Jade Boyd: So this episode won’t come as a surprise to you if you’ve been following along because I originally talked about how I’m not setting goals in 2025 a few episodes back in the part two episode of how I’m planning for a new year in business. And if you haven’t listened to that episode, there are a few points that I made in that episode that I’m not going to cover again in this one.

So scroll back a few episodes to the. The episode of how I’m planning for a new year in business and I believe it was in part two It’s a short 15 minute episode So if you want to hear more before diving into this one, I would definitely go back and listen to that one But in this episode i’m going to give a few more reasons and explain a little bit more about what I mean by not setting business goals in 2025, and how that doesn’t mean that I’m just aimlessly doing whatever I want.

There’s still a lot of intention behind how I’m running my, my business, but that just doesn’t include big business goals for this season.

And as I’ve sat down to kind of outline. outline this episode and the points that I wanted to cover. I just kept coming up with more and more reasons and like discovering more motivations behind why I’m not setting business goals for this year. And it’s not that I’m against setting business goals. In fact, I think that they are very valuable tools for most business owners in most seasons of life and business.

But like I said, that’s just not the season that I’m in right now.

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Jade Boyd: Okay, so diving right in. Why I’m not setting goals for my business in 2025. First of all, when I’m thinking about the future of my business, there are still a lot of things that I want to do that are goals for the future, but just not for this year. And there aren’t any short term goals that I’m really motivated by in terms of the sacrifice that it would take in this season.

And you may have heard it said before, that Any goal requires sacrifice, and that’s totally true. Every goal requires you to sacrifice something, whether time, money, energy, whatever. whatever that might be in order to achieve it. And whatever goal that I’ve thought about that I could tackle in 2025, it just hasn’t seemed worth the sacrifice in terms of time really that it’s going to take in this season of my life with a little one at home who’s not going to go to daycare until she’s one in June.

So I don’t have a lot of time to give and the time that I have, my goals are elsewhere, not necessarily primarily focused on my business.

I’ve also just never really been motivated by money or like how big can I grow this type of motivation as a business owner, which I know can be an easy trap for a lot of business owners to fall into, whether you need the money or not. I have just, you know, I’ve just never been really motivated by that.

And I think I’ve reached a point in my business where I’m pretty comfortable. Things are a little bit more predictable financially, and I just don’t have a lot of motivation to grow my revenue or even grow my paycheck really. , again, in this season, knowing what it takes to move my business in that direction, it takes extra time and effort.

Not necessarily meaning that I have to work harder all of the time in order to make more money But it does require some work up front in order to move things in a different direction And I think a lot of business owners can relate to this whether you need the money or not I talked to so many different service providers who just genuinely love what they do and like yes May need to make money and that’s important to them But it’s not necessarily something that they’re like craving or motivated by or super fulfilled by.

If they’re to make, you know, an extra 10, 000 next year, it probably wouldn’t make a big difference in their happiness. And I think that’s, that’s where I’m at right now in terms of where my business is at. Like I said, I’m kind of comfortable where things are at and looking at what it would take to change things.

I’m just not willing in this season to put a lot of extra time. And I’m just being honest with myself that it’s not what I want. And Yes, there’s a part of me that is tempted to just be like,

to just conform into. the culture of wanting to grow your business and, you know, leaning into the hype and the excitement and fun, honestly, the fun that that can be to grow your business and the rewarding feeling that it can feel to challenge yourself and to reach new milestones in business. I’m not downplaying any of those things, but I’m just really content and happy with where my life and my business is at this point in time.

And I’m also just letting go of the fear that Slowing down for a season would mean that my business is ending or diminishing. I’ve just let go of that fear and I don’t think that’s true. I think that there are seasons and years even that you can pull back, that you can slow down, and you can get back to business and pursue your goals in the season that feels right for you.

I also think that for myself, when I focus on finances alone, it actually makes me play small as a business owner. And My goals for my business. Um, I have some embarrassingly big goals for my business, but none of them have anything to do with money. And I do think when I primarily focus on financial goals, it makes me think about incremental improvement and not necessarily 10 X growth, which requires me to do something completely different.

