever, knowing, you know, knowing, right, what is my mission? First of all, oh, imposter syndrome. That's another one that I hear a lot. Between my clients and my chats, my Twitter chats and my conversations with people. It's, oh, who am I to do this?

You're you. Yeah.

Only you have your background, your expertise, your personal and professional experiences, and your passion for what you're creating. And it goes back to that mission. In what way Do you help? Is it to entertain? Is it to inform? Is it a product that literally makes people's lives better? What is it that makes you special and what are you creating to make other people's lives better?

Yeah, absolutely. So I would expect that, um, all right, so you help them, you know, define them, you help them create what it is that they want, you help them to obviously lay it out on paper, develop that action plan. And then do you see goals— and you've mentioned a couple of times how, you know, things could change a couple years down the road or whenever. Um, so do you see your goals or their goals that they've worked on with you as living, breathing documents that they just— they— it's a roadmap, but the—

what—

but the route can change, and therefore you just make adjustments and change? And what do you do with them in order for them to understand and feel confident that that route is going to work for them, and/or if not, they have to make a detour.

Well, and that goes back to— so I just talked about the mission. Let's talk about the motto for another minute. That's why the motto and the mission are so important. That is your lens. So whatever it is, the who you are. So yes, I am on this mission to change goal culture because I believe, especially with all the changes in the workforce and people don't know what's going to be of their business if their employees aren't coming back. And so what I do is I work with companies and I take their teams through my Deb Method workshop, which is— I gave you the 2-minute version of what I go through of Deb. Yes. And then report back to their team leaders, okay, so much, so much has changed over the last year. They don't know what new skills their teams have picked up. They don't know what their priorities are. So by putting people through my workshop, I can report back and say, did you know that these 3 people started side hustles that if you support them, You know, maybe you do employee spotlights on your company page once a week. That will keep them there. You know, leave them alone on the weekends to work on their side hustles, but say that you're invested in their future, right? Personally as well as within the company. And that's going to bring you loyalty. Did you know that these two employees upleveled their skills in these areas and they want growth within the company? This person spent lockdown as troop leader, virtual troop leader for whatever organization, and they found their leadership mojo and they want a leadership role in the company. They, the higher-ups who are still trying to get their head around what's going on and how they're gonna bring their people together, they need this information, but they don't have the time or the bandwidth. So I go in And I can pull out, that's really my superpower, is being able to pick out people's missions and mottos and put it in simple terms because it's, people again, they get caught up in their head. So going back to answer your questions, the reason the motto is so important is when you use that as a compass, as opportunities come your way, You can look at it in terms of, okay, is this in alignment with my motto? Yes, great, then it's a yes. Is this in alignment with my motto? Not really. Will it benefit me in another way, either personally or professionally? No, get rid of it. Yes, okay. I mean, what does dancing have to do with Goal Setting Simplified? Everything.

Yeah, everything.

Because, If you have that energy to move forward towards your goals, you're going to achieve your goals. So in answer to your question, this is why the, the D is so important, why that foundation is so important, because when things change, then you can see, you can make the changes, you can, you can keep moving forward even though your path has changed a bit. I spent Like I said, I spent last year like truly in the world saying it's okay. And even for me, one of my goals last year was to do this corporate work and it got the pause button big time. And then the need was even more when the opportunity came around again.

Right. Awesome.

So when you know who you are and what you love, what you're good at, own it, right? And keep moving forward and see where the roads lead.

I absolutely agree with you. That's awesome. That's fantastic. Now, accountability— where does it fit in? Because again, they have their goal plan now, right? And they're, you know, now they have exactly what they need to, to, to move forward, take action.

Blah, blah, blah.

Where does accountability fit in when it comes to your practice, the Deb Method, and their success? Because that's what it's all about.

Well, it's true. And I'm— there's so many— I have too many answers, but I'll pick my favorites. So as I mentioned before, I have Write On Online, which is my original writers group, which is now Writers, Creatives, and Entrepreneurs. And it is a Facebook group that every Monday, well, every day I do a different goal thread where people can share what they're working on and report their wins. So if you need accountability, join the Write On Online Facebook group. And if you're reading my book, you can join the Your Goal Guide Facebook group to ask questions and get support, whatever, whatever. That's a way to do, goal-setting accountability, but also community, because you can't reach your goals on your own. So it's, the Monday is what are your networking goals for the week, Tuesday is what are your goals for the week, Wednesday is blog share day, Thursday is toot your horn, because not enough people celebrate themselves.

