goal sisters

Joan was the assistant manager at our favorite gift shop on the north side of Chicago. She overheard us talking about our goals as we shopped and asked us if we did this all the time. Ann said, “Yes, but you tell us your story. What is your dream? What would you rather be doing instead of working retail?” Joan answered, “My dream is to be the head librarian of a neighborhood library. Actually, that was my dream until I realized after I got my Library Sciences degree how hard it was to get one of those jobs.

Joan talked about making enough money to support herself and her cat, to take weekend trips to Wisconsin, and to buy books. “I have stacks of books everywhere!” Joan talked about loving mysteries, science fiction, and poetry. “I use to love self-help books,” she said, “but I’ve given up reading them because they haven’t helped me much.” When Michelle asked her why, Joan described how she’d get excited about a new weight loss book, start reading it, and do the exercises, then quit within two weeks because she got bored or lost her motivation. “I didn’t see any results, either.” That’s not the only self-help program Joan started and stopped. She also talked about reading books to figure out why she kept falling for the wrong guys. “Those books were interesting, but they didn’t really help me. My love life is either a mess or non-existent.”

Then Ann asked her, “Besides reading books, what makes you really happy?” Joan’s face lit up and she said, “Playing my guitar. My favorite place to hang out is the Old Town School of Music. I wish I was good enough to play guitar there.” Ann then asked Joan what three steps she could take to play guitar for a living at the Old Town School of Music. Joan answered, “I know the manager there. I could tell him that I’m interested in opening for one of the shows and see what he says. In the meantime, I could play my guitar on open mike night at a club nearby. I could also spend more time after work jamming with some of my musician friends and ask them what it takes to make it full-time.” Michelle noted that Joan had obviously thought this through. “Oh yeah, sure I have,” said Joan, “I think I could do it, but, I don’t know. I guess I’m scared to leave this job. I don’t have a good track record at making changes in my life.”

That’s when we told Joan about Goal Sisters and how she could use the process to realize her dream of playing the guitar professionally and at some point, work on her goals to lose weight and figure out her love life problems. “You mean, someone would ask me how I’m doing on my goals? And someone would be there if I needed support? And I could tell this person where I’m getting stuck and they would help me work through it? Sign me up!” We suspect Joan has found her Goal Sister by now and will be opening for a major gig sometime soon.

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