Summer 2024 Goal-Setting Session: How to Set and Stick With the Right Ambitions During Any Season of Your Life (Workshop)
Reflect on what you really want, learn how to set the "right" goals for you, and use storytelling strategy to ensure you're set up for success
Thank you for reading And Also, a weekly newsletter featuring personal stories and things I've learned to help you navigate life ✨!
I read a quote recently that said, “You are the most wonderful project you'll ever work on.” I don’t know who originally said it, but I know it articulated a sense I’ve felt for most of my life — that I am here to expand into a fullness of being, a fullness of life that is so much bigger than what I’ve been told; than what we’ve all been sold.
I’m wary, of course, of referring to myself (or you!) as a “project”. My intention is not to make our very existence into an ongoing to-do list; a sort of “fixer upper” plan that never ends and costs a lot of money and is really more about how other people perceive the end product (if there ever is an end! as if we are simply commodities!) than anything else.
No, I think there’s a balance between being content with who and how we are — with letting ourselves “just live”, as I recently requested of my therapist — and finding joy, connection, satisfaction in the opportunity to expand our sense of what’s possible for ourselves; to go after our big dreams and embody the fullness of what our lives could be.
That’s why the very first And Also! Workshop was a goal-setting session. It’s what I needed to reconnect with myself, with my ambitions, with my intentions midway through this year. It’s what I needed to remind myself that my “very existence” on this Earth is not just designed to go to work, pay bills, run errands, ad nauseum forever and ever.
(I also realize this is a very privileged perspective, as for many it is impossible or implausible to consider an existence beyond the grind of day-to-day survival. I don’t know the solution to that — beyond a general dismantling of “neoliberal capitalism [which] engenders the belief that if you dream it, you can have it and that there’s nothing a little hard work can’t get you—and that there is no need to give too much consideration to cultural, institutional, or financial barriers that mean some people can work the same amount but be rewarded differently”, as Samhita Mukhopadhyay writes in her incredible new book, The Myth of Making It: A Workplace Reckoning. But I do know I want to continue to hold that space of possibility for anyone who wants it. I want to continue to help guide people toward what might be possible for them, and work to help them achieve it however I can. That includes you, that includes here, that includes in this workshop.)
So, I created a check-in — a midyear pause for you and me to:
Revisit the intentions we set at the beginning of the year,
Reflect on what we’ve learned over the last six months,
And let go of what’s no longer serving us . . .
. . . before setting some intentions for the next season of our lives!
In this first workshop, I included:
Mini-Lesson: We kicked off with a very brief “lesson” from me with some special insights on goal-setting — and, in particular, the significance of doing it around the Summer Solstice/Capricorn Full Moon (though this workshop will be helpful any time of year, I promise!).
Quick Journaling: I shared several prompts for you to journal through to help you really get in touch and aligned with what you actually want to work toward this summer.
Summertime Goals Selection: I walked you through how to pick your summertime goals and articulate them in a way that is challenging but realistic and designed to keep you motivated all summer long.
Setting Yourself Up for Success: And finally, I helped you set yourself up for success using a fun framework I created inspired by the strategies of storytelling.
You can still watch the recording below — and all future workshop recordings! — by becoming a paid subscriber for just $5/month or $50/year! (And if that’s cost-prohibitive, just send me an email and I’ll get you signed up for free.)
“You are the most wonderful project you'll ever work on.”
This is the first of many opportunities to learn and grow together, and I couldn’t be more excited ✨ Now, on to the workshop . . .