I stopped setting goals in 2023...

There are an influx of people who every single year, religiously, set goals for themselves and more times than not, they do not complete them. Think about how many times you wanted to eat better, exercise more, or call your mom more often, and yet, without a system, those goals crumbled before January even ended.

That was me for a very long time.

Around 2011, I was asked by a news crew outside my work building if I was setting goals that year. My answer: absolutely not. I knew then that the goals that I would set were too overarching to be considered SMART, so I decided not to do it at all.

In 2020, the "Plan-demic" hit and I saw so many people achieve things they never imagined. Being stuck in the house really had us thinking about what we wanted to do with our time, what we could learn, and how we could better ourselves. Me? I finished my first book and published it during the Plan-demic... but what was next for me? What did I want to accomplish?

2023 was the year I decided no more goals!! That year I decided to do a Focus Word. A focus word is a word that encompasses your goals for the year so that you always have a way to track how you show up in your life. This is used in place of a New Years’ Resolution or a list of goals for the year. My word for 2023: Consistency.

In 2023, I showed up consistently in my journey and made changes in my life that I would have never expected. I decided that lack of action was the only thing stopping me from moving forward, so I took intentional action. For the first time, I didn't worry about perfection and I didn't worry about how it made me look. I decided that I wanted better, so I did better.

Remember that your path is defined by you. You get to choose how you live your life. You get to choose the people you hang out with. You get to choose what job you do. You get to choose. That is the most valuable lesson I learned through this process. Choice.

Without it, you have nothing.

What action will you take today?

Original Painting by Te' Youngblood: "There is no Perfection, only Action"