Goal Setting Is Hard

What I love about goal setting is all the ideas, planning, and dreaming that occurs. But guess what? Goal setting is hard! Why? Because of the plethora of rabbit trails you can do down while exploring goals. This is often where I get stuck and feel like Alice in Wonderland. I get an idea, I decided to research it more, and then the trail breaks off, I take a right turn, I go under a tunnel, and come out on the other side, and I have no idea how I got there, and I am usually so far off course that I don’t know how to get back to start.

Getting Off Track With Goal Setting

This happens to me all the time. In fact, I have spent most of May 2022 in a rabbit trail. You see, I am working on a long term goal, writing a cookbook. But what happened to me (and has happened many times) is that I decided that I need to figure out how to write recipes, and then I need to build an audience, and create a website for food blogging, and a tik tok account, and then I need to take a writing class, and then, and then, and THEN.

And then, my head hurts. I got so far off track that I didn’t know which way to turn. I didn’t know what goal to work on, and I had made zero traction on anything because I spent a month learning about things that I don’t really want to pursue. I had lost sight of my actual goal which is to create a cookbook about me, and my memories with special people in my life, and stories of cooking with my daughter. I want to make a keepsake cookbook. I will not ever be a big time cookbook author, and that really isn’t my goal. My goal is to spend intentional time in the kitchen with people I love. I want to hand my daughter a book that reflects that.

Goal Setting Is Hard And Not Linear

Thankfully I got back to ground level with the help of 3 important players in my life. My husband, and my 2 best friends. And its funny, both besties spoke into completely different areas of my heart, and with both of their advice, I was able to scrap all my ideas, and make another new goal list.

You see, goal and growth journeys are not linear. I think this time, I maybe wanted to procrastinate on making actual progress, and I do get caught up in needing things to be perfectly lined up, that I will lose sight of the end goal. That is the hard part about goal setting for me, I get lost in the ‘gathering information’ stage. I did it with my food blogging, and I about did it again with my cookbook.

How Do You Get Back On Track With Goal Setting?

• Talk with trusted and supportive people in your life.
• Pay attention to your body and how it reacts to ideas.
• Get rid of what doesn’t work.
• Know your why.
• Reflect and regroup.

These are little things I actually did to help bring my focus back to my goals. I talked to my people that will give me that tough love that I need. When talking about the work that it would take to gather an audience for a cookbook, I paid attention to the feelings I felt when thinking about it. I was filled with dread. That made my decision right there. My goal isn’t to be Natasha’s Kitchen. (My daughter and I love to watch her!) I would love that, but that isn’t really what I want. What I really want is to pursue Hey Goal Sister. This excites me, and I have 2 big goals that I want to bring to this platform one day.

Regarding my cookbook, I really want to hand my daughter a book of stories. My stories, a book of my heart. That isn’t going to sell 1 gajillion copies because people don’t even like to read food blogs anymore. It’s hard to say that out loud, but that is what is true.

So where do I go from here?

Back to what matters. Back to typing up stories and memories of moments that have made an impact of my heart. It will be very low key, and really that is me. Causal and Sentimental. That’s my cookbook goal now.

I would absolutely love it if you left me a comment if any of this resonates with you.

Sending love and light.

You may also enjoy Making a 30 Day Goal or Habits and Self Care.