Many people hire a coach for help with working towards goals. But what if a client doesn't have or want any goals?  Goals are just one way of organising one's sense of the future and what one is working towards.  Even if a person does have goals, deadlines are sometimes not advisable. If you define your coaching solely in terms of goals, you might be alienating people who have different models in their heads about how life moves forward.

Businesses and organisations, of course, cannot exist without goals and targets. People must know what needs doing by when. A common complaint, though, is that people do not achieve their stated goals. One business coach, John Alexandrov,  said that "goal setting is an old technique" and that there are better ways of achieving, such as making promises instead. However, to some people, "goals" or "promises" may be words that come with unwanted connotations or emotional baggage.

The Emotional Freedom Techniques can be used on negative thoughts, beliefs or emotions that are attached to the terms "goal",  "promise", "delivery" and so on, together with positive affirmations to build motivation when these terms are used.

Sometimes "goal" is simply the wrong word for a client.  It is better to use "client jargon" than "coaching jargon". Find out what a client's favourite term is for what they want, and use that word.  Is it a desire? An aim? A change?  A dream?  A wish?  A want?  Maybe they don't use any particular word.  A simple question such as "What do you want to happen in your life?"  The late David Grove, the originator of Clean Language, used to ask the question "What would you like to have happen?" at the start of every session. I use that question or a similar one to start a Clean Metaphor Coaching or metaphor therapy session.

How does a client react to the term "goal"?  Does it have any negative connotations?  Maybe there is some work to be done there. Maybe the word "goal" is best for business matters and another word is more suitable for what they want to achieve within personal life.

A goal can seem too big, or too vague, to work with. Such a goal is perhaps better described as a vision or a dream. It can be kept as an ideal or inspiration, and in the meantime its foundation can be explored. The values underlying the goal can be uncovered, and this process can let the client become aware of possible outcomes and how they can be achieved step by step.

Sometimes an apparent goal is not the real one. A person can state the goal of becoming rich,  but on further questioning the motive behind that is to feel secure. Are there other ways of feeling secure without being rich, or until one becomes rich?

Thomas Leonard developed a model of "Personal Evolution Coaching" to help people who are not goal-oriented. They might be not be able to muster the willpower to state and achieve goals, or they might feel satisfied with their lives but still want something new and stimulating to happen. This model focuses on creating environments (situations) that are challenging, and that allow personal growth in response to the challenges. So, the coach helps the client to seek out seek out suitable experiences which can be learning environments. Instead of setting goals, the task is to interact with those environments. As just a few examples, a person might decide to do some volunteering in a developing country, learn a new skill, take up a pastime involving other people, or offer mentoring.

This model could suit another type of client: those who do not believe in goals because they believe they are guided to what to do next because of being on a spiritual path. They just want to go with the flow. If I were doing metaphor work I would suggest exploring what kind of flow that is and how the flow could change.  For example, is the flow imagined like a river, or is it felt as a type of energy or state of consciousness? How the client experiences "flow" can suggest techniques to use.

Some very spiritual or religious people will not make promises or commit themselves to do anything by any specific time but only when "God will permit". Certain Orthodox Jews do not keep diaries or make plans and promises for secular purposes, and use the expression "without a vow" or other phrases to avoid making promises.

A.H. Almaas, developer of The Diamond Approach, wrote, "I have no personal or professional goals for the future. I do not usually set up goals for myself. I just do what is needed, and things develop the way they can. Who am I to know what is supposed to happen in the future!"  On the other hand, some believers in positive thinking want to imagine the future in minute detail and claim that that technique can attract exactly what they visualise.

Some spiritual people may have delegated their path or purpose to their Higher Self, or Oversoul, so any necessary work would involve either dialoguing with the client's Higher Self using meditative or hypnotic coaching techniques, or posing questions that the client can take to the higher part of his or her being in the client's own time. This technique might suit clients who believe in transcending their egos and not feeding their egos with ambition. A client who consults a spiritual master, pastor or guru before making any major life decision can work on what choice to present to his or her spiritual advisor. A coaching question that could be used here is, "If your spiritual advisor were here now, what do you think he/she would say?"

Some people have a style of going away from things instead of towards them, so when you ask what they want, they tell you what they don't want. "I don't want to be poor."  "I don't want to stay in this lousy job for the rest of my life."  "I don't want to be alone".  For the moment, you can forget about goals and turn to options. "So you don't want to be poor - would you like to talk about what options you have for increasing your income?"

Confusion or a totally new start can lead to a client presenting as aimless and goal-free.  A person in mid-life crisis, an empty nester, or a person well again after a very long illness may need to work on values and purpose - and various other issues too - before generating any specific realistic goals.

A.H. Almaas makes a useful distinction between a "primary" goal (such as a life purpose) and a "momentary" goal such as meeting a friend or picking the kids up from school. Whatever our philosophy, we need to agree to do whatever we must do to make everyday life work, and to do our jobs. As a coaching technique, you might help the client to discover over what timescale goals are realistic and achievable, and what happens to them over a longer timescale - are they fuzzy? Are they more dependent on other people or on a higher power?

In conclusion, goals are not everything in coaching and goals are not everything to every client. You can work towards various kinds of outcome and change without using the concept of goals. Having these choices can make you a more flexible coach, and open your services to clients who have different needs and who think in very different ways.