the SMARTER SWOT way for veterinary professionals to live the life they want

Welcome to episode 061 of Paws Claws and Wet Noses - the vet podcast celebrating all creatures great and small and the fantabulous professionals who look after them all - I'm your show host Julie South.

Back when I was working as a business coach, each year I’d help my clients set their objectives for the coming year.

I had a framework I took them through … that they used … to help keep them on track.

That’s what today’s episode is all about – helping you live the life you want and making the positive difference that only you can make – at work and at home.

If you’ve set NY resolutions before and failed – this is for you – because we’re not going to be setting NY resolutions.

If you’ve set goals before and feel like you’ve failed and they’re a waste of time – then this is for you too.

And if you’re sick of living or working or being the way you are – whatever that looks like for you – then this is for you too.

We’re going to look at how to combine two frameworks that you’re probably already familiar with to create something unique and powerful for you – for you to use in pretty much any situation where you want to go from place A to place B.

Years ago – before my body was injured and broken – I had periods in my life where I was either super-fit or run-of-the-mill unfit… I had – still have – a love-hate relationship with exercise … but back then I was able to get away with being a bit OCD – obsessive compulsive … all or nothing.

It was in one of my unfit stages, one of my not-really-doing-any-exercise stages, that I decided things had to change and I needed to get fit.   Except as all compulsive obsessives do, rather than just decide to get healthily fit, I decided I wanted to get really, really fit – half ironman fit.

If you’ve never heard of an event called a Half Ironman, it’s where you swim 2km, run a half marathon and then hop on your bike – because you can – and cycle 90km.  All consecutively in the same day without any breaks.

I decided I was going to get myself Half Ironman fit – within 12 months.

I found a half iron event – in Tauranga in January – which matched my timeframe.   Actually, there aren’t many half iron events – so I didn’t have much choice.

Because I knew from experience such a huge goal had the immense potential to seriously do my head in, I approached the goal differently to how I’d set goals before.   

I approached with a more business-like mindset.

The first thing I did was a SWOT analysis, then I created a SMARTER goal.

Let’s start with the SWOT analysis:

 I knew the objective I wanted to achieve was the Half Iron Event – in January 2005.  I knew my starting point – not that fit! 

SWOT stands for Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats.

Starting with a blank sheet of paper – or a new document – draw up a 2 x 2 quadrant – that is, four boxes – two high by two wide.   

Working from left to right, top to bottom:

Top left is STRENGTHS, top right is WEAKNESSES, bottom left is OPPORTUNITIES, bottom right is THREATS.

Both STRENGTHS and WEAKNESSES are your INTRINSIC attributes – in other words, they come from within, while OPPORTUNITIES AND THREATS are extrinsic.

You can control the intrinsic motivators YOUR STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES - but the externals – OPPORTUNITIES and THREATS are outside of your control.

In the case of my half ironman goal, I listed all strengths and weaknesses as well as the external opportunities and threats.

Here’s an overview of what that looked like for me.

I started with identifying where I was and where I wanted to go.

At the time I was living in Whangarei and spending three days each week working in Auckland.   This meant I needed to always travel with my bike on the towbar.  Because I was a wussy road cyclist – I’m even wussier now – I knew I needed to be on the road at 04:30 and off by 05:30 otherwise the Auckland traffic – especially the buses – would make it too scary for me to go out.  I also had previous knee and neck injuries to manage and protect.   

My relationship with exercise was – and still is – one of love / hate.   Like I said before I’ve had periods of good fitness followed by being a sloth, followed by being fit again.   Each time I lost fitness – which doesn’t take long – it always hurt getting back to full fitness again.  

Looking at my STRENGTHS – these are the intrinsic things I identified as keeping me on the straight and narrow.   They were:

• I’ve set and achieved goals so know I can do it again
• All or nothing personality
• Good at creative visualisation – I was able to imagine myself crossing the finish line and feeling what that would be like
• I know how to ‘chunk down’ big goals into smaller, bite size and manageable chunks
• My time management skills are good
• I know my personality type is that my goal setting is better when I keep things to myself to start with – then when I’m further down the track, the habits are in place – as much as they’ll ever be – that’s when I share what I’m up to.   I prefer to be an “Idid” woman than “Imgunna” – I did it rather than I’m going to do it.   This way I can also control other people’s negativity to what my goal is:   those who might be jealous or worried about me.

