We can have exciting goals written down on paper or in our heads, but either way we have to be careful of making the same mistakes repeatedly and never achieving anything. Here are six crucial tips for achieving your objectives.

Remember that persistence is crucial because many goals include a period of lag time. Lag time is the time difference between when you set the goal and when you start seeing results. So, if you’re not seeing results yet, that’s because you’re in lag time. You need to keep going and updating your strategy as you go. If you find that you’re struggling for any reason, try looking to your support network for help or guidance.

LIFERonan Kennedy23 July 2015Goal-Setting, Honesty, Baby-Steps, Focus, Persistence, Enjoyable

Dealing with Self-Doubt

Firstly, please be aware that a lot of people are struggling with the same problem on a daily basis. They may have very good reasons for lacking confidence or they may just have very strong habitual thinking patterns. In any case, changing these is the key - but only if you want to. Some people feel comfortable in their old patterns and prefer not to change them because they don’t like change, that’s fine. But...

LIFERonan Kennedy16 July 2015Self-Doubt, Confidence

Free Life Coaching Resources

Reading the documents and resources below will not be enough to help you, you need to also write the answers in. Why? Because it means that you have to go deeper and really verbalise your thoughts. It's a process of discovering your passion and purpose - it's not a process of learning more information.

I hope these help - enjoy! Thanks, Ronan :-)

LIFERonan Kennedy9 July 2015Resources

Finding Your Purpose in 2015

Finding purpose is as relevant now as it ever was, but it’s not getting any easier. Sometimes I wonder if marketing and advertising have us finding meaning in the pursuit of a goal - the next best product. Then when we get it, we’re still not satisfied or we’re even less satisfied because now we need to find another goal to chase. Most people will acknowledge that goal-setting is important, but it’s not just that. Setting the right goal is crucial so that we are pursuing what we are genuinely interested in achieving. For many people, they feel that their happiness is correlated with money - (I discussed this argument thoroughly in a previous blog post here), but that doesn’t seem to be the case. So if it’s not money we’re after, what is it?

LIFE, CAREERRonan Kennedy18 June 2015Purpose, Contribution, Dharma, Process

Self-Driven Education

I spoke to a group of 5th a 6th year students in Glasnevin recently about finding work that they love. It was a 40 minute interactive talk so I won’t go into all of the details here. However, one of the things that I wanted to pass on to them was with regard to the relevance of their current subjects. I gave them the example of Conor McGregor because I thought that prove to be an interesting example of someone with an eclectic set of skills. Prompting the students with questions, I asked:

LIFERonan Kennedy11 June 2015Education, Wisdom, Passion

Adventure Goals

These are just some ideas and suggestions. Feel free to adapt, change or modify the top two adventure goals for yourself. Break your top two goals down into small steps and include an action plan for THIS WEEK! If the goal is not compelling enough for you, go back and make a more compelling goal. Having a concrete plan for your goals is essential.

LIFERonan Kennedy28 May 2015Goal-Setting, Goal-Setting Sessions, Adventure

Alarming news for Ireland’s recovering economy

Did you know that a mere 16% of employees in Ireland are actively engaged in their work? Gallup, a performance management company who published the report on the State of the Global Workplace found that 64% of employees in Ireland are not engaged in their work and the remaining 20% are actively disengaged.

CAREER, LIFERonan Kennedy21 May 2015Career Coach, Engagement, Education, Happiness, Money

A chemical imbalance in depression affects 10% at most.

Personal stories on depression and statistics from mental health organisations are in our newspapers on almost a daily basis, so it’s obviously a very topical issue at the moment. According to the OECD, Ireland’s suicide rate is 11 per 100,000 population which is just below the EU average of 12.2 percent, however there will always be incidents of suicide that are not reported as such. Many voluntary organisations are working hard to support people who are suffering from mental health illnesses, although as with almost everything these days, someone somewhere is profiting from it.

LIFERonan Kennedy14 May 2015Statistics, Opportunities, Career

You’ve retired from work - not life!

If you’ve retired and you feel you have nothing to do, you’re not alone. The real question is what would you like to do? Maybe you don’t know? Would you like to expand your possibilities? Would you like to live with passion and purpose? Would you like to jump out of bed every morning and burst into the day with vitality and enthusiasm for life?

LIFERonan Kennedy30 April 2015Retirement, Purpose, Passion, Contribution, Adventure

"Human beings are not bad, crazy or sick..."

I am not an authority on the negative implications of illicit drug use, so I won’t go into the details of the effects that they have on your mind and body. However, I’d like to briefly mention that 'the high' drugs takers experience while consuming a drug like cocaine is the result of increased levels of two chemical neurotransmitters, dopamine and serotonin, that are already in the brain...