Right.

Photo Friday is post a pic from your week, and then weekend plans. So it's set up in a way that you can share what you're working on and report, but also be surrounded by people who are going to be legitimately happy for you. Because we can't do this alone.

Right.

And you don't know when someone's going to post a goal of saying, oh, I need 3 more speakers for my summit on this area. And someone else in the community is like, oh, it's my area.

Right.

Right. Let's have a conversation. So that's— the group is set up to encourage that kind of communication. You have another question?

I do, but finish. No, no, finish, finish, finish. I always have questions, Deborah, always.

Which is good. It's what I do.

But go ahead, that part though.

Well, and that, that's really one way to do it is to find a community where you can set and achieve your goals. I can go on to my next thing or you can ask the question.

Okay, I'm going to ask the question. In that 5-day schedule that you had that you mentioned with the Facebook group, you put networking goals on Monday and then your weekly goals on Tuesday. Is there a specific reasoning behind that as opposed to like the weekly goals being kind of touted on a Monday for the week?

Everybody does goals on a Monday.

Awesome. What is awesome about that? If anybody didn't get that, that's her creating a differentiation. Okay, she's differentiating herself from everybody else who's doing the same thing on Mondays. And quite honestly, I don't do it on Mondays either. But awesome. Okay, so I just want— I was just curious.

Well, and then the other part of it too is I do my Twitter chat, um, on Sunday nights. So every Sunday night you can jump on Twitter at 7 PM Pacific And the first 2 questions are always, what was your biggest win last week? Actually, and then the sub of it is, how'd you do on your health, fitness, and self-care goals? And then the second question is, what are your goals for the week? So there's always a place to talk. I like to be a little bit everywhere because not everybody loves Facebook, not everybody loves Twitter. My live shows, Then so we do the tangent alert. So we do the goal check-in and then once a month we talk about monthly goals and then we'll discuss a special topic, whether it's entrepreneurial related, writing related, community related. So my September theme was impact. So my themes throughout the month had to do with impact. So it was leadership, messaging, systems and strategy, those sorts of things. Over the summer, it was fun. So we did one week was cooking, one week was fitness, and then I would bring in on my Goal Chat Live show, which is also the Deb Show podcast. I bring in 2 or 3 experts to dive deep into the topic. So it's just about spreading the Deb energy.

Right, right.

And getting people—

That's fun.

Going. The, the other thing I'll say about, about the switching up the norms thing is everybody talks about goals at the beginning of the year. I talk about goals all the time because anytime you encounter change, or it's your birthday, or it's some life event and it's time to reassess, reassess. Don't go by the calendar. I am a huge fan of doing— I do workshops not just in January, but February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December. And I think of, if you need a starting point along with the rest of the world, so there is January. A lot of people start their year in January. I also encourage people to do a reboot at the beginning of the summer. The beginning of the fall. And I also, I have something called, I call Dubcember. So I encourage people to start their year a month early so they get a running start into the next one. And it started, I started this in 2020 because we couldn't get rid of 2020 soon enough.

So I started, isn't that the truth?

Mm-hmm. So I started Start 2021 Now that first Debcember, and I said, you know what, this is my new, my new season. These are my new seasons. So there you go.

That's awesome. That is awesome. Now, okay, so I'm trying to go through the cycle. So accountability.

No, I didn't, I didn't finish answering the accountability question. I'll do it quickly.

Okay.

The key for accountability, find your community, find a consultant, a coach, someone to push you along. I would say 95% of my clients, when they have homework assignments, I get it within an hour of our meetings. They have the deadline and I say, that's fine, send it to me 2 minutes before we get on the phone. As long as I have it before we're supposed to talk, that's fine. Some people need that kind of deadline. Some people just put a deadline in the calendar. But before you set that deadline, look at your life. Because I don't want you to say, I'm gonna, I'm gonna write a book in 3 months, but you're working a full-time job. You have a side hustle and a family. No. Not going to— I mean, reality check, not gonna happen. I want you to be successful, so you need to look at your life before you set those goals, before you give yourself deadlines, and see what is feasible.

Yeah, love it, love it, love it. Yeah, because I look at it as, you know, realistic, you know. Is it realistic that you're going to be able to not only achieve that goal but make that deadline? I love that. Right.

And the other part of it is do rules and rewards. You know, give yourself little rewards for little wins, big rewards for big wins. Obviously, the biggest ultimate win is living this life you want, but treats are good too.

