Ask The Experts: Episode 4 with Ange Ritchie

In the fourth episode of our Ask The Experts series, Jess sits down with Ange Ritchie, Founder and Head Goal & Life Coach of My Goal Squad, to discuss the importance of goal setting to helping us unlock the life we want.   

Welcome to the fourth instalment of our Ask The Experts series. In this session, we’re tackling one of our favourite topics: goal setting.  

But before we dive in, here’s a little bit more about Ange. Ange Ritchie is the Founder and Head Goal & Life Coach of My Goal Squad and is a passionate goal-setter and goal-kicker, helping her clients to leverage goal setting to create clear direction and build a purpose-led and meaningful life.  

Ange is also kicking goals outside of the office, ranking in the Top 25 world champions for the 70.3 Half Ironman Triathlon and she ranked in as the 2nd Australian female and the 35th female overall in her very first marathon she ever ran (the New York Marathon). Talk about massive achievements! 

In this session, Jess and Ange cover off a bunch of important topics including: 

• The importance of goal-setting 
• How to create sustainable and achievable goals
• The most common traps that could be stopping us from hitting our goals  
• Why creating holistic goals is key to ensuring success 

Ange’s insights on goal setting  

Here at Fox & Hare, we work with our members to explain the link between values and our financial world, and the importance of putting our time, energy and money towards the things we value most. Why is this important? Because too many people are just ‘winging it’ when it comes to their personal finances (which is the opposite of what they’re doing at work when they’re running and building successful businesses).  

And the same story is true when it comes to goal setting. Ange explains that the most successful and fulfilled people use goal setting to keep them on-track, supported and accountable every step of the way.  

“Goals gives you focus. When you have great focus, you can get rid of the stuff that you might be ‘busy’ with in life without actually being productive,” tells Ange. “Once you refocus on what’s most important, you’ll be able to find extra time to dedicate to the things and people that you value as well.” 

While the act of goal setting is often lumped in the bucket of meaningless New Year’s Resolutions, there’s a lot of powerful research about the impact that goal setting can have on our lives. As Ange explains, “83% of people don’t set goals. There’s a lot of people that live life by ‘default’ or the path of least resistance, kind of like sitting in the passenger seat of an Uber where you just accept where the driver is taking you.”   

But for those that do set goals, the results speak for themselves. “There are roughly 14% of people that set goals without writing them down. In fact, they are already 10x more successful than people who don’t set goals. But then there’s 3% of people who have their goals written down and they are 30x more successful than those who don’t create goals,” explains Ange. 

Take it from one of our favourite celebs, Jennifer Lopez (J.Lo), who at the beginning of her acting career had a specific goal, to start in a romantic comedy ““When I first started, one of the things that I wanted to do—because I was Puerto Rican, Latina—was I wanted to be in romantic comedies,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “Because I felt all the women in romantic comedies always looked the same way. They were always white.”. J.Lo went on to star in many box office-busting rom-coms, most notably 2001’s The Wedding Planner. 

Another incredible actor, Tom Hanks sits down with his family once a year and together make a list of goals they all want to achieve: “We sat down with the family and everyone had five realistic goals to achieve over the year, that we can help each other out with. My number one was to wear suits more often. Another was to exercise 300 days of the year. For an hour a day. I get 65 days off.” 

When it comes to goal-setting, Ange explains that we need to factor in all aspects of our lives to ensure we’re setting ourselves up for success. “When I set goal with my clients, it’s holistic. It’s about setting goals in all areas of our lives. And whether we realise it or not, our financial goals are deeply interrelated to our personal goals,” tells Ange. 

Think about it like this: if you have a personal goal of taking a career break to travel or study, you will need a financial safety net to allow you to step away from work.  

One of the most interesting insights Ange shared during our discussion was the importance of turning big picture goals and visions into actionable steps. In fact, she says one of the biggest things most people miss when creating goals or New Year’s resolutions is breaking them down into daily, weekly and monthly milestones to ensure they succeed. “Having real clarity means you know exactly what your goal is, when you’re going to achieve it, why you’re doing it and all the steps you’ll need to take to achieve it,” explains Ange. 

Our top takeaway points  

Here are Ange’s top tips you can implement today to use goal-setting to help you create a life you love:  

1. Set sustainable goals: skip instant gratification and think long term: where do you want to be in 5, 10 even 20 years’ time? Write out the vision for where you want to be and write this down as if you have already achieved it (that means saying “I am” rather than “I will”). From that big picture vision, you can then create weekly, monthly and annual steps and actions to help get you there.
   
2. Set holistic goals: all areas of your life are interconnected so you can’t achieve a goal in your career without it impacting your personal or financial life. In fact, you can sabotage your goals if you don’t consider all areas of your life when creating goals in the first place.
3. Clarify your ‘why’: the best way to set realistic goals is to understand your intrinsic motivations (a.k.a. why is this goal important to you?). Once you understand why you want to achieve a goal, you’re more likely to stick it out and take the action necessary to achieve it.  

Keep an eye out on our social channels and upcoming newsletters for more information about our next Ask The Experts live Q&A session. Want to learn more about becoming a Fox & Hare member?

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