WEAKNESSES – these are where your personality traits always seem to trip you up … where you end up shooting yourself in the foot … where you always seem to screw up and self-sabotage:

• My all or nothing personality type is a strength AND ALSO A WEAKNESS
• I’m not into pain and I know getting fit is going to hurt
• Doing it solo – training solo – no one to motivate me but myself
• I’m sometimes easily distracted
• I’m good on short term goals but long term ones require lots of focus – this required training for about 9 months – which felt huge.

OPPORTUNITIES – In this box you write your PLAN Bs for all your weaknesses – so that when you hit the speed bumps, you won’t get derailed, you’ll be able to stay on the straight and narrow – you know what your plan is before things go pear-shaped:

• Make sure that no more than two consecutive days of training is missed.   The third day had to be “it” – come hell or high water.   Because I knew from past experience that one day would lead into two would lead into three would lead into a week, then a month … then I’d have to do something stupid like wait to the beginning of the week or the month or even the year before I got back on the horse again … so I needed to make sure that never happened by limiting how many days training I gave myself permission to miss – come hell or high water.
• On the days I don’t feel like training – and it’s a designated training day – I’ll start with just five minutes and then reassess how I’m feeling.   That on those days I exercised in consecutive five minute blocks until I’ve completed however many minutes I need to do for that day’s training.
• Mini rewards each calendar month that would end up being a forfeit if I didn’t achieve that month’s training objectives.   At the time myself and two friends used to meet once/month for lunch.   I promised myself that I’d only continue to meet them if I’d met my training goals.   I didn’t tell them about what I was doing but I knew that me bailing on them for lunch would mean they’d be disappointed … so each month’s mini-reward of lunch helped keep me on the straight and narrow.

THREATS – these are the external forces that can derail your plans – people, locations, events

• People – I listed the people who’d be jealous of my achievement – there were a few
• The weather – if the weather made cycling or running dangerous – more often cycling – then I swapped around my training schedule … some days I spent a lot of time in the pool!
• My injuries – I needed to make sure my weekly improvements – extensions in distance, time or intensity – weren’t going to create a flareup and render me incapable for weeks at a time in recovery
• Location – when I travelled out of town – one of the things I did back then was speak at lots of conferences – I made sure I stayed in hotels with gyms or pools.  I also checked out possible walking routes if that’s all I could do.      

 So let’s look at the SWOT matrix for your situation as part of your success plan for 2022.

STRENGTHS – make a list of your personal attributes that serve you well

The tactics and strategies you’ve used in the past that have helped you win / achieve your objective.  

Remember that the flip side of a strength could also be a weakness – as in my all or nothingness – it’s only a strength when I’m in an “all” cycle.   As soon as I flip into a “nothing” cycle all the wheels fall off!

Some strengths could be:

• Stubbornness 
• Time management
• High pain threshold
• Ability to creatively visualise
• Your previous experience in___________--
• Optimism 
• Ability to get up early or stay up late (I’m an early person)
• Working as part of a team or
• Can work solo

 As this applied to my half ironman – it’d been years since I’d been on a bike so I had to relearn how to be back in the saddle again.   Coupled with that was a neck injury I needed to protect because being down in the drops – the dropped handlebars – means your neck is at a crazy angle – I needed to ease myself into that slowly.

The end goal of cycling was 90km – so I increased my distances by just 10km/month.  I increased my swimming by 250m at a time and running by 1km.

Then I had to get to the point where I could merge all three of these together up to a total time of about 8 hours straight.

WEAKNESSES

Mostly these will be negative thought patterns – for example, - not that you’ll ever be thinking like this of course!! But maybe, you might think “here I go again” “why do I always end up at the beginning again” – for me those thoughts happened because of my all/nothing mindset.  

By identifying your weaknesses ahead of time + the strategies to deal to them when they occur – you’re more likely to achieve success …you’re setting yourself UP FOR SUCCESS in advance.

