It’s Not The Goals That Matter

2023 was INFINITELY better than 2022. Then again, the bar was pretty low as 2022 was my first year as a widow.

Things I accomplished in 2023:

💪 Became an Amazon Best Selling Author

💪 Became a National Giant Slalom Snowboarding Silver Medalist 🏂

💪 Graduated from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses 10KSB program

💪 Became an International Public Speaker

💪 Launched a corporate training program with AMAZING results

💪 Rethought Run Club (watch out 2024!)

💪 Created an entirely new coaching program for professionals wishing to overcome imposter syndrome and have Unchained Confidence

💪 Helped my son with college applications and actually enjoyed most of the process

💪 Traveled with my boys to Brazil for the holidays

Why am I sharing this with you?

It’s not to brag, because in truth I did less than what I expected of myself. I had other goals that I didn’t even come close to achieving and there’s a huge temptation to beat myself up about that.

But if I stop to look at what I did accomplish, I can think “Okay, there’s a lot of progress there.” We must celebrate the milestones on our way to whatever comes next. If all we do is focus on our goals and what we need to achieve without looking back and seeing all that we have done, we are setting ourselves up for failure. Because we will feel like failures as we never get “there.” As if “there” were a destination that we must reach by the deadlines we set for ourselves.

Hey, I’m guilty of this too. It would be easy to fall prey because I set ambitious goals for myself, and I often fall short.  These goals are important to set to give me direction and structure. To allow me to dream about the future I’d like to create and live in. Without them, I’d be the world’s number one procrastinator.

And here is an unpopular opinion:

Whether you reach your goals or not is not the point. You can do everything right. Be uber-disciplined, planned, and productive. Still, life can throw you a curveball you never saw coming. An illness, an earthquake, a recession, a war. Who knows?

My husband was diagnosed with cancer and died seven weeks later. SEVEN weeks. We did not see that coming and all the plans, processes and goals went out the window as I entered survival mode.

I’m still not back on track with the goals I had before his death in December 2021. But guess what? My goals changed. What was important back then, is not really important now. But WHO I have become in the process, now that is something I can look back at and be proud of.

Survivor, author, speaker, snowboard champ, single mom … that gives me strength. That builds my confidence. And my friends, the truth is that confidence is a habit: a mindset and attitude you practice on the daily.

Now it’s your turn … who did you become in 2023 that you are proud of?