We break for winter here at Wholehearted Coaching and that makes this a great time to highlight THE BEST of Wholehearted Coaching: The Podcast (a.k.a. some of your absolute favorite topics and episodes) from this past year.

For December, we’re sharing your favorite podcast episodes from the year and love, if you already listened to these the first time around, I highly encourage you to press play one more time. I know there’s going to be something else you’ll walk away with from these favorites.

We’re starting off with our 1st episode of 2023 — Setting Goals for What You Really Want. If you think it’s too early to start thinking of your new year’s goals, trust me, it’s not! And as a reminder, we set, go after, and achieve goals here the Wholehearted Way, so you’re going to want to tune in, love.

“Why is this year going to be any different?”

I used to hate New Year’s because it would just be this really overwhelming time of year. By December 31st, I would feel I had to have this concise list of resolutions, of things I had to do. And, I would look at this list like… “Yes, I can do this!” But also… “Mmm… no… I don’t think I can…”

I would see this in my clients as well. They would come to me with this long list of things they had to do in the new year along with this look of defeat on their faces.

It’s the look of someone who starts reflecting on the last year and realizing they didn’t do a quarter of the things they wanted to do.

It’s the look of someone who tried to make plans during a global pandemic.

It’s the look of someone who is trying their very best and still can’t seem to make anything happen.

It’s the look of someone who has started to see themselves as a procrastinator, a failure, or a mess when it comes to achieving their dreams.

You see, when we don’t accomplish a goal, we are so quick to pick ourselves apart.

We repeat the story of how we lack motivation, or we’re terrible at following through, or that we’re failures.

But the truth is, it’s not you that’s the problem, love. It’s those damn goals.

In short, you’re not failing at your goals, your goals are failing you.

There is an inherent flaw with our current goal-making system: it doesn’t allow for pivoting. It doesn’t allow for life to happen, and most importantly, it doesn’t center THE most important thing.

What is THE most important thing, you ask?

It’s how you want to feel, love.

The truth is whenever we create a goal, we’re actually chasing a feeling.

When we make a goal about income, we may be chasing feelings like security, adventure, or freedom.

When we make a goal about our bodies, we may be chasing feelings like worth, value, or our sexy.

When we make a goal about our careers, we may be chasing feelings like impact, success, or fulfillment.

We’ve been taught a faulty goal-making system because it’s all backwards. We have to instead start with the feelings.

As we step into 2024, I want you to get so clear on how you want to feel, love.

What are 5 feelings that you want to embody this year?

And once you figure those out, find out ways that you can make a commitment to those feelings.

Those are the goals that we follow through on. Those are the goals that make us feel alive. Those are the goals that lead us to where we want to truly be.

Tune into this week’s podcast episode — 174 | Setting Goals for What You Really Want [Best of WHC] — to hear the full episode.

If you enjoyed this, you’ll love the rest of this goals-focused series:

175 | The 1 Word that Keeps Us From Our Biggest Goals : It’s a new year, love! And you know what that means: a new set of goals to go after. It’s also a time where you may start to feel some guilt and shame around what you didn’t do last year. Maybe you’re wondering how to set goals and actually achieve them. Well, that’s exactly what we’re talking about today.

Did you know that each podcast episode comes with free guided journal prompts?

If you want to be in the know and get each Mindset Monday straight to your inbox complete with journal prompts to take you even further, get on my email list.

About your host, Shirin Eskandani