Chapter 4: Taking Charge of Your Life 65
that what he really wanted to do was to teach other self-employed accoun-
tants how to win business by training them in NLP-based sales techniques.Is the context of the goal clearly defined?
Ask yourself, ‘Where, when, how, and with whom do I want to achieve my
goal?’ This question is very good in helping you fine-tune what you want by
eliminating what you don’t want. For instance, if you know you really didn’t
enjoy that holiday on the moon, your goal of ‘I want my own holiday home’
immediately excludes the lunar colony, or if Martians aren’t your favourite
people, you know that you don’t want to settle on Mars.By defining when you want something, you may in the process identify steps
that need to be taken before you can have it. For instance, ‘I want my holiday
home when I can afford to have someone else maintain it,’ may make you
realise that you need an income of £50,000 per annum before you can buy
your holiday retreat.When Kate coached Simon, a small-company owner who wanted to expand
his technology enterprise, his first desired outcome was to build a separate
outbuilding for the business in the grounds of his house. As a result of ques-
tioning him about the context, his outcome changed to finding office premises
away from the home. He realised just how much the business was intruding on
family life. The happy result was that his six-person team moved into luxury,
purpose-built offices close to a university campus, at a low rent, which pro-
vided the space to grow the business. He and his wife regained the use of the
two main rooms in their house with the bonus of quality leisure time without
the hassle of ‘living above the shop’.Does the goal identify the necessary resources?
The questions below help to identify what you need, by way of people,
knowledge, and so on, to satisfy your outcome. They enable you to draw on
possible past experiences when you previously made use of resources that
may prove useful in the current exercise. To give you an idea of the sort of
answers that can be helpful, we also list those that Peter (who wants to take
up hang-gliding but is afraid of heights) would give to these questions.✓ What resources do I have now?
Peter: ‘I have the desire to learn and friends who are hang-gliders to
guide me. I’m athletic and easily pick up new sports. It can’t be that dif-
ferent to water skiing!’
✓ What resources do I need to acquire?
Peter: ‘I need to get over my fear of heights, and so I’m going to find a
therapist or hypnotherapist who can help me get over my fear. I also