For example, weaknesses could include:

• Procrastination
• Letting someone else influence you
• Other people’s opinions
• Self doubt
• Lack of self worth
• Giving up too soon
• Poor time management
• Taking your eyes off the finish line, off the ball

 With me, I knew that I’d easily be able to convince myself that “one day wouldn’t make any difference” and / or my all or nothing approach would result in injury and/or I’d give up and then convince myself it was okay to start on some future arbitrary date that was a long way off on the horizon.    I therefore knew I needed to recognise in advance the self-talk that went on in my head ahead of time so I was ready for it… that I was listening out for it.   

OPPORTUNITIES – these are the strategies and tactics you’ll use to keep you on the straight and narrow, or to help you get back up again if you fall over.

The personal questions you want answers for – ahead of time could include:

When you notice yourself start to fall off the rails, what will you immediately do to put the breaks on and get back on again?

What strategies will you have in place to ensure you stay ontrack?

What personal road signs will you see / notice to avoid the personal potholes that could have you going astray?   What thought patterns, destructive or self sabotage habits do you know you have that you’ll be able to recognise ahead of time?

For example, with me, I promised myself that when I heard myself saying “one day won’t make any difference” I’d exercise for just five minutes and then reassess.   If I was still struggling, I promised myself just five minutes more … if I was still struggling I’d promise myself just another five minutes … it usually didn’t take many rounds of five minutes before I’d forgotten I wasn’t in the mood and I was back on track with that day’s programme.   But there were days where I did use this tactic because I heard myself saying “one day won’t make any difference”.   

If I hadn’t identified that in advance = together with the antidote I’m not sure I would have made it across the finish line.

THREATS
Threats are usually external and although are mostly beyond your control, HOW YOU RESPOND TO THEM IS 100% INSIDE YOUR CONTROL.   For me the threats were other people – telling me I was stupid, crazy, selfish (for the amount of training I was doing), not good enough, not tall enough, faste enough, etc.    So that’s why I didn’t tell them until I had either crossed that finish line or was far enough into my training that they wouldn’t derail my efforts.

I’ve mentioned that I “chunk” down goals.   All this means is working out what you need to do by when.   Or which milestone you need to be at by a certain date.

With the half iron I chunked down the distances I needed to be able to get to:  2km in the water, 90 km in the saddle and a half marathon of 21km.   Then I needed to get to the level where I could do those one after the other – I figured it’d take me about 8 hours.   

So I chunked down distance – from zero km to each that I needed – 2, 90 and 21 plus total hours.  I worked back from the event date – early January and spread the milestones I’d worked out from the start date to the event date.

Those milestones became my training objectives.

I threw in some organised events into the mix – like the Great Lake Cycle Challenge and a few half marathons.   To give me mini goals to work towards.

Righty – so I’ve identified the strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats in relation to this specific goal.

From there I made sure my goal was SMARTER.

You’re probably familiar with SMART goal setting – well I’ve tweaked that framework a bit to make it work for me.   And the tweak – from my experience as a business coach – seems to work for others as well.

Here’s what the SMARTER stands for:

Specific – half ironman event in Tauranga, January 2005

Measured & Meaningful – 2km, 90km, 21km.  The meaningful element was to use the event to fundraise for Heart Children – a charity special to my family.

Achievable – the fitness was an extension of previous fitness.

Realistic – I knew how to swim, cycle and spend time on my feet pounding the pavements.

Time-focussed – there was a deadline – January 2005.

Exciting – maybe terrifying was a better word – but it got the adrenalin pumping when I thought about being that fit.

Rewarding – a personal accomplishment + I rewarded myself each month through lunch with my two girlfriends.   This also acted as a forfeit – if I didn’t do what I said (to myself) I was going to do, then I had to miss out on lunch.

Let’s look at each individually for YOU:  

SPECIFIC:

How will you know you’ve achieved something, or got somewhere, if you don’t know where you’re going?   For example, if you kinda go on a diet you’ll kinda lose weight.   

Kinda isn’t specific.

You need to be absolutely precise in what you want to achieve.

When you went to university to be a vet, you knew your final objective was to get your veterinary science degree.

