I stopped setting income goals for my business.
Let's talk about why.
Now, if you know me (or if you've been on this email list for a while), you might think of me as a goal girly.
And woof, I am. I love a goal. I love a personal development moment. I spent basically the entirety of my 20's devouring books on habits and goals and morning routines and journalling and all that stuff.
(In fact, if it's 7am in New York City, you can almost always guarantee that I am curled up in the corner of some coffee shop with my journal and my cold brew and whatever nonfiction book is poppin' at the time.)
I've done it all, and I love it all—
The habit trackers.
The bullet journals.
The gratitude lists.
But after 10 years, it finally clicked.
Setting goals based on outcomes that you don't have full control over is setting yourself up for failure.
(This must be why many people hate New Years resolutions.)
Because here's the thing: we don't actually have full control over how much money our businesses make in any given year.
No matter what we do, we can't 100% guarantee that someone is going to sign the contract, or pay the deposit, or sign up for the course, or whatever else.
That's in their hands.
And no matter how consistent your leads, no matter how dialed in your messaging, no matter how perfectly you run your business, you can't make someone buy something from you.
Here are some things we DO have full control over, though:
- How excited and connected we feel to our brand, messaging, copy, materials, website, etc.
- How frequently we show up on social media, and in what capacity.
- Who we hire, who we fire, and what clients we say yes to in the first place.
- Cultivating more skills, more knowledge, & more expertise in the areas of our business we aren't so confident in.
- Who we surround ourselves with, who we follow, and how we show up for our own community.
- …. and more that I'm sure I'm forgetting, but you get the point.
So, as we slither on into Q4 and start to take stock of this year, ask yourself—which of these goals did I actually have control over?
And maybe turn those income “goals” into manifestations instead :)
