In a collaborative divorce, it is imperative that you and your spouse work together as much as possible to reach conclusions. If you fail to settle your marriage, you could face losing all the progress you made during the process and having to go to court to settle things.
Part of working together requires that you set goals and know what you want from the process before it even begins. Having clear goals can allow you to approach the situation with an open mind and the ability to commit to negotiating and talking things through. It also helps to curb the urge to let things get too emotional.
Desired outcome
Forbes suggests starting with developing one main goal that you both want to reach. For example, your goal may be to end the marriage without causing too much disruption to your children’s lives. If you both have this same goal, you will be more likely to work together and keep the lines of communication open, which can make it much easier to work through everything you need to do during the divorce.
Personal wants
You also need to set goals for yourself about what you want out of the process. Perhaps you do not care about the vacation home you own, but you do want to keep the family home. So, one of your goals would be to make sure you get the family home. You may also make it a goal to offer the vacation home to your spouse. Knowing what you want and do not want makes it easier to barter with your spouse and end up with a satisfying agreement.
