Goal setting is pointless - you need to build good habits

There’s nothing like that period between Christmas and New Year to reflect on where you are and what you might want to achieve in the coming year. I don’t like setting goals. We are often forced to set goals at work but I always find this a little pointless.

Why do I find goals pointless?

The world changes. You will probably find that two or three weeks into the new year you will find that something has happened, or a new project has arisen or a new opportunity has presented itself. Very quickly, that goal you set for yourself just a few weeks ago is starting to appear outdated. Pointless even!

Coupled with that, your boss, who helped you set that goal based on what they would like you to achieve this year ALSO wants you to focus on something else.

So, from this position things can play out in two ways:

1. You stick to your original goals rigidly because that is how you think you are going to measured at the end of the year. Your boss becomes frustrated with your lack of flexibility and you become frustrated that you’ve turned down that amazing opportunity to grow in a different direction. A direction that you hadn’t even thought about a few weeks earlier.

2. You approach things in a much more flexible way. Ideally, you have a boss that appreciates that rigid goals are pointless too. You accept the opportunity to do something different. You grow and your employer gets more of what they want now rather than what they thought they wanted two weeks ago.

This can be quite a mindset shift for some people. I’ve worked with people who stick rigidly to their objectives set out in their review and point blank refuse to do anything that doesn’t contribute to meeting those objectives. It’s painful to watch and very frustrating for everyone around them.

So as we sit here in late December with 2023 nearly on us, how do we plan for what this new year might bring us? Looking back a year, could we have planned any better for 2022?

Many of the big events that happened in the world and our lives probably couldn’t have been predicted. So if things are so unpredictable, how can we give ourselves the tools to be better prepared?

This is one of the big reasons this blog exists. We need to keep learning throughout our lives because the world is changing so fast around us and in ways it is very difficult to predict. So one way we can prepare is to always be curious for new ideas or new sources of information.

Building a resource to help you

You may have noticed that I’ve made a few changes to the layout of the Never Stop Learning homepage. It’s now divided into four main buckets of content to help you navigate and is designed to be a resource for helping you maintain that growth mindset too in the coming year.

The new sections are set out as follows:

Inspiration

To help you, I have created a new section to this blog called Inspiration. This is a collection of YouTube videos that have inspired me, podcasts that I think you should have a listen to or books that I recommend. Over time, this will build into a resource you can dip in and out of to get inspiration for change in our lives.

The Growth Mindset

The second new section is called The Growth Mindset. I love exploring new ideas and bring my own experience into these posts so that I can share my own take. I usually go running with a podcast playing. The combination of running and being outside is an amazing recipe for thinking of new ideas for posts to share with you.

In this section, I’m planning a few collaboration pieces with people I know and people I have recently met on social media. That is probably one of the best things about starting this journey; in the past 6 months the people, and the communities, have been brilliant and so supportive.

Mental Health

One of the most popular topics so far since starting the blog has been those covering different aspects of mental health. This now also has its own section to assist you. This is an area close to my heart. Having and building resilience is going to be key once more to thriving in the coming year.

Behind the scenes

Many of the conversations I have with people on Substack have been around what I’m learning along the way about Substack itself, writing processes, social media marketing and building a community. I’ve called it “Behind the Scenes” because it doesn’t really fit with the content of the newsletter so much but many people are fascinated by the process and what they can learn from that too. Two posts I’m preparing for the coming weeks in this section:

• Spotting patterns in LinkedIn engagement and impressions

• The banal world of Twitter productivity tweets

So am I going to set some goals for the coming year?

NO!

I’m not going to sit here and set myself a goal of getting to 1,000 subscribers or whatever. You wouldn’t play a game of football and stare at the scoreboard for the whole game.

I have to say, it is a lovely feeling when you get that new subscriber alert email. That means someone has found my posts useful and is keen to join the community. That’s ultimately why I’m doing it - to give value back to people.

But…

It is the habits and processes that will get me there. So this year I will focus on:

• Staying curious and sharing what I’m learning once a week with you

• Engaging with people online and building relationships

• Following a bit more of a pathless path (thanks) and being ok with following what I feel is right at the time.

What I’d love you to do is hit share and pop this in front of your social media audience. This really supercharges engagement and allows more people to hear about the community building here. Thank you in advance.

This week’s recommendation

posts three times a week on subjects that compliment my newsletter brilliantly. has a great style of writing and covers topics around improving your life and simply making the most of the time we have. I recommend you take a look and hit subscribe.

So, as usual, thank you for reading. I wish you all the best for 2023 and I really believe that by hitting subscribe here we can plot a path through the coming year together through these posts.

Interested in collaborating?

Please feel free to reach out and connect on LinkedIn.

And finally, I promise to respond to all comments.