In today's episode, we thought we would try something a little bit different and we would talk about goal setting and one of the models called the GROW model, which is a model that Kev uses and might be familiar to some of you listening. So we thought we'd talk about how it can be used when setting your driving related goals.

Yes, I definitely use this model, in my coaching sessions. But before we start, I suppose we'd better explain what GROW is if people don't know. So, GROW stands for Goals, reality, options, and way forward, or will. So the G is for the goal, and it's what you want to achieve. The R is reality. And it's, what's happening now? The O is for options. And this is where you look at what options are available to you. And you choose the best one that's going to fit. And the W is, how are you going to do it? You know, what steps are you going to put in place now?

Okay. So this is a bit of a process and you just follow the steps, follow the process and that will help you to decide what to do

Exactly, and what you're trying to do is you're trying to, you know, really think about what you need and what you want. How are you going to do it? You know, this is, this is why people say, yes, I want to learn to drive. Brilliant. How are you going to do it?

Yeah, is that having an action plan?

Yes, and what you want is to, Have the action plan, but you've created it. No one else has created it. And that's what you really want from this

Yeah, I'm guessing because otherwise, if the goal is learning to drive, then if you're expecting your driving instructor to create this for you, then it's going to be something that suits the driving instructor, isn't it? It's going to be something that's created by that person and what they think is best, based on their experience but it's going to be maybe a bit of a one size fits all. Whereas if you use a model and a process and create your own action plan, then that's going to be much better suited to you, isn't it?

It is, and if it is created by you,

there's probably

probably more stand more chance of success because you've created it

Yeah. You, you've bought in already. It is sold. Yeah.

Yeah, and that's that's exactly what we try and do so what I would normally do is ask a series of questions

Okay, great. So

we thought we'd do today is give you an insight into some of those questions in Each of the sections of the grown model

And then that way listeners, if they're looking to create a driving related goal, then can they just follow these questions?

they can. Yeah, it's as simple as that, really. Just answer the questions. Some of the questions, you know, you might want to ask an extra one that I don't mention. But, basically they are what they are.

Yeah. So you can follow the process, but you can also add in a few of your own questions if you want to, to really tailor and tweak it. Exactly. Yeah. Brilliant. Okay, let's go for it.

So, the first thing we need to do is to actually look at your goal. And one of the questions that we really need to ask ourselves first off is what does this goal look like to you? What is it specifically that you want to achieve? some people say they want to pass a test.

Yeah.

They don't want to pass a test because you've got to look at what it actually brings you In passing that test. So, think of what your driving goals are and that's what you really need to think about straight away. What are your driving goals? So, one of the other follow up questions to that is, what does this goal mean to them? And just really think about, what does it mean? So, it comes from inside you, this one, you know, why are you doing what you're doing? Yeah,

which is important, isn't it? Understanding why you want to do something is what's going to keep you going when you're doing the work.

Thinking of another question there is, what are the benefits? of achieving this goal And it's like, Oh yeah, but if I do this, I can do this. So, you talked about the motivation there. It's just think of one thing that will keep you motivated. What's this one thing that's going to keep you motivated to achieve that goal?

Yeah. Because there's gonna be times when it feels like hard work and you're gonna feel a bit fed up, like you wanna stop. So we, we all need that bit of motivation to keep us going, don't

Yeah. And then the second part of the, the G part of the goal, the grow model is, what can you see here when you achieve in this goal? So again, you're just thinking of the future, thinking of, you've actually achieved this goal. And what will you see and what will you hear? You know, those things can really have a, an effect on that motivation to keep you going.

Yeah, that imagining the end point, imagining yourself getting that end result.

Yeah. And another sense you can touch into is how does it feel to achieve this goal?

And it

well be an overriding sense of achievement. You know, that feel of I've done it, I can do this now. And that's, you know, again, that is. It's part of what you're doing, setting a goal, a specific goal, and then look into the future and go, yeah, this is what I'm seeing. This is what I'm feeling. And I can hear people say this, or I can hear myself saying this.

Yeah, I mean that's an important part of the process, isn't it? Being able to imagine yourself in the future, your future self having done all the work, pushed through all the hard stuff and you've got there.

And yeah, and this leads lovely on to, still part of the, the gene, we're still in, in the GOMA side of things here, is, we've got to set a deadline.

Ah, yes, of course, the dreaded deadline.

deadline, and most people don't like doing this bit. Yeah. but, just for the sake of what you're doing at the moment, let's just put a date on it. Let's make

make it real.

Yeah, and when do you want to achieve this goal by? So again, relate it to the goal that you've set out at the beginning of this. When do you want to achieve that goal by? And this is, I feel really important to us. Yeah. Because, it's something that people don't do and then they just drift.

Yes.

You know, you're drifting through. Yeah, you, yeah, I'm working towards this goal.

some point this year, next year, this decade, yeah.