When you went to polytech or university to be a vet nurse, you knew exactly what qualification you were going to finish with.

If you have a business degree – when you started university, you knew that your end goal was to finish with a degree.   

It was specific.

For me with my half ironman, I knew that on 5 January 2005 I was going to swim 2km, run 21 km and cycle 90km and still be able to walk afterwards.

That was my specific outcome.    The specific goal I wanted.

So what do you want to achieve?   

What dreams do you have?

The life you’re living isn’t a dress rehearsal – it’s the real thing and the only chance you’re going to get so make it count for something that YOU WANT.

MEANINGFUL & MEASURABLE – you need to create something that has the equivalent energy of getting you out of bed in the middle of winter, when it’s freezing cold and chucking it down sideways with rain … if it won’t do that, then focus on something that will.   

MEANINGFUL is your WHY.  WHY are you doing it?   You’ll need this to focus on when it is – metaphorically – chucking it down sideways in the middle of a very cold winter.

MEASURABLE – you need to know when you’ve achieved whatever it is you’re going after.  At university or polytech it was your degree or diploma – your qualification.   For me, it was crossing that finish line – then I knew I had finished!   How will you know you’ve finished?

ACHIEVABLE – being achievable doesn’t mean it can’t be onehelluvabiggoal – a hairy audacious goal to quote other people.   But it needs to be achievable.  For example, if you’re currently a couch potato running a marathon before Easter is probably not an achievable goal – you’re setting yourself up for failure.   But entering into a 10k fun run – if they’re still a thing these days – that IS achievable (as at the end of December when I’m recording this).

REALISTIC – how realistic is it for you to achieve your goal?   Does it require the input and/or support of other people?   If you’re the sole caregiver of kids or parents, where will you find the time to devote to your whatever-it-is-you-need-to-do?   Do you have the buy-in of others.  Because if you’re relying on others make sure you’ve got their support otherwise you’re setting yourself up for failure.  If you don’t have their necessary support, what’s your Plan B?   Look at your THREATS – have you identified support of others as a thread if it’s removed?

EXCITING – similar to meaningful – it’s important to make sure this is YOUR GOAL you’re working towards and not someone else’s.   If it’s someone else’s you may find yourself hitting snooze instead of lacing up your shoes come winter.   Worse, you may find yourself beating yourself up for being a failure.

REWARDING / REWARD – what rewards can you give yourself as you achieve each milestone along your journey?   Make these meaningful and exciting for you.   

I remember a few years ago I decided I was going to climb the Hakarimata steps.  These are 1,349 steps that DOC has installed up the side of the Hakarimata ranges just out of Huntly in the Waikato.  

Not far from where I live, on the other side of the Waikato River in Hamilton, along the river walkway is a flight of 84 steps – they link the Ann Street river walk up to street above it … I knew that to climb the Huks, I needed to be able to climb these 84 Ann Street steps 16 times.  

My reward for getting to 16 repetitions was to buy myself an iPod  – because I wanted to listen to my iPod while I climbed the Huks.  That reward was so meaningful to me, I achieved that milestone earlier than I’d scheduled it.  (I’m showing my age now – can you even buy an iPod any more?)

Okay – now you’ve just listened to me for the last XX minutes and you may be wondering so what? what does this mean to me?   Julie you kinda promised me something special that’d change my life.

Yup – and here’s what my suggestion would be for you – if you seriously want to change something or somethingS about your life:

Firstly – just pick the meaningful stuff – this process takes some time to work through and set up so make sure you do it with things that count for you.

If you’re not sure where to start then look at the major parts of your life – the stuff that makes a difference – when it comes to health:

• Your physical health,
• Your mental health
• Your spiritual health
• Your financial health
• your workplace health

Some of those are interrelated – mental and workplace, spiritual and mental and workplace, financial and workplace.

If none of those light you up or they’re all where you want, then look at your educational health – is there something you’ve been yearning to learn – a new skill, hobby, craft?  For example, for me – who’s totally tone deaf – I’d love to learn to play the piano – but I don’t want to learn that badly to commit time and energy to it – yet!   Maybe one day that’ll change?

