Some people ease into the new year.

I… schedule it.

Every January, I block seven full days for what can only be described as a self-imposed focus retreat.

📴 Notifications off.
📒 Multiple notepads.
🌈 Color pens I take way too seriously.
🗓️ A calendar stretched across two screens.

It’s me, myself, and my goals—locked in a room like we’re about to have some words.

Because if I’m going to write something down and call it a goal, I want it to resonate.

With my head and my heart.
With my vision and my values.
With the life I’m actually living—not one that belonged to an earlier version of me.

I’ve learned that not all goals deserve to survive January.

And most of my unmet goals didn’t fail because I’m lazy or undisciplined. (Pleeease. Have you met me?)

They failed because something important never got addressed before the goal hit the page.

So anything that gets circled, color-coded, or ceremoniously added to my Google Calendar has to pass through a very specific filter first.

I’m sharing it with you because if you’ve ever:

⇒ Declared a goal with conviction… then avoided it entirely
⇒ Managed everyone else’s projects and