The Q&A—On Better Goal-Setting

With GLG’s Catrina Harding

One of my favorite phrases is: ‘Don’t boil the ocean.’ It means don’t set yourself an impossible objective.

Q: As much as we love New Year’s resolutions, most of us are notoriously bad at following through on them throughout the year. What’s your approach to goal-setting at the beginning of this year?

My philosophy is that it’s important to set goals at the beginning of the year – but it’s just as important to be flexible as circumstances change.

Every January I ask myself: What are the top two to three things I need to execute this year? And I keep those in mind as my North Star. But life is unpredictable, and work is unpredictable, so I make sure I maintain a reasonable level of flexibility with the goals I establish. If business conditions or strategies change, or something changes personally that makes my goals obsolete or not as relevant, I allow myself room to change them. It’s important to be OK with adjusting your goals when it makes sense. It’s when you don’t give yourself permission to make changes that you get stuck or boxed in.

This has been a personal evolution for me. When I started out in my career, I was maniacal about setting as many goals as possible and checking every box I could. But as I became more experienced, I realized this was just creating unnecessary stress.

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