And those things that are on my goals list are exciting and motivating projects to me. But they have nothing to do with finances, and sometimes I think those are the best goals to have. Now, don’t hear me say that knowing your numbers or focusing on your finances is not necessary as a business owner, because it’s not like I am just sweeping my finances under the rug.

Every single business owner, whether you have huge financial goals or are just maintaining in your business, has to be aware of what your monthly income is. numbers are, what your quarterly numbers are, and definitely what your annual numbers are to make sure that you’re running your business as a business, knowing what your top line revenue is, what your marketing, what your expenses are each month, and how much you’re paying yourself each month.

All of those things are super, super important. And I’m definitely doing that. I’m projecting for what I plan to do. next year. I have plans in place for what I’m selling and how my business is going to be profitable and what offers I’m focused on. So don’t hear me say that I’m not doing any of those things.

I just don’t have grand goals to like 10x any certain offer or to launch this brand new program or to write a book or to launch a planner. Those are things that are just on the back burner for now.

One other thing that I’ve noticed about myself recently is that I have become very skeptical Maybe even one of those people who kind of rolls their eyes when I see people um with all of the like goal Excitement and like goal hype and like go get her energy. I just maybe it’s just again the season that i’m in But it kind of makes me roll my eyes.

Maybe i’m becoming one of those people who’s like anti goals a little bit of just like oh, yeah good for you, but like not for me at least at least right now, um, and maybe this is just like a swing of a pendulum that’s going to come back around and it’s something that comes and goes, but right now I’m just feeling kind of like eye rolly about huge goals of like, I’m just really enjoying my life where I’m at and why can’t my goal just be to, you know, enjoy today because I can focus on enjoying where I’m at someday or I can enjoy where I’m at right now.

So, enjoying where I’m at right now sounds a lot easier and more fun. So, uh, So that’s just kind of the sentimentality that I’ve had around goals recently. And like I said, I’m, I’m really not anti goals. I do think that they have their time and place and they can be really great tools. So don’t me here, don’t hear me say that you shouldn’t set goals, but this is just how I’m feeling in the moment.

Also I’ve realized that any milestones that I’ve hit. have never felt super rewarding for very long. And it makes me think of Rory Vaden. Um,

one of his famous quotes is that success is not owned, it’s rented and the rent is due every day. And I think that’s so true of any milestone that you hit in business. It’s not that you would reach that thing once and be like, yeah, now I’m a success. Success is really Um, a feeling, and it’s a feeling that comes with how you spend every day of your life.

And so for me, it’s been a growth journey separating goals and achievement from feelings of success and letting that live in the everyday and how I’m , stewarding my time and resources and relationships and my home. And in the past, I’ve always been like, check, check, check on to the next thing. And like I said, this has been a growing journey and I have a long way to go, but I’m just feeling really content with where I’m at right now.

Another thing that’s come up. Um. Um, relatively recently, as I’ve been processing, like, why am I feeling differently than I have in literally every other year of my life about goals? Um, side note, a little tangent here. I think I’ve told this story on the podcast before, but the first year that Caleb and I were married, we got married in November and I was so excited to be able to set goals like life goals with a partner for the first time ever.

I was stoked. Like, I was going into December thinking, like, this is going to be so much fun. We’re going to have such great conversations and dreaming about our future together. And Caleb’s personality is much more process oriented than goal oriented. And he’s, just a naturally content person. His number one strength is adaptable.

So it makes sense. He’s like adaptable to any situation and generally a very happy person. And so he had a hard time coming up with any like big goals. Like there’s lots of things that he would like to do, but nothing that he was willing to write down on paper and say like, yes, let’s do this this year, you know, concretely commit to that.

And the year after we got married was 2020. So. It wouldn’t have worked out anyway. I’m pretty sure if we would have set huge goals, but I remember being so disappointed because I had very different expectations for how that conversation was going to go.

And so, as I’ve been reflecting on like, okay, why am I just not excited about this season, which in the past I’ve looked forward to a lot, why am I feeling so differently? And as I’ve been processing this, something that came up for me, um, is just reflecting on the inherent selfishness that goal setting is, like in itself, typically.

