What people say

Achieving something I've always wanted to do : A Personal Case Study

Roseann-Boyce's story about how she managed to put pen to paper to print for her first book!

My Grampy and Nanny died 5 years ago - within a very short time of each other - and I was finding it a struggle to get over it and come to terms with the two people who meant so much to me not being there anymore.

I'd written a diary of their last two years of their lives - but it wasn't really the nice stuff and didn't really reflect who they were and what they were like. And I wasn't sharing how I was feeling with my family, so I used what I'd written to regularly grieve the fact Grampy and Nanny weren't a part of my life anymore.

I'd always wanted to write a book but never knew what to write about - however when I attended Jenny Stewart's Goal Mapping Workshop something about the day and the exercises we did, triggered me to start thinking that what I'd already written could perhaps be turned into a book.

So when we came to creating our Goal Map, I included my book as one of my subgoals.

And that night, I went home and started doing some work on it.

It needed a fair bit of work as I wanted to add in the good memories of Grampy and Nanny so it told the full story of their lives, not just the sad bits.

And just 3 months later I actually finished writing it and got 50 copies printed ready to give as Christmas presents. I was really worried about how it would go down with the family so actually only showed my Grampy's brother it in advance of Christmas. He loved it though and it gave me the courage to go ahead with my plans.

And everyone loves it! People keep on asking for more copies to share with the wider family and friends - I may even have to print some more! And I think it's been good for me to share, through the book, how I've been feeling and it's been good for my family to now know this too.

The workshop with Jenny really gave me clarity on what I wanted to achieve and also the realisation that to achieve the things you want to achieve, you do need to do something about it.

The day and then the Goal Map, allowed me to focus on this and map it out - and I found this bit particularly powerful. I am someone, who, if they write it down and commit to it, will do it. However with the Goal Map you draw it as well - and I found the pictures much more effective - and I like the fact that no-one knows what you've drawn unless you show them the words to go with it!

I found the Goal Mapping template notepads from Jenny really helpful as well - I used them at the start of each week to map out what was important for me to achieve that week - having that in front of me kept me focused on the important things and made sure I got them done before the not so important things.

And the card she also sent me sits on my desk as a daily reminder of my goals and what I want to achieve. I'm making progress on each of them - we're in the process of moving - I will write another book - and I'm sure that the one goal I really want (can you see the engagement ring!) is just around the corner!

I am so pleased that I could be a part of Jenny's Goal Mapping workshop. I have been able to achieve so much in such a short space of time and I will continue to use the concepts of the workshop to work towards many more goals that I have for myself. Thank you Jenny for making me realise that anything is possible!