Selections From
Goal Sisters

About Us
From Chapter 1.
Key Ingredients of the GS Process
Use all 5 ingredients for the best results!
From Chapter 2.
Is She My Goal Sister?
Answer these 11 questions to find out!
Joan's Story
Ann asks, "What would you rather be doing?"
From Chapter 3.
Exercise 3.1
Create your Wish List
Exercise 3.2
Turn your wishes - poof! - into goals
From Chapter 5.
Blue Shirt Theory
Detach from your past failures to move on
From Chapter 6.
Serendipity Happens
Paying attention - and following through with action - pays off!
From Chapter 9.
Overnight Adventures
Get away with your Sisters for fun & focus
GS Facilitator Manual
FAQs, Part I
Answers to questions about facilitating your own GS group
Presentations and Workshops
Goal Sisters for Hire
Peruse Ann's diverse menu of workshops!
Sowing Seeds
Our Gratitude Abounds
So many to thank for spreading the word!
Our 2004 Excellent Summer Adventure
Venture back in time with us on our Magical Mini Midwest Tour
Blooming Goal Gardens
Goal Sisters share their views and successes

Goals Galore

Wouldn’t it be nice to turn your wishes into goals with a poof of a magic wand? The heck with a wand - you have everything you need at your disposal, Sister - your ongoing commitment, your optimism, your journal, your pen or pencil, and us! Let’s get to it, shall we?

Exercise 3.2: Goals Galore

Begin this exercise by writing the name of each of the following ten goal categories at the top of ten new pages in your journal:

· Job/​Career
· Physical and emotional health
· Significant other
· Family and friends
· Spirituality
· Money
· Personal growth
· Environment
· Creativity and play
· Volunteer service

Turn back to your list of fifty wishes. It’s time to change each wish into a goal and place them in the appropriate goal category. We suggest you do this one wish at a time using a three-step process. Step One: Determine which goal category the wish falls under. It may fall under two or more categories, but choose the most applicable category. Step Two: Transform the wish into a goal. We suggest you do this by crossing off unrelated words and adding new words to complete the action. Step Three: Write your new goal under the goal category you selected.

Here’s how we transformed our Exercise 3.1 wishes into goals and categorized them by goal category:

· Job/​Career: “I wish that Mary’s pettiness didn’t bother me” becomes “Figure out how to manage my feelings around Mary’s pettiness”
· Physical and emotional health: “I wish I took better care of myself” becomes “Take better care of myself”
· Family and Friends: “I wish Dan would ease up on himself” becomes “Talk with Dan about easing up on himself”
· Spirituality: “I wish I practiced mindfulness daily” becomes “Practice mindfulness daily”
· Environment: “I wish we could finish decorating the house” becomes “Finish decorating the house”

Repeat the three-step process for each of your fifty wishes. If you have trouble transforming and categorizing any of your wishes, move on to the next wish. You can always return to this exercise when you meet with your Goal Sister.


Copyright © 2004-2010 by Michelle Beaulieu Pillen, Ph.D., and Ann Leach. All rights reserved. No part of this Web site may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise.
Ann, Georgia Hughes (our New World Library editor), Michelle, and MJ

Book Fact #2


We received rejection letters from 15 to 20 publishing companies before New World Library contacted us!

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Book Fact #9


To help us cope with receiving rejection letters, we told ourselves that when our book proposal was put in front of the "right" publisher, we would get the response we were looking for. Our goal was to do the homework to figure out who that publisher was and get it in front of them!

Laughing with friends also helped us to handle the stress of rejections!

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Book Fact #10


We were brand spanking new to the publishing world before we embarked on writing the book. It helped to attend writers conferences, join online writing groups and associations, and read everything we could get our hands on regarding getting published.