When we’re thinking about goals, what we’re thinking about is, what do I want? It’s very self centered. It’s very, um, like me focused. It’s very control oriented. Like how do I want to shape my future and my destiny? And I’ve just reflected on kind of like the heart of goal setting and what, what do I want my life to look like?

And like, what do I believe as a goal? a believer? And what does God want from my life? And how much control do I actually have to exert over how the next year of my life goes?

And so I do think that my mentality around goals has also shifted from a, what do I want mentality? Like, what do I want to achieve? What do I want my life to look like? What do, what type of person do I want to be? And it’s more shifted towards like, how do I best steward? different areas of my life. How do I best steward my personal health?

How do I steward my business? How do I steward my relationships well? And how do I contribute? Like how it’s better to give than to receive, right? And I’ve experienced that in my own life. So how can I make my highest contribution? Because that in itself is very fulfilling. And how does that play out in my relationships, in the way that I spend my time, in the way that we spend our money, in the way that I run my business?

And so this has been a more recent shift in my perspective, but changing from the what do I want mentality that goal setting naturally brings to like, what does God want of my life? And how can I best utilize all of the privilege and privilege? Blessings and resources that I’ve been given, that’s been actually a very freeing shift and part of what’s made me a lot more content with where I’m at.

Another just, you know, footnote on this one is that nothing lasts forever, and I think most of the goals That I have tended to set for myself or for my business have been very temporarily like very fleeting goals like I said that you could achieve and just move past very quickly and To me looking at things with a more longer term perspective there weren’t any goals that I felt so much pressure and like FOMO, if I don’t achieve this this year, then I’m never going to have time to do it.

And also, there are very few things that matter in the long term, like what’s going to matter when you’re 80? This is a question that I think about again and again, when I’m thinking about my business or the way that I’m spending my time, because so often we live with like our plans two inches from our face thinking.

That, that is all that there is, right? But there’s so much past that, and nothing lasts forever, and there are very few things worth investing our limited time, highly limited time, even though women especially like to think that we have an infinite amount of time. We can just say yes, yes, yes, and somehow time magically appears, but that’s not the case.

And there’s very few things worth investing in because very few things matter over the long term. Very few things will matter when you’re 80. And again, I’ve just been thinking about life and business and everything in my plate with that perspective that nothing lasts forever. So what are the few things that are going to matter most?

One last thing that I’ve been thinking about as I’ve been kind of in this process of deciding and reflecting on the process of goal setting and what my next year is going to look like. I have really just leaned into living into my season and not only the season of being in a parent of a baby,

but also slowing down enough to enjoy each season annually, like enjoying winter and wintering well, enjoying spring and summer and fall. And as I was looking towards my plans for next year, The seasons are so short, like the actual natural outdoor seasons that we get to enjoy, and there’s so many things that I want to do with my daughter for the first time because she’s finally going to be old enough to like toddle around and she’s learning so quickly and There’s just so little time.

A year used to seem like forever and now it’s just like you snap your fingers and it’s gone. Like how many times have you started a meeting with like, Oh my gosh, it’s already December. It’s already January. How did that happen? Or I already have a preschooler and they’re off to school. Like the seasons are so, so short.

And so. Like I said, there are definitely seasons of my life that I know are going to be for big ambitious goals and maybe even a little hustle, I’m going to be honest, but that’s just not the season I’m in right now. And also in my business, I am pulling back on so many things that I’ve mentioned this before that I’m probably doing half the amount of work that I did pre baby.

And I kind of expected that to happen. Um, but like the results and financially, I’m actually doing better than I was before. having a baby. And so it’s just kind of changed my perspective on how much effort I need to put into my business in the best way possible. And I’m cutting back even more on how much I’m working.

I’m cutting back on my expenses, even cutting back on some of the offers that I’m offering in terms of services next year. I’m just being really realistic with myself about how much time I’m willing to dedicate to my business and what I can actually do. And it really only comes down to a few core activities like running this podcast and growing my email list, serving my email list, um, and selling offers that I already have created.

