You've Been Setting Goals Wrong This Whole Time

Dissecting why goals are not the answer to reaching your full potential and what to do instead...

Me reaching for the stars with my new towel

Happy New Year!

It’s 2025. Wow. I feel like that is the sort of year that 80’s movies would refer to when they are talking about the way out flying car type future!

I LOVE NYE - I don’t go out or anything and the last 5 years I haven’t even made it to midnight, I just love starting fresh and setting new intentions. The crispiness of new years day is like a clean house untouched by my 4 year old and I just revel in that perfection of a whole year still waiting, unscathed and ready for me to make my mark on it.

Obviously the year gets messy and nothing stays perfectly in place but that is life right?

So how can we set goals that actually align with us and not just churn out a list of things we feel we should be trying to achieve?

The trick is to not really place much emphasis on the actual goal itself and more so on the why behind it. Come with me on this journey even if you think goal setting is bullshit and let’s smash out 2025 and ring in the new year with some positive, we-can- -do-it energy, even if you are hungover as hell.

How you might be feeling right now.

Who Do You Want To Be & Why?

Starting off with a light question here…

Don’t let this send you into an existential crisis but your purpose is kind of the only thing you have to live for.

We all set goals in the hope of achieving them but they are pretty hollow words written on a piece of paper or spoken to when chatting new year new me with friends.

You have to look at things like behaviour and attitude and how that will effect change and lead to achieving your goals.

If you want to start showing up online in 2025 ask yourself why that is?

Where will it get you? What purpose does it serve?

The better way of going about setting “goals” is to look at what you want and who you want to be.

So finish this sentence: In 2025 I want to be….

Here is me finished sentence.

In 2025 I want to be finically stable, creatively fulfilled and the best mum and partner I can be for my boys.

So I now have a really solid one sentence “goal” to be my guiding star throughout the year.

Okay let’s break that down into the more traditional goals to see what we get.

• There is a HUGE crossover between the creative and finical aspects of my life so I need to make sure they are aligned and not in conflict as much as possible.

• I also however, need to gain finical stability in order to provide the life our family deserves so that makes it doubly important to really ensure I have a plan towards a creative career that will serve that higher need and purpose.

• I also want to ensure that I can be present for my small child as much as possible whilst being creative fulfilled and finically stable (no pressure) so that tells me i need to be intentional with my time and what/who I say yes to in 2025. Remembering I’m here for them and my big overall purpose first and foremost.

So this exercise in self discovery has led to a whole lot more clarity around what i should be doing and aiming towards next year then a list that reads

• Loose 5 pounds

• Be more patient

• Walk 10k steps a day

• Eat more vegetables

• Finish 10 books

You know what I mean?

It’s kind of like go deep or go home, you know?

If you aren’t gonna sit and do this for yourself in order to show up then how can you expect others to take you seriously and show up for you?

So goals like “start selling prints next year” might translate to:

Create more focused work that is cohesive and find an audience for it in order to fuel my creative spirit, challenge me and learn new skills that surround creating, making and selling printed art.

The goal is now not to simply sell a print, it’s become about learning new skills, getting in touch with your creativity on a more regular basis and challenging you to put yourself and your work out there. Isn’t that so much more impactful and exciting?

The bonus here would be that you sold a print and made some money to put towards furthering your work - how cool! The pressure is off from just selling your work this way too.

Setting goals in this more in depth fashion allows you to connect a lot more with the purpose behind them, leaving room to enjoy the process and avoid just focusing on the result and then feeling it’s too far away and ultimately abandoning your goals like you usually might do.

Cheers to the year ahead and all the exciting things we will achieve and learn!

Need some help in 2025?

Something I’ve learned recently is you can’t do it all alone. I’m lucky to have such a stellar right hand man to bounce ideas off and fill my knowledge gaps but I’m aware this isn’t something everyone has.

My passion and area of expertise has defiantly become refining an online presence and authentically showing up. If you dream of building an audience around your photography or art then why not start with my 52 Content Ideas Guide to give you an idea a week to post about online and keep you consistent this year!

Working on a project or building a portfolio of work? Let me help you uncover the blind spots and bring it all together with my photography review service. This recent testimonial below from Liam Darby tells you everything you need to know about the game changing results of booking in with me :)

What a review from Lucy! I expected an in-depth review from her, but not THIS in-depth, two whole emails with excellent and thought provoking critiques and advice. I've had my portfolio reviewed before, both during my time in college and after, but this review was by far the best one I've had bar none. She provides precise details about what strengths and areas to improve, all while providing practical advice that doesn't seem unattainable. I appreciate the meticulous attention she gave to every photo I sent her as well as the ones on my portfolio. Anyone on the fence about buying: it is well worth your time and money. Thank you Lucy!

I can’t wait to see what you all get up to this year and to continue to show up and offer my thoughts and ideas and hopefully inspire you all to keep putting yourselves out there too!

Thanks for reading and i’ll see you in the next letter :)

Love Lucy xx