Yes, they are. Yes, they are. And some of us have too many treats right now because of the, you know, because of the month that we're in. But that's all year long for me.

We should be treating ourselves. We should be giving ourselves— that's the other thing about setting appointments with yourself. Treat those appointments the same way you would treat an appointment with another person, because treat them better, right?

Right. Absolutely agree. Absolutely agree. All right, we have a couple of minutes. Um, what are some last tips or advice you would give in order in and around goal setting simplified?

Okay, well, we talked about visualization before.

Yes.

You know, when you think about the life you want, what does that look like? One really simple thing you can do is create either— I don't like the word vision board because I think it's overused, but you can, or you can create just a simple visual representation. Of one thing that you're trying to achieve. So if you want your book on the New York Times bestseller list, get a copy of the New York Times bestseller list, scratch out number 1, and put your book title and your name. If you want— if you want to be on the Forbes top whatever, over or under whatever age, get the current list and Slap your picture and your future bio on it. What is it that you can easily create that you can look at?

Right.

That's keeping your eye on the prize.

Yeah. I love your term, and you brushed over it earlier too, but I wanna dig into it now 'cause you just restated it, about the future bio. I love that. So go into that a little deeper as to what you view to be a future bio.

A future bio. And also write your current bio because it's really helpful to have a starting point. But write the bio that you want people to say about you. And you can do multiple versions of it. One a year from now, one at the end of the year, one a year from now. One in 5 years, one in 10 years. These are very, very powerful. The idea is to write it in the third person, but in the present tense. So you want to give power to what you're trying to create, and that's one way to do it. And yes, you can incorporate it into your visualization. The other things that you, you can, should, need to have surround you is put your motto. Mine is my tagline, so I look at it all the time. Goal Setting Simplified.

Mine's right over here.

So you know, you totally get it. What is it that you're— that's the essence of you? Right. And by having that reminder, something you're— so you're looking at future, the future you, your future bio. You're looking at that visual representation and you're looking at your motto. So whenever something comes into question, you're— and it really gets to the point where you don't even have to look, you know, right?

Right.

It is a part of—

it's ingrained who you are. I love it. Right?

I don't think Goal Setting Simplified. I am Goal Setting Simplified because I believe I truly believe we all have the power to make even the tiniest changes. It's going to make a huge difference in our lives.

Awesome.

Woohoo!

Awesome, awesome. All right, everyone, I want you to check her out and I want you to check her book out as well as her programs that she has. TheDebMethod.com, right there, right there. It's right there. At the same time here, let me put this up to get her book. You can get it on Amazon or anywhere you get books. There you go. Lovely, lovely. Barnes Noble, Amazon, you know, anywhere you get your books, check out Your Goal Guide as well. And then of course, follow her on Facebook and Twitter. And I love guests that make it easy. Simply @TheDebMethod. On both Facebook and Twitter. Awesome. Thank you so much, Deborah, for being part of the program. This has been absolutely great and I absolutely love your focus of goals and especially Goal Setting Simplified. Thank you so much.

Thank you for having me. And if you're watching, listening, whatever, just remember you have that power and anything that you want, it's yours. Yep. So claim it, do the steps. You also can't reach your goals on your own, so feel free to find me on LinkedIn or you can email me info@thedebtmethod.com. I'm rooting for you, Bernadette's rooting for you. You get the life you want, so just go on out there and go for it. Sweet!

And I love guests that speak directly to my audience and pump them up. For a great day, week, month, and year, and life. That's awesome. Thank you. You're welcome, Deborah. Absolutely welcome. And for everyone else, thank you so much for joining us today, and we would love to have your comments and any share that you would like to do in regards to this episode, as well as rate us, tweet us, subscribe to both our Shedding the Bits YouTube channel as well as on blogtalkradio.com or anywhere you get your streaming podcast streams. And I'll look forward to having you right back here next Tuesday at noon Eastern time for another episode of Shedding the Bitch Radio. Take care, everybody. Bye.

Thank you for taking part in Shedding the Bitch Radio and TV with Bernadette Boas. We would love to know what your biggest takeaway was. Go to shedding the Bitch on Facebook or YouTube and leave a comment. You can also subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts and YouTube so you don't miss a single episode of the show. And with your input, we can help other powerhouse women just like you find the show and decide if it's right for them. Learn more about Bernadette at balloffirecoaching.com.

See you next week.