If you’re the clinic owner, then I definitely, highly recommend you apply the SWOT and SMARTER frameworks to changes / growth plans you want to make happen for 2022.

As I said, pick a few BIG OBJECTIVES that have MEANING  for YOU.  

Then open a new Word document or get yourself a blank sheet of paper and draw yourself a 2x2 table – 2 columns wide by 2 rows deep:  In the top row:  STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES – these are the INTERNAL forces which YOU CAN CONTROL.   In the bottom row:  OPPORTUNITIES & THREATS – these are the EXTERNAL forces usually beyond your control.   

It’s your STRENGTHS which enable you to RESPOND to these EXTERNAL FORCES.

Create a new SWOT for each objective.

Then get SMARTER:  

• Specific
• Measured and meaningful
• Achievable – with this remember, no full marathons before daylight saving finishes if you’re just getting off the couch!
• Realistic
• Exciting – on a scale of 1-10 – it needs to be an 11 – if it’s not tweak it or move onto something that is!  
• Reward/ing

THEN – but wait, there’s more! – you need to chunk down the goal into bite size pieces.   For me I prefer to make these bite sizes calendar-month sized, then I break them down again into weekly bites.   My rewards are either milestone reached or activity accomplished.

For example, milestone reached for the half iron I talked about, was when I got to 50 km, then 75km then 100km on the bike.   Even though I “only” needed to ride 90 km, I knew from my sports science study days that endurance and stamina were important when it came to fitness.  

Right now, currently, as I’ve mentioned in other episodes and on LI – my current crusade is weight reduction – food has been my go-to in times of stress … I felt like I was out of control and my head was seriously being done-in … it’s a long, slow process that is just literally one bite, one mouthful at a time – I’m rewarding myself every 5kg – hahahah – I’m on my way to the third 5kg.

Forfeits – when I ran the KickAss Mastermind Group, each member publicly declared their forfeit to the group for non-achievement IF they knew that would keep them more motivated than a reward.   You’ll know what works for you – either giving you something or taking something away.

IF you’d like copies of the worksheets I used back then, when I was coaching, please get in touch – I’m more’n happy to share them.  You can contact me at pawsclawswetnoses.fm.

The next thing you need to do is make sure you maintain focus – which is easier said than done.   We’re all motivated and pumped up in the beginning but then life gets in the way and sometimes it’s easy to forget what we’re meant to be doing … one day of not doing leads into two days, which leads into a week and before we know it a month has passed …

I’ve mentioned before I keep a journal.   I hand write, rather than use my keyboard.   The other thing I used is a personal page-a-day-diary.   Each month I write on a sticky post-it note what that month’s milestones or activities are.  Then I keep that post-it on each page of my diary.   I move it from day to day so that it’s always present and in front of me … so that I can see it … as a reminder of what I’m meant to be doing / achieving.    

I found that once I started moving this daily post-it reminder, things became a bit less stressful because I didn’t get to the last week of the month and then make this crazy mad-dash trying to tick everything off because I’d somehow dropped the ball.

I hope you’ve found this helpful.   

If you’d like some accountability in your life then please get in touch – I’d love to help you make 2022 the year you achieved something big and meaningful for you – because that’s what happened every year for my KickAss Mastermind Group members.   KickAss was a small, supportive group that met once/month for two hours over lunch:  each person, in their own way, changed the world – it was so exciting to be part of that.   Everyone learnt from each other and supported each other.   If that sounds like something you’d like in your life in 2022, as I said, please get in touch.  Each group was limited to just 7 people.

As I wrap up the last episode for 2021 I want to acknowledge you for tuning in and listening.  Every time I get a message of thanks from a listener it makes a HUGE difference – THANK YOU!

If you haven’t yet clicked that FOLLOW button wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts then do so – it means episodes will show up direct to your podcast feed.   

Wherever you’re listening to this, please take care and make time to stop and smell the roses and/or wriggle your toes in the sand or grass … look after yourself and those you love … stay safe and remember to go out there in this world being the most amazing version of you that you can be – your world needs you to be healthily, fantabulously you! this is Julie South signing off for the last time in 2021, ka kite ano, god bless