Wannabe by The Spice Girls

Apologies for no song last week, some technical issues at my end. So, as a treat, let’s go 1990’s retro this week with the Spice Girls debut single Wannabe. The song has become an iconic statement of mid-90’s girl power but it’s just a line from the chorus that forms the basis for our reflection:

I’ll tell you what I want, what I really really want.

As the song plays out, the strong and empowered Spice Girls know what they want and have no intention of settling for less. Yet, in my experience as a life coach, people really (let alone really really) knowing what they want is something of a rarity. And that’s often the first role of the coach, helping someone to begin to determine their future direction.

When you think about it, knowing with certainty your direction in life is a big and brave commitment. We don’t know how things might turn out, and what the cost of commitment to a goal (and the potential embarrassment of not reaching it if it’s made public) might be. So, big up the forthrightness of the Spice Girls!

But what about the rest of us? How do we decide what we really want and then start to make tentative steps towards our goals and dreams?  In my experience, the starting point is not so much to think of a destination as it is a direction of travel. How might I want my life to be different? What are the qualities I feel are missing, or features which would improve my experience of life? For some, beginning to construct a vision board of how different parts of their life might be different is an excellent starting point.

Yet what is key, is making sure the expression of the vision is always held as just that, your image of what the future might be like, not the actual future itself. This allows us space to modify and adapt our goals as our experience, context and hopes change over time. There is almost always a degree of the intangible about what we really want in life. After all, even the Spice Girls when telling us what they really really want concluded:

I wanna really, really, really wanna zigazig ah.

Need some help getting back on track with your good life vision? Why not consider booking an appointment with the author, Dr Dave Wood?

Wannabe is taken from the Spice Girls debut album Spice.