Shivani Pau - Setting Goals for Success: Insights from My Performance Planner Founder

What was the first topic you spoke about in your podcast?

It uncovered different rituals within the inner culture, so it was with me, and Maria Hvorostovsky. In her book Anatomy of a Leader. she talks a lot about the importance of having rituals. That was the first one we opened with. 

Before she started this podcast, she was a management consultant for seven years. She worked in the digital space to see how people could maximize their proactivity. 

Was there a moment in her life when she thought okay, now I want to switch things up? 

Last year, Shivani had been in my podcasts for two years. She wasn’t going anywhere. She remembers thinking she would try one more time and she was going to get a studio. That was because she believed she had powerful conversations, but something didn’t resonate with her audience. She thought it had to do with the fact that she did it online and not seeing people interact. So she started taking podcasts in the studio. It was 4 or 5 episodes, and then she flew to AL to meet Steven Bartlett. When she came back, she continued to be consistent. 3 or 4 months later, when her video went viral, she grew her platform overnight. She rose from 2 thousand followers to 10 thousand followers in 2 years. Then from 10 thousand to 60 thousand in 2 months. That was very quick. When that happened, she thought there had to be something. She still had her job. She quit it later and was willing to focus on this full-time. That was because she was already spending a lot of time on it, and what if she spent more? It could only get better. That is where she is right now. 

Last year and this year, Shivani set a vision board. She didn’t do it when she first started the podcast. She didn’t know what was going to happen. She just did it for fun. This year she does focus on the manifestation. What you think is what you become. She truly believes that. If you tell yourself negative things, you will believe them. You have to focus on the positive things. 

Shivani writes down three things she is grateful for daily and three affirmations. In the evening, she writes about working, self-love, and what she is proud of. 

Let’s say you need to read a book by yourself. Then you need to think about why you need to read that book. Is it because it makes you feel better, or is it because you must do it because people say it is good to read? She is saying that you have to do things that are really helping you and not because other people say it is good for you or makes you feel better. If you want it, you can force yourself to grow on it. You can see the small steps that you are taking and be proud of that yourself. That is the goal that you work for, and that is what you can be proud of. 

So if you have a goal but don’t know where to start, just make the goals smaller and start with small changes in your daily life. 

Everybody has a destination in their mind for something that they want to achieve. It could be that two people have the same goal but how we get there could be very different. That is completely fine. She thinks it is important to change things from ‘what I have to’, to ‘what I could do’. That way, you put less pressure on yourself and are quickly willing to work toward your goal. The one does it quicker than the other, it doesn't matter as long as you get there. That is the most important of your goals. As long as you are moving in the right direction, it is better than in the wrong one. 

Suppose you are in a down phase of his life. What would be the first step of seeing a little bit of light? 

She is not an expert at this part, but she has some experience feeling low in life. What she looks on youtube. She types in the things she is struggling with. Many videos will pop up, and she loves listening to people talk about how they got out of how they changed that. It makes her feel less alone. If you need to, she would say speak to a therapist but not everybody has that need. 

You always feel less alone if someone else is going through the same thing as you. That is what makes you feel better.

Shivani recently listened to Mel Robbins. About anxiety. She first gave some breathing exercises that really helped. She said feel where you are feeling the pain. She feels it in her stomach. At that point it is just in her stomach and then it is no longer in her whole body anymore. With those breathing exercises, you learn that it is normal to feel like this sometimes and you learn that it is not totally you but just that one feeling in that one part of your body. 

In the habit tracker, we are setting goals. Shivani reached my goal by walking and listening to a podcast. That is something she worked for and now brings me so much joy. 

With the planner, you can reach your goals, track them, and put them to separate mini-goals. You can find out why you want to do them and how. 

It works for so many things, from reading daily to tracking your finances. 

Shivani finds it hard to focus on what she eats. She loves eating healthy and is also a vegetarian, but eating fake meat makes it hard to avoid processed food. She also loves to snack, so she struggles with it. Luckily for her, she can eat a lot and not become fat from it. 

Shivani used to go to the gym 5 or 6 times a week last year. She went for 5 or 6 months when she didn’t go but lost so much weight. She became really weak. One of them is to go to the gym again. But then three times a week. Start a little easy. 

You can find Shivani here:

• Instagram
• Youtube
• Tiktok
• www.myperformaceplanner.com