Last week I talked to you about my goal setting motto of “You can’t make a plan for where you want to be until you’ve managed to reflect on where you are now.”

I realised that for a lot of people that brought up negative emotions of everything they didn’t achieve in 2021. While we’re still in that goal setting time of year, I want to encourage you to reframe this concept a little bit into things that worked and things that didn’t work. 

The idea here is to get you to pay attention to the things in your life that are bringing you joy, and equally the things that are draining you. And then you can bring these insights with you into 2022!

Here’s some questions to consider: 

• What tasks or activities in my week make me feel most alive? 

• What are the Top 3 things that are working in my life right now? 

• What am I dragging my feet on or is making me dread getting out of bed in the morning? 

• What are the Top 3 things that simply aren’t working for me? 

When setting goals for yourself and your business, I don’t want you to think about the million things you could do or should do. Be more strategic than that: What are your priorities in life that you want to focus on? Where do you want to invest your time? These are the things that are going to light us up.

Goal setting is about helping you experience fulfilment in whatever way you aspire to. It’s a deeply personal exercise. It’s not just about “what will make me more money” or “what will move my business forward” (although that can certainly be a part of it!), it’s about the things that are going to help you feel good about the lifestyle that you’ve chosen. 

Because, let’s be honest, most of us chose to run our own businesses because of a particular lifestyle that we desired; more freedom, more flexibility, more choice, more control—and it is possible.

As you think about the coming year, how can you make choices and set goals that are going to step you closer to that life you really want for yourself and your family?