And so there’s a lot of room for growth with only those core areas or the few core areas that I’m gonna be focusing on next year. And I know that growth happens through incremental improvement, so. What am I doing instead of setting goals next year? I really am just solely focused on my systems and I already have really good systems set up in my business.

But like I said, there’s always room for improvement. And so I’m focusing on improving my systems on streamlining them on. Helping build success into my systems, helping myself get better results. Like for example, for the podcast, I have a really great workflow for the podcast, but every single month I feel like I’m learning more about podcasting and it’s continually changing.

And some of those changes need to be built into my workflows because they haven’t already. Um, so small changes like that.

This year I have learned so much from you all especially looking back on the past year of content and what performed best and Recapping my last launch of the quarterly reset. I got so much feedback from asking you all why you didn’t join Asking my email list I guess why you didn’t join that there was so many good takeaways that I learned from that not only in how my offer is structured and who is in my audience and what their goals are, but also about my messaging and how some things are being misinterpreted.

And so I think that there are ways for me to tweak what I’m already doing to get better results without adding anything new to my plate. And that, that all comes down to systems. And I, I truly believe that when you have the right systems in place, especially in your business, and when you’re leaning into things that you’re already good at, things that you like doing, your strengths, and when you’re building a business that you’re really passionate about, that you enjoy, that the money, the success, the milestones, the achievements, those things will naturally continue if you’re able to show up consistently.

And so that’s my goal, quote unquote goal for 2025 is. to keep doing what I’m doing, focus on incremental improvement and focus on really shoring up my system so that when I am able to come back to business full steam and when it feels like I’m in a different season where I’m ready to do that, that I have a super solid foundation and engaged and highly served, um, warmed up audience,

And a whole lot of experience and have learned a whole lot of lessons through showing up consistently along the way. So in general, that’s my plan for 2025 to keep on keeping on, but focusing on incremental improvement and noticing those areas where it’s like, Hey, this isn’t working great, or this is making it hard for me to show up consistently, or If we made this little tweak, I bet that conversion rates would increase whatever those tiny changes are.

Those are the things that I’m going to be focused on in 2025 and learning and growing my audience and serving you all as best as I can along the way. So if there are any podcast topics that you all would like to hear about in 2025, I really would love to hear from you. There’s a form that I’ll link in the show notes.

that gives you the opportunity to say hi and tell me where you’re coming from and some topics that you’ve been struggling with or even a specific coaching question you have about your individual business. We might put together some coaching episodes in 2025 and I would love to hear what topics you all would like to learn more about.

I already have a laundry list of ideas and all of Q1 is already planned. Actually, I just started booking a guest speaker. For Q2. So the content machine is rolling on and I would love to know what you all want to learn about in 2025 so I can make these episodes as helpful as possible for you.

So if you enjoyed this episode, thank you so much for tuning in. And if this resonated with you, I hope that this helped you feel seen if you’re also in a season where you’re not. feeling like a hashtag girl boss or trying to make everything bigger and better. I hope this, that this made you feel like you’re not alone because you definitely are not.

This is something I hear from so many business owners every single week. And I think it’s something that we need to talk more about because it’s okay to live into your season and do things a little bit differently. You have time and you can always come back and hit those big goals when you feel ready.

So if this episode resonated with you, I hope you’ll share it. With somebody who you think needs to hear it this week or share it on your Instagram stories and tag me @jadeboyd.co. It absolutely helps more business owners find this podcast and tune into episodes like this, and I so, so appreciate it.

Anytime that somebody shares one of my episodes and tags me on Instagram, it makes my day every single time. So thanks for sharing the content, and I will see you next week.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the business edit podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode, I’d be so grateful if you take a screenshot and share it on Instagram, tagging me @jadeboyd.co. I’m on a mission to empower a new generation of women to become the type of Of wives, moms, and business owners that they’ve always wanted to be because empowered women change their families and communities for the better, and this is how we’ll change the world.

Sharing your takeaways from this episode on Instagram will help more women in business discover helpful episodes and level up in life and business each week. Don’t forget to check out the show notes for the tools and resources mentioned in today’s episode because good ideas don’t grow businesses.

Action does. I’ll see you next time on The Business Edit podcast.