LIFERonan Kennedy16 April 2015Adventure, Education, Jobs

3 Things that destroy your goals

Often when we need to excuse ourselves for not having done something, we say things like “I don’t have the time/money/energy”. Most of us have said it at some stage and we know that as soon as we say it, we have a perfect reason for not doing anything differently or changing our behaviours in any shape or form. Why would we? After all, we really believe this to be true. This is also a frequent complaint of people who feel that they don’t have what they want or the lifestyle that they were hoping for.

LIFERonan Kennedy9 April 2015Time, Money, Energy, Career, Goal-Setting

5 Types of intelligence every child should develop

At the moment, schools are catering for the different types of intelligence - some more than others, depending on the school, the resources and the teachers. Howard Gardner broke the different types of intelligences down into 9 categories. Logical. Spacial. Musical. Linguistic. Bodily-Kinesthetic. Existential. Naturalistic. Interpersonal and Intrapersonal. I love the idea of different intelligences but I find them easier to relate to if they are broken down into 5 categories:

LIFE, CAREERRonan Kennedy2 April 2015Education, Career Change, Career, Intelligences

9 Tips to Find a Job You Love

It’s an difficult task eh? I know! I spent about 10 years looking for a job that I really wanted to do. There can be too many options and so many possible solutions. However, there are strategies mentioned below that I used and that will really help you, as long as you are prepared to do the work also!

I don’t pretend that these are always easy things to do, but I will promise that they are effective. The easy thing to say is that 'not everyone finds a job they like!' or 'get a job, any job!'. You’re reading this because you don’t want to get ‘any job’, you want a job that you love. And maybe you don’t know where to start.

CAREER, LIFERonan Kennedy20 March 2015Career, Career Coach, Career Change, Work, Money, Resources, interviews

13 Lessons on Patterns from Physiotherapy

My physio told me that my patterns of movement are impeding my training and therefore my progress. In other words, my patterns of movement are linked to my running technique, which is linked to the problems that I'm having with my knees. All of the stretching in world won’t make a difference as long as my patterns of movement are still inadequate.

So why am I writing about this? The reason is this: I couldn't help but draw a parallel between the patterns of movement that we do with our bodies and the patterns of thoughts/emotions that we have in our minds.

LIFERonan Kennedy13 March 2015Patterns, Habits, Emotions, Happiness, Personal Development

21 Day Challenge

If you read my blog on a regular basis you'll know by now that I'm a fan of many TED Talks and enjoy the ideas that are put forward there. Here is one of my favourite videos and a graphic below summarising the four main ideas that Shawn Achor highlighted. These are useful ideas for the workplace but also for general day-to-day life. I've used them myself and think they're awesome because they're so simplistic and yet effective.

LIFE, CAREERRonan Kennedy27 February 2015Happiness, Career, Career Coach, Work, Gratitude

4 Steps to Understanding Real Success

It seems like an easy question to answer but how long have you given to really think about success and define it for yourself? If you're going to achieve success, you have to be extremely clear what that will look like for you personally. Otherwise, when you think you are there, you may still be unhappy because it’s not all you hoped it would be. Will working 90 hours per week for your own company and making €100k per year be success for you? Maybe, maybe not.

LIFE, CAREERRonan Kennedy20 February 2015Career Change, Career Coach, Success, Money, Company

12 Incredible statistics about sex and relationships

The quality of the couple’s friendship is, by 70%, the determining factor in whether men and women feel satisfied with the sex, romance, and passion in their marriage.

RELATIONSHIP, LIFERonan Kennedy10 January 2015Relationships, Sex, Love, Affair, Marriage, Statistics, Dr. John Gottman, infographic

Year planner: The 5 key goals

"If you don't design your life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much." - Jim Rohn

8 Must Watch TED Talks

Check out these must-watch TED Talks. I really love these and hope you have a chance to check them out! Some great ideas packed in there from some of the best speakers in the world.

LIFERonan Kennedy27 December 2014Happiness, Career Change, Career Coach, Career, Focus

Nothing with everything for Christmas

'Christmas is the season for giving’! I only realised that this year. In the past, it was the most wonderful time of the year because of the presents I would be receiving. More recently, I have discovered that Christmas is great because of giving, not just receiving. I think most people will acknowledge that concept, even if they've never thought of it like that before. You only need to look at the parents of young children to see firsthand how happy they feel by giving. The vast majority of parents by nature, give to their children unconditionally for years and years. They give of their time, energy and resources, only to receive emotionally. I’m not saying that’s why they do it, but rather, that’s what happens.

LIFERonan Kennedy18 December 2014Christmas, Giving, Presence, Presents

Blog

I hope these help - enjoy! Thanks, Ronan :-)