At Hadley Family Law we pride ourselves in assisting our clients to achieve a civilised divorce and have recognised that goal setting is crucial to achieving a civilised divorce. However, setting goals amidst what is clearly a tumultuous period of your life can be difficult. Here are some tips for goal setting tips:

1.   Identify and Decide What You Want Out of Divorce

While it may be easy to get bogged down in your day-to-day responsibilities or finalising the divorce as quickly as possible, we urge you to take a step back and delve deeper into how you envision your future after divorce and set long term goals. For instance:

• What type of parenting arrangement would you like for your children?
• What type of financial arrangements will you need to make to ensure you have a comfortable lifestyle for yourself and your children?
• Do you have the capacity to assume your joint debts? If yes, how much?
• The impact on your retirement savings? 

Usually, if you identify the things that you consider important to you in the here and now, it will assist you in identifying what you want for your future.

Where you can, identify shared goals with your former spouse, for instance, you may both want comfort and stability for your children. 

2.   Be S.M.A.R.T

SMART is world-renowned criteria for goal setting. It stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely.

Once you have identified what your long-term goals, put steps in place to achieve it by observing the above criteria.

• Break your overarching goals down into specific attainable short-term goals. For instance, if your long-term goal is future financial stability, one specific short-term goal may be setting a tighter monthly budget;
• Measure your results by monitoring how much you save per month. It could be as simple as saying to yourself, I would like to save X amount per month or transferring said amount into an online saver account;
• Ensure your short terms goals are realistic and attainable. In keeping with the above example, do not set an unachievable amount as your initial target. Small achievements can gradually serve as a motivation to challenge yourself further.
• Set a timeframe to achieve your short-term goals to ensure you are proactively progressing toward to your long-term goals, such as, saving X amount in 6 months.
• Ensure you specific goals are relevant to your long-term goals; Saving now will ensure your financial stability in the future.

3.   Be Flexible

Change is inevitable and things may not always go according to plan. That is why it is important to ensure your goals are flexible and you have the ability to adapt your goals should your circumstances change. Flexibility will also allow you to explore alternative ways to achieve your desired result.  Finally, it will enable you to review and replace a goal with a new one, if it no longer serves your best interests.

In summary, realistic expectations and open-mindedness is key to achieving a civilised divorce.

Have any queries? Contact Hadley Family Law on 07 4044 5000. We specialise in civilised resolutions.