Goal Setting Worksheet

Client presents an action they have already decided to take — switching jobs, launching a product, moving cities — and wants coaching support to execute it. When pressed on the underlying goal, they struggle to articulate one. The action has become the goal, which means there is no way to evaluate whether it is the right action.

Frame this as a pre-flight check, not a challenge to the decision. 'Before we build the plan, let's back up one level and get clear on what you're trying to accomplish. The action you're describing may be exactly right — or there may be a better path we haven't seen yet. The 5W questions will help us find out.' Clients who have already committed emotionally to an action resist this reframe because examining the goal feels like reopening a decision they have made. Name that: 'I'm not asking you to question whether to move forward. I'm asking what you want this to produce.'

Watch the Who, Why, and When responses. If Who is vague ('for everyone,' 'for my team'), the goal lacks a real beneficiary. If Why is instrumental rather than purposive ('because I should,' 'because it's next'), the client does not have a personal stake in the outcome. If When is absent or vague, the goal has no accountability anchor. A goal card filled in under three minutes with short answers is performing compliance — the client is completing the exercise to get back to execution.

Start with the Why card. Ask the client to read it aloud. Then: 'Is that the real why, or is that what sounds good?' Most clients know the difference. Then move to the When card and ask them to put a specific date on it — not a quarter or a season, a date. The resistance to specificity on When is usually where the real obstacle lives.

Client names a goal that has appeared in multiple previous sessions — or that they describe as 'I've been wanting to do this for years.' The goal is familiar enough to discuss fluently but has not moved. The fluency itself is part of the problem: this client has talked about the goal so many times that the talking has replaced the doing.

Introduce this as a diagnostic, not another round of planning. 'You've described this goal before. Rather than build another plan, let's figure out what's actually keeping it in place. The 5W questions are a way to find the specific assumption that has been wrong.' The resistance pattern here is that the client will want to produce a new plan — more specific, more detailed. Name it: 'More planning hasn't moved this yet. Let's find the question that hasn't been asked.'

The most diagnostic question is Why — not why they want the goal, but why it has not happened yet. If the client attributes non-progress entirely to external factors ('my boss,' 'the economy,' 'my schedule'), the internal obstacle has not been examined. Also watch for a When that is identical to a When set in a previous session. The same deadline moving forward is a signal that the client does not believe the deadline is real.

Start with the gap between the goal and the longest time it has been on the list. Ask: 'What has been the story you have told yourself about why it has not happened yet?' Then ask: 'What would have to be different for that story to stop being true?' This sequence moves from diagnosis to agency without skipping the accountability step.

Client comes to coaching with a general sense of dissatisfaction or wanting 'more' but cannot name a specific goal. They are articulate about what is not working but vague about what they want instead. The 5W framework applied to a fuzzy goal produces a fuzzy plan — the tool's value here is in forcing specificity, which reveals what the client does not yet know.

Frame this as exploration, not problem-solving. 'Let's use this framework not to set the goal — you don't have to know that yet — but to find the shape of it. The questions are designed to pull out what you do know and show us where the blanks are.' The resistance here is often from clients who feel they should arrive with a clear goal. Normalize ambiguity: 'Most people don't walk in knowing exactly what they want. The framework helps us find it.'

Watch where the client produces energy rather than accuracy. A technically complete answer that is delivered flatly is less useful than an incomplete answer delivered with conviction. The Who question is particularly revealing for clients in this state — who do you want this goal to matter to? A client who pauses at Who may be working through a question about whose life they are actually building.

After the five questions, step back and ask: 'Looking at everything you wrote, what surprised you?' That question surfaces information the client did not know they had. Then: 'Which of these five answers feels most uncertain to you right now?' The uncertain answer is often the one that most needs exploration before goal-setting can happen.