So then we want to check that, we want to check that date and say to yourself, so how achievable is this goal? And we're going to scale it. So on a scale of zero to ten, with ten being very achievable, what score would you give yourself for achieving this goal? Yeah. So again, you've got to think about it. And

it is

A lovely sort of like, look into that future, you know, is it achievable? You're asking yourself these questions.

Yeah. Um, making sure that, you know, if it feels unachievable, then I guess rejigging your goal to what would be the goal you need to achieve before that.

Yeah, definitely. And another question you can ask relating to, setting this deadline is who's in control of achieving this goal.

Yeah. Like that.

So again, it might be you, it might be someone else. Again, just ask yourself that question. I don't know the answer. The answer has got to come from you. So once you've done all that, what we do is we sort of like wrap up the goal, by writing it down in a sentence.

now we know we like this. We like getting people to get out of their head. Use other parts of the brain by getting thoughts out of the head. Either verbalising them, writing them down, drawing things, mind mapping, whatever it is. It just makes a difference doesn't it?

Exactly, and it's something that you can refer back to as well. So the better this sentence is. The more you can refer to it and right. Okay. This is why I'm doing what I'm doing

Yep.

So that's the goal part of it in a nutshell I mean we normally talk a lot more about it, but in a nutshell that is The goal. So now we move on to the R, the reality. What's happening now? And that is actually the question you can ask yourself. So what is happening now in relation to that goal that you've just set?

Yeah, so where are you? Where are you starting from? Yeah. OK, got it.

Get that starting point. You know,

I've

never driven before. I used to drive, but I haven't for so many years. So, you know, just put it in reality. Where are we at the moment?

Yeah, where are we starting from? Because we all start from different places, don't we?

we? Exactly. And then ask yourself this next question. What have you done before that's going to help you achieve this goal?

Yep.

So we're starting to think of

of,

I've got this, I've done this before, that's very similar, I've got these skills, this can help me. So that question is really about just taking stock of what you've got.

what you've got. Yeah, what skills, experiences have you got? Because none of us are starting from scratch, even if we think we are. So even if we've never driven before, have we ever been a passenger?

And something else is, let's look at what resources do we have. And that includes your instructor, include your instructor in that, you know, what resources do you have that are going to help you?

and there are loads of resources out there for all sorts of things. So particularly obviously we are focusing on driving related, oh my goodness. There are so many driving related resources out there. So nobody needs to be limited on this one, do they?

There's no set answer to this. It is exactly what you want it to be, but let's look at something from a slightly different, angle, is what obstacles. Are you going to be facing in when you look at your goal? what obstacles or barriers, are going to stop you from achieving that?

Yeah. What could be the sticky points? Yeah,

exactly, and if we know them in advance, it's actually easier to deal with them.

them. Yep. Okay. So we can sort of like prep, plan, decide how we're gonna work around them or just work through them. Exactly.

So that's a quick brief stop of reality of where you are now, what you've got and what things might happen or what things might cause you to not achieve your goal. So with them, what we do at the end of this section, is summarize it so it's like, okay, I've got this goal. I'm going to do this. So again, you're summarizing it in a can be a sentence or two entirely up to you, however you want to do it. So when we've done that part, what we're then doing is we're going to have a bit of fun we're going to create some options and this is where we love. Blue sky thinking, you know, there's so many options, out there that potentially people have not even realized. And this is all to help with achieving their goal. So the first question is, what could you do that's going to take you one step closer to that goal?

Yeah, and that ties back into some of the things that we say very often, which is that bite size, you might have a goal, but what's that first step? So yeah, I love that because we don't have to do it all at once, do we?

No, and at this point people are going to be going,

I don't know,

don't know. I don't know. Okay, well let's come out of you don't know, because that's not going to help you. Let's imagine that your friend has this same goal that you want to achieve. What advice would you give them? What options can you give them for achieving this goal? So you're putting yourself in a different perspective. And then when they've done that, what you can also do is think of three more options that you can create. And people go, oh no I can't, I've exhausted it, I've told you everything that I want. And it's like Give me three more options that you can use that's going to help you with this. Most people can come up with one. So I want you to imagine that you have a magic wand. And if you had a magic wand and you waved it, what option would you create?

Yeah, because we do keep ourselves restrained and limited somehow, don't we? So yeah, that sounds great. Challenge yourself to, just one more.

Yeah.

then one more.

And who can help you? Yeah. Is, again, is another good one. and then another one is, is just to think of, you know, this blue sky thing again. If you had a million pounds to achieve this goal, what would you do?

so if money was no object,

Money no object. What would you do? Yeah, how would

you do it differently?

So you're still looking to achieve that goal. You know where you are.

are.

And now we're trying to create those options to move us towards that goal. And again, if money potentially was a problem, if you had a million pounds or money, no object, what would you do?

Yep.

