Every January, we do the same thing.
We set ambitious goals. We make big promises to ourselves. We imagine a version of the year that feels productive, successful, and fulfilling.
And yet, by March, many of those goals quietly fall away.
Not because we don’t care. Not because we’re lazy. But because most goal-setting focuses on setting goals, not on sticking to them.
In a recent Building a Business, Grit & Grace session in the Visionary Founders Club, Jores and I kicked off the year by talking honestly about what goal-setting really looks like for business owners, especially founders who are juggling growth, responsibility, and real life.
What emerged was simple, but powerful: Goals only work when they align with where you are, who you are, and how you actually live.
This post distills the core insights from that conversation and offers a grounded way to approach goals this year without pressure, guilt, or burnout.
Why Most Goals Don’t Stick
Most of us don’t fail at goals because we lack discipline. We fail because we:
- set goals that don’t match our stage of life or business
- overestimate what’s realistic in 12 months
- focus on logic and forget emotion and intuition
- set goals once and never revisit them
As Jores put it during the conversation, goal-setting isn’t about setting and forgetting. It’s about setting, reviewing, adjusting, and recommitting over and over again.
Start With the Right Time Horizon
In large corporations, it’s common to see 5–10 year visions.
For small businesses and founders, that’s often too far out to be useful.
What we’ve found works better is:
- a 3-year vision (clear enough to guide decisions, flexible enough to adapt)
- one main business goal for the year that clearly supports that vision
Annual goals shouldn’t exist in isolation. They should be a step toward something bigger, not a random number pulled from the air.
One Goal for the Business Based on Your Stage
One of the biggest mistakes founders make is setting goals that belong to a different stage of business.
Here’s a more grounded way to think about it:
If you’re just starting:
Your goal might simply be to validate the business model.
- get a few real sales
- prove there is demand
- learn what works and what doesn’t
It can be messy. It can be manual. It can come from your network.
That’s not a problem. That’s the point at this stage of business.
If you already have some sales:
Your goal might be to make things more predictable.
- consistent revenue
- basic systems
- less chaos
If things are stable:
Then, and only then, it makes sense to talk about scaling, multiplying, or 10X growth.
Ambition is important. But ambition without alignment leads to frustration. A goal should stretch you, not break your belief in yourself.
One Goal for You Because Without You, There Is No Business
This part often gets overlooked.
As business owners, we’re used to putting everyone else first. Clients, teams, partners, families.
But the truth is simple and uncomfortable: Without you, there is no business.
Jores shared a powerful analogy from The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: Running a business without taking care of yourself is like driving a car while ignoring the low-fuel warning light.
You can keep going for a while. But eventually, the car stops whether you like it or not.
That’s why one of the most important goals you can set each year is a well-being goal:
- physical health
- mental health
- energy
- rest
- movement
- something outside of work
For Jores, this means a non-negotiable daily workout literally blocked in his calendar, even if it means declining meetings.
Because energy fuels everything else.
The Trap of “Expiring Goals”
Another insight that resonated deeply is the idea of expiring goals.
Many people set goals like:
- “I want to look good for this event.”
- “I want to get in shape for the summer.”
- “I want to hit this number and then I’m done.”
The problem? Once the event passes, motivation disappears.
The only goals that truly stick are non-expiring goals like staying healthy, staying curious, or building something sustainable.
There is no finish line for those. And that’s why they work.
How Many Goals Is Too Many?
In theory, you can set three big goals for the year:
- one for the business
- one for personal well-being
- one for something else that matters to you
In practice, most people consistently move only two forward. And that’s normal.
If three feels like too much, choose two. If even two feels heavy, choose one.
Progress doesn’t come from quantity. It comes from focus.
The Missing Pieces: Emotion and Intuition
Most goal-setting frameworks focus on logic:
- Is it specific?
- Is it measurable?
- Is it realistic?
Those things matter but they’re incomplete. Two critical elements are often missing:
1. Emotion
Ask yourself:
- How will I feel when this goal is achieved?
- How will it change my daily experience?
- How will it impact the people around me?
Research consistently shows that emotional connection increases follow-through. We work harder for goals we feel, not just understand.
2. Intuition
This is the quiet part we tend to ignore. If you removed expectations, trends, and external pressure, what does your intuition tell you to focus on this year?
Some of the most effective leaders and founders rely heavily on intuition. Not instead of logic, but alongside it.
When logic, emotion, and intuition align, goals become much harder to abandon.
Why Belief Matters More Than Ambition
One of the strongest themes from the conversation was belief.
If you don’t believe a goal is achievable, you will unconsciously sabotage it:
- procrastination
- avoidance
- “forgetting”
- constantly adjusting the goal
This is why starting small matters. Just like you wouldn’t walk into a gym and lift the heaviest weight on day one, you don’t build belief by setting impossible targets.
Belief is built through evidence. Small wins that prove to you that you can do what you said you would do.
Goals Are Not a One-Time Event
Setting goals in January is just the beginning.
Real progress comes from:
- revisiting goals weekly and monthly
- adjusting the “vector” when needed
- breaking goals into small, executable steps
- reflecting without judgment
As Jores shared using the airplane analogy: Planes don’t fly in a straight line from start to destination. They constantly make small corrections and that’s what makes the journey efficient.
Your goals work the same way.
A Simpler Way Forward
If you take nothing else from this, take this:
- Set goals based on where you are, not where you think you should be
- Include yourself in the plan, not just the business
- Choose goals you believe in
- Revisit them often
- Let the process evolve
Goal-setting doesn’t have to be complicated to be life-changing. Sometimes, the simplest approach is the most sustainable one.
If this way of thinking resonates with you, this is exactly the kind of conversation we continue inside the Visionary Founders Club, where we focus on clarity, alignment, and building businesses that support real lives, not just numbers.
And if nothing else, let this year be the one where your goals feel grounded, not heavy.
