🛑 I’m sick of goal setting. 🌌

I'm exhausted, pressured, paralyzed, and limited by setting goals.

I am sick of goal setting. Maybe it is a post-pandemic (even though, to some extent, we will always be in it) thing, but I feel exhausted, pressured, paralyzed, and limited by setting goals.

I am exhausted by tirelessly working to create goals aligned with company goals that constantly shift in an unstable economy.

I pressure myself to achieve and produce the goals I set for myself because I value follow-through, success, and screaming, “I DID IT!” When I set a specific goal for myself, I’m essentially putting myself under a microscope. I’m saying, "I'm going to do this thing, and I'm going to do it by this specific deadline." That is a lot of pressure, and it leads to feelings of anxiety and stress. Suddenly, the thing that I was excited about doing became a source of stress and worry.

Then I paralyze myself. The road map toward the goal isn’t going the way I planned, and I feel I am failing, so I sit there frozen in my tracks, sometimes for months, sometimes a year, demotivated AF. Then I feel disheartened for feeling demotivated AF. Suddenly, I’m not just disappointed that I didn't achieve what I set out to do – I’m also questioning my own abilities and wondering if I’m cut out for this. This leads to a cycle of self-doubt and negativity that can be hard to break out of.

But I also limit myself. If goals are supposed to be SMART, and I’m supposed to achieve them, then I inherently don’t create a larger-than-life goal. This means I barely dream, think beyond what is realistic, and believe in myself whether I give off that energy knowingly or not!

I know you feel this way, too. I know you are tired, exhausted, limited, and paralyzed by your own agenda.

So let’s throw in the towel and get back to dreaming.

Dream limitlessly. What are you enjoying when you see yourself in five, ten, or fifteen years? Who are you enjoying it with? What are you eating? Where are you living? What are your hobbies? How do you spend a Sunday? What makes you laugh? What makes you get up a dance? What brings you peace?

The answers to these questions are what I want you to focus on. Screw goals. They’re going to change anyways. Focus on the mood, energy, and environment you want to live in. This is what really matters.

Once you have a vision of the life you want to live and the dreams you hold, you can choose daily to live aligned and grow into those dreams. Do you dream of finding peace watching the sunrise over a lake every morning for fifteen years? Visit a local lake for a morning picnic a few times a year. Are you eating exotic fruits and vegetables in ten years of traveling the world? Put a new fruit or vegetable in your grocery cart once a month.

You grow into your dreams. The question is, are you living presently enough to see it … taste it … feel it … hear it .. and smell it?