Making things happen

Turning dreams into goals and a reality was the inspiring message presented to women at an International Women’s Day event last week.

“Making Big and Little Things Happen” was the theme for the Women in Gippsland event in which facilitator Leah Mether inspired women to set their goals and make it happen.

“We all have something we want to achieve that we aren’t doing at the moment. It might be as simple as having a cup of tea on your own for five minutes,” she said.

Ms Mether said she had used goal setting in her personal, physical and professional life.

She said the year 2014 was a year that changed her life.

With a newborn and two toddlers, she had three sons under three-years-old and was caring for her husband who had injured his back in a car accident.

“He couldn’t even put his socks on and he also developed serious depression. Caring and supporting someone with a mental illness is bloody tough.

In the midst of all this, Ms Mether had to undergo surgery for cancerous abnormalities detected in her cervix.

“It was like a perfect storm. I was approaching 33, nearly the age of one of my close friends and mentor who had died of breast cancer leaving a one and three-year-old. I realised life is bloody short.

Ms Mether said she had read some books, one being Pull Your Finger Out by Craig Harper who said “you’ll never have more time than now.”

“I had always wanted to write a book. I had written 10,000 words and kept putting it aside.

“What changed that year was I set a goal to make it happen and made a plan to make it happen.

“I wrote a book, an 80,000 word book. Of all the years, I wrote a book in that year. It gave me an incredible amount of resilience,” she said.

Ms Mether said she wanted everyone in the room to leave with a goal in place.

The event provided a workshop type setting to assist women to set their goals.

Female coaches engaged with groups of women to motivate, inspire and step them through the development of their goals.

Ms Mether said it was important to identify why your dream was important because knowing the why would provide the motivation.

She said achieving those goals was based on the SMART theory – making them Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timebound.

Planning your goals also is a vital but often overlooked step. She encouraged women to set a plan of how they would achieve their goals, what they needed to do and to be specific about each detail.

“Make your actions habit, work hard and be honest about excuses. Get comfortable being uncomfortable. It will be worth it,” she said.