So again, once you've created a list of, options, what you then do is Just, again, write down or tell someone, or, you know, whatever it may be that you want to be doing. But tell someone, or write it down, your strengths and skills that you have, and that you're going to use to achieve that goal. This

isn't it?

It is because what you've done is you've just spent the last

5,

10, 20 hour, whatever it is that you're creating these options. So what we want to do now is to just think about them and think, well, I've got this and I've got this and I've got this and I could do that. So these are all your strengths, you know, and skills that you've looked at. that you're going to use, and what are they? And write them down! You know, because I think we live in a life where we focus too much on the negatives. So what are your strengths? What skills do you already have? Write them down! Tell yourself! Again, it's quite empowering to do that.

Yeah, it's that bit of confidence building and also taking stock at the same time.

Exactly! And what we want to try and do is, you know, just think about everything that you've told yourself in this. G, O.

the O,

Which leads us lovely on to the last part, which is the W. Which is the way forward or the wheel, you know, whichever way you look at it. I look at it as the way forward, and what we want to be doing now is looking at all those options that you've created. Which one of those options is going to give you the best chance of success?

Okay, yeah, so you've got the options laid out in front of you and then choose which one looks the best for you.

you. Yeah. And then what we're looking for is to sell yourself or ask yourself Okay, so that's the option. When am I going to do it?

Yeah. Yeah. We get, we're getting back to the nitty gritty of, okay, planning is one thing, but we've got to get on and do it.

And, uh, a slightly different question to ask in there is we're going to gain your commitment now to achieving this goal. So, how committed To achieving this goal are you? So on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being very committed to achieving it, what score would you give yourself? Because

I'm thinking if you're not that committed, then maybe this isn't the right goal. Maybe you looking at the wrong thing of am I on the right track there,

yeah. This is what you, you know, this is all a part of, we've gone through this process, and now we're looking at

the commitment. Yeah.

Which is what people don't do. They go, yes, yes, I want to do this, I want to do this, and I'm going to do this. And they may start it, but then we look at it and we go, So how committed are you to actually achieving this then? Well, instead of doing it farther down, let's do it now. Let's have that reality check almost, let's look at ourselves and think, am I actually going to do

Yeah, it's like calling yourself out, isn't it? Yeah.

And you have to be very honest with yourself at this point. So, one of the other parts we can do Is not a lot of people do this and I think if we're looking forward the way forward is think of Achieving your goal. How are you going to reward yourself for achieving that goal?

Yeah, I think this is important and I know you like this. you often talk about how you're going to reward yourself for your success and it, it is important to take a moment to celebrate your success because that is part of the confidence building process. If we're always looking at the negative, then we don't build confidence. So we need to celebrate success and acknowledge it. And rewards is part of that.

So, once you've done that, so we come on to the summary bit again. So what you're going to do is you're going to summarise the goal, you're going to summarise the steps that you are going to take and just notice, how achieving this goal will feel. So write that all down. And then once you've done that, just, just read it out loud to yourself and see what you think. There may well be something missing. So again, once we get it onto paper, some things change. Yeah.

And actually I'm guessing that even going through the process, things are going to change subtly as well. So you might realise that It's a little bit different to how you thought it was originally.

was originally. Yeah, so that's the GROW model. I've done a whistle stop tour of how I normally do it. But that is the basics of a GROW model for setting goals.

Yeah, oh I think that's great. I think it's really good to have a bit of structure, a bit of a process. dedicate some time to do this and that's what having that process that structure makes you do isn't it is that okay let's sit down and really give this some proper thought instead of it just being something that you say here there and everywhere without really doing anything about

And I think part of it is, it's got to come from you. Yeah. If someone's suggesting anything while you're doing this, Stop

yep

because because it's theirs. It's not yours. And, these questions are just designed to get you to think and ask yourself and be honest. Is this goal achievable? You know, what is it that I actually want to achieve? What is it going to give me? What's going to stop me from achieving it? And when am I going to do it?

Yeah, because let's face it, working towards goals takes effort and engagement. So if you can get this in at the beginning, you can find out if this is really what your goal is and whether you are really committed to it.

it. And also just remember this is not just at the beginning. This can be reviewed all the way through. Yeah. So you can do it again after three months, two months, one month, whatever it is with you. It's entirely yours and you don't have to use this for driving at all. It's so flexible in where you use it.

Brilliant. Okay, well I hope that listening to that and maybe thinking through your answers to some of those questions has given you a bit of motivation to maybe sit down, listen to it again, press pause after every question and actually go through the process for yourself to see whether you can use that model, the GROW model, to help you set your driving goals. And if you do, let us know how you get on with it. So if you found that useful, don't forget to share with anyone else that you think might benefit from the episode as well. And maybe leave us a nice five star review on your favourite podcast player. And if you need to get into contact with us, then our details are in the show notes as always. And until next time, have a great day. Whatever you're doing.