01/28/2026
I stopped setting "new year's resolutions" many years ago because I ended up disappointing myself, which was never good for my self-esteem.
With the advent of social media, and the increase in people who call themselves personal coaches, we are inundated with messages in the months leading up to the new year that if we want to be successful, we have to set clear goals.
I'm certainly not against setting goals - I do that for myself and my business all the time.
In early 2025, I set a goal to participate in my first dog agility trial in May of that year. My dog and I had been taking agility lessons for 2 years - but hadn't planned to compete. My new instructor in Colorado, encouraged me to compete to see what it's like.
Setting that goal pushed me to practice so I wouldn't feel like a complete idiot at the agility trial. That first competition wasn't pretty - but we did it. And that pushed me to sign up for the next one in July, and another in November, and another last weekend. I set small goals for each competition to just improve on at least one thing and each competition we achieved that. What I didn't do was set a goal of achieving an agility championship in 2025 - that wasn't going to happen.
Progress is often quieter and more meaningful than we expect.
In our recent episode of the Leading With Instinct podcast, Katie Bradley, ACC and I discuss the challenges of setting goals and how to do it in a way that allows for course correction when unexpected things try to block progress.
If you struggle to set goals because you don't want to disappoint yourself or others, I encourage you to listen to our conversation and learn from horses on how to still get to your destination when things in the environment shift.
https://youtu.be/dY8Jj4yzDgA?si=o5HDRQUH9nkyayIX
hashtag hashtag hashtag
Setting goals in the New Year? Good for you, but be careful. Beating yourself up for goals you didn’t hit is too easy. The hard work comes in setting clear...