2024 is looming - how are you feeling about it?
Goal setting is very personal
The unavoidable is happening, people are saying how many weeks it is until Christmas, and already talking about goals and plans for 2024. Heck, I’m among them from time to time (discussing a trip to Blenheim with my mum on the phone, and how it’s only 6 weeks until Christmas, for example. I’ve already done some Christmas shopping).
As a coach, goal setting is a large part of what I work on with clients. I do it for myself, too. Without goals, we’re rudderless. Having a goal means we have purpose, we have more focus, and we have something to work towards. It means we can look at a decision from a different perspective.
But is the goal of the end of a year, and the dawning of a new one the right way to go about making our plans, especially when it comes to work?
With every Christmas ad on the TV, my mind flies instantly to the end of the year, the idea of parties, celebrating and what might become of me in 2024.
Are you the same? Are you thinking ‘Next year will be the year that I…’
Stop.
The new year might be the amazing ‘fresh start’ and a new focus that many need and want to set goals by, but for others, it’s just not the right deadline. It can even be scary, a horrible line in the sand (or snow?) that we feel we have to race towards and meet with glee and purpose.
Why does a moment in the calendar seem to bring such urgency to change everything, and make big plans and commitments?
A friend bought me a mug for my birthday back in September, and it says ‘You do you’. I have it on my desk, as I think it serves as a daily reminder that we’re all doing work at our own pace, in our own way.
One person’s ‘Yay, 2024!’ is another’s ‘Eff off, new year new me’.
It’s about finding what works for you. It might be that the big goal-setting mood-board making joys of a new year are already part of your to-do list. Or it might be that the goal is to make it to the end of the working day.
It could be a simple, one-line goal, eg: “I want a new job” or it could be the biggest thing you’ve ever dreamed, like setting up your own business. It could be to earn millions, to book ‘that’ holiday or get the promotion of dreams.
It might be you just want to feel happier at work, in the job you’re in.
One thing’s for sure, using 2024 as the only goal benchmark is a dangerous game to play. We set ourselves up for a fall, or a fail, when really we should perhaps just have the goal of having ‘just one more chocolate’, right?
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