THE GSMtm...

worked for me! My lovely -and very smart as you will see- friend/walking buddy Jen is the mastermind behind the GOAL SETTING MATRIX(tm) and she was kind enough to share it with me on one of our walks back in September and I am now passing it on to you!
First, I want to give you a little background and tell you about my own personal GSM. As I have been hinting at, I am making some big changes in my life that have been a long time coming and are now actually happening!
Some of you know that I got my college degree in Musical Theater. After school it was Broadway or bust- in other words, find a restaurant job. And that is exactly what I did. I started bar tending right when I moved here (completely by accident by the way, I didn't know a margarita from a martini). It seemed like I perfect gig... and it was. My days were free to audition and I only worked 3-4 nights a week.
Fast forward 4 years... I had done some regional shows and also a tour, and every time I came back I start another bar job, and at this point, despise them all. I was also in an awesome relationship, and could see myself marrying this man and quite honestly don't have much interest in leaving for another tour or anything. I needed something more stable. There had to be another way... which brings me to PILATES and the joy of finding something that I love AND can make money doing! Heaven.
Fast forward 2 more years (this past September to be exact)... I am MARRIED- just had our 1 year anniversary! A certified and working Pilates instructor! And still bar tending... : \ I realized this was necessary in order to get my Pilates business off the ground, but right now, if I am not teaching I am bar tending and I would like to have a life and maybe even see husband every once in a while. So the time had come. I was ready to take the plunge into being a full time Pilates instructor!
Enter, Jen with her GSM. It was unbelievably helpful to me and I hope it will be for you too:


JEN's GSM(tm)

"So the Goal Setting Matrix or GSMtm...after reading a lot of self-help/goal-setting/be an effective person type books, I figured out a way to boil down goal-setting into a one-page reference.

Take a piece of paper, turn it horizontally and draw a rectangle covering the whole page. Draw a cross so that the rectangle now has four boxes in it. Each of these boxes is a quadrant in your GSM:

Quadrant #1 (top left): Write what you want your goal to be. Use the statement "I will" so that the universe knows you mean business. For example, "I will become a pilates instructor."

Quadrant #2 (top right): Write down the date you want to complete your goal. You have to have a "finish line" in order to know if you've crossed it!

Quadrant #3 (bottom left): Write down the people you will tell about your intended goal, along with your date. The reason for this is threefold: some or all of these people can support you and encourage you to complete your goal; some of these people can actually help you achieve your goal; by telling other people you make your intention real -- no backing out now.

Quadrant #4 (bottom right): Break down your goal into manageable steps for achieving your goal (you can also make individual GSMs for any of these steps if it helps you), preferably with target dates to keep you moving along."

And now, I give you my GSM:



You'll notice the date is November 1st, which is NEXT WEEK! It feels so good to be so close to the finish line! Here goes nothing...

**** VERY IMPORTANT: I, in no way, want anyone to think I am knocking or judging bar tending as a profession. It is a great and valid job and requires a lot of skill. It has given me so much in my 6 years of doing it- including my husband. It just isn't for me anymore and in order to move forward with my Pilates career it was time to let it go.