Meet The Expert: Life Coach Shalini Sinha On Achieving Personal Life Goals

We all know about the importance of setting and striving for specific goals in our lives, but frequently it’s harder to do than we thought. We know, in a vague way, what we would like to achieve for ourselves and our families, and we can see other people managing to have the things or experiences we would love, but the way towards them can sometimes be a little muddled. We all know the basic tenets of budgeting and saving, but putting them into effective practice can sometimes come to nothing. So many conversations around this office are based around how to achieve goals, be they personal or professional, large or small, so we are delighted to speak to Life Coach Shalini Sinha on ways to get into a zone of empowerment, confidence and assertiveness where you can feel confidence in your decision-making and savings goals – no matter what they may be.

Meet Shalini?

Shalini was born in Canada of Indian immigrant parents and her heritage of yoga and enlightenment ideas shaped her mind from a young age. She gained her BA in Anthropology and Religious Studies, studying what she loves – human culture and how we reach our highest potential. After completing her MA in Women’s Studies, she became a Certified Professional Coach. She also practices natural health.

“There is little we have more emotional feeling about than money. It distracts us, alludes us, and can feel like it controls us. I think about money as one energy in the universe. It can give life, but isn’t life itself. If we focus only on money and not life, we will attract ill-health. The goal is to attract and spend money to support our growth.”

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Shalini’s Top Tips for Setting and Achieving Personal Life Goals

Consider your attitude….

• Treat yourself like someone you love, like and support. Approach every project with an open and loving heart. Abandon the ?tough love? attitude towards yourself. Real, sustainable changes come from positivity, not harshness. Make a list of your good qualities and strengths. Allow your strategy to maximise on these characteristics.

Frame your goal…

• Choose a goal derived from a deep, internal desire for increased happiness. If you’re driven by what you think others want, what you think you should do, or a personal insecurity; your subconscious mind will actually work against you.

• Choose something you can control. There’s no point setting a goal that is dependent on someone else’s action for you to be successful. It’s not that you have to be an island, completely on your own. It’s that no one else should be given the power over whether or not you succeed. It’s also a beautiful opportunity to notice how much you do have control over in your life.

• Frame it positively. Think about what you want to gain, not what you think the problem is. For example, wanting to lose weight is a negative frame. You’re thinking about what you’re not happy about. Excess weight is a symptom of poor health. Think of what you want to do to improve health and what you will gain with better health – increased energy, strength, clarity of mind, stronger immune system.

• Be specific. Get to the detail of exactly what (positive) behaviour you want to begin. “I wish to swim” is more effective than “I wish to exercise”. “I want to save money to buy a piano by making my lunch every day” is more effective than, “I want to have a piano”.

• Write it down. Write down both your vision of how you want your life to be?and the specific action that will take you there. If you have decided to think big, there will be a series of actions that take you there. Write as many as you can see at the moment, but mostly, write the one you will do right now. Don’t try to do more than one thing at a time. You are forming a new habit, and you do this one step at a time.

Taking Action…

• A small step put consistently in action will outperform a big gesture every time. Small actions accumulate to powerful impacts. So think small. What’s the tiniest action that you can do consistently, every day, no matter what? The hardest part is getting started. Once you do your simple action, you may have the time, energy and desire to do more. Go ahead! But if you don’t and you stop, you still achieved your goal today and you’re a success.

• An action completed with joy is eternal. An action completed with fear, hate, or sadness will cause destruction and come to an end quickly. This is how you know you’ve found the right attitude for your goal.

? ?Recognise you are creating a new reality…

• Go out of your way to notice you’ve taken action. This might sound silly, but the truth is you need to get the message into your subconscious mind that this new behaviour is the real you. Think about how many years you’ve spent internally giving out to yourself about what you think is wrong with you or how frustrated you are with the problem you’ve had. The subconscious speaks in feelings, visuals and experiences, so your recognition will need to involve a good feeling while moving in a fun way. (This is why a celebration dance is always so effective!) Tell yourself, ?Congratulations, I’m the kind of woman who reads! Remember, small regular recognitions trump a grand gesture.

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My top 5 Tips:

1. Treat yourself like you treat someone you love.
2. Choose something you have control over.
3. Focus on what you’re gaining, not the problem.
4. One small action done daily is more effective than striving for big accomplishments.
5. Celebrate the reality you are living, every moment you achieve it.

So if you’re saving to buy a ?house, looking to invest in a car or simply want to flex your savings muscles, stay tuned to image.ie and pick up the next issue of IMAGE Magazine for more financial insights, top tips on de-stressing and follow our three real women as they attempt to achieve their financial goals!

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To find out more about setting up a savings account with the savings specialists, RaboDirect visit RaboDirect.ie or call 1850 882 244

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