Dear Jacky,
Do you smell that? The smell of a fresh New Year? It’s met with expectations and hope and optimism and probably some unattainable goal setting. I like to think I’m a great goal setter. I’m part of that small percentage of people who usually complete their New Year’s Resolution. That makes me a freak doesn’t it? (insert laughing emoji) Or maybe it just means I’ve cracked the code of self-awareness and discipline for myself. Maybe it means I don’t set the bar too high for myself. I’ve found that I can get carried away trying to be everything to everyone and honestly I just need to be everything to myself. I need to pick 2, maybe 3 things if I’m feeling ambitious, to work on at a time.
This year my mind is brimming with work goals, workout goals, friendship goals, relationship goals, launching and growing business goals, losing weight goals, eating healthier goals, getting up earlier goals, dating goals, personal development goals, discipline goals, habit goals, decorating my house goals, savings goals, paying down debt goals, being a more conscious spender goals…I have all the goals. I eat goals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I love goals. I love inspiring people. I love watching people making once impossible things become possible but the thing I’ve learned is we can’t bite off more than we can chew. The way you make big goals happen is through breaking them down into bite size pieces. It is the achieving of small goals along the way that motivates and gives you confidence for the next one and the next one and the next one.
It is the achieving of small goals along the way that motivates and gives you confidence for the next one and the next one and the next one.
MOLLY INclÁN
You can get fancy. You can buy all the planners and worksheets and organizers and apps and templates and you’re never going to reach your goals. Goals are far more basic. They are something that’s existed since the advent of time so maybe we just need to be simple in our attempts to reach them. We need to set ourselves up for success. We need to elicit the help of a support system that involves people and tools for ourselves. We need to have discernment in choosing the right goals. We need to have vision. We need to have grace. We should never be so tied to our goals or the validation of reaching them that we start sacrificing our peace, our health, our relationships to reach them. Goals can turn unhealthy and we can start pushing ourselves to burnout, endanger our mental health and pick up unhealthy motivators if we aren’t careful.
We are going to dive into all the things. I want you to start thinking about what your vision is for 2023. I’m not into quick decisions. I’m not into deadlines. I’m into it takes as long as it takes. New Year’s Resolutions don’t start on January 1st for me. They start in late January most of the time and as I get those goals on autopilot or checked off my list I pick up new goals throughout the year. Take the time to settle into this year. Take time to slow down. Take time to think about what’s most important to you. When we meet again, we will start mapping it out. New Year’s Resolutions are overrated…goals are where it’s at. Some things will take much less time than a year and some will take years. The delineation of time is a human construct, it’s not real. I will not be bound by the days on the calendar or the beginning or end of a year. I will take one thing at a time, one by one, accompanied by realistic expectations and grace and I will continue to build the life I want day after day after day and I invite you to join me.
Cheers to a new year,
Molly