Why Your New Year Goals Will Bore You -- And What To Do About It

Welcome to December, the last month of the year and the first week of "the reflection gauntlet," the four weeks between Thanksgiving, when you rest in appreciation for all that's satisfying in your life and New Year, when you decide good enough is not enough and decide to improve on it all 😂

I kid, of course, but it's a natural time to think about the year that's past and get excited about what's to come. Or at least try to...

When your goals don't hit right

This Sunday, after procrastur-cising (that's when you go running AND to yoga to put off working on a weekend) I sat down after lunch to plot and plan my 2021. Because I goal set and plan for a living, it didn't take me long to devise sharp, defined goals and action steps to targets like:

Doubling revenue
Scaling offerings at a more accessible price point to groups
Growing team by 60%

But by dinner, when on a masked walk with an old friend and her new puppy and found myself saying "I've got all these goals for 2021 and I'm just not excited about any of them."

And that is a very good thing.

A new way to goal set

Though I help womxn connect to their purpose and to clearly define their personal impact on their industry, society and culture... I have not yet made it a practice to set goals around it.

Because that's not how we're trained. As school kids, the goal is more often "get a good grade," than "apply what you learned to improve someone else's life." "Score the goal," not "grow your team building skills". "Get the lead in the play," instead of "build empathy by inhabiting a character with a life different than your own."

At a certain point, if you are lucky, privileged & hard working enough to arrived in rooms you've dreamt of entering, you've also likely realized there was more to it than just hitting that goal -- there was an opportunity, a responsibility to do something meaningful with it, then allow me to invite you to reorient your goals for 2021.

As you reflect on what you've achieved this year, and plan for what's to come, consider setting goals on your IMPACT.

As my coach, Trudi LeBron puts it in her Medium article:

"Your impact can be measured by the actual effect you have in someone’s life, the different degrees of growth people experience, the impact you have on creating equity for people with marginalized identities, the impact you have on your team, your colleagues, and the world around you. The way you communicate your values and how that influences others to take a stand in their professional and personal lives."

I'm not saying you shouldn't have a target salary you're working toward. I'm wondering if it's worth taking it a step further and set an impact goal on that money will provide for others.

Or if you're out for the promotion - yes. Go for it. But what's your influence's direct impact on your organization, product, customer, etc? How do their lives get better thanks to you?

Go goal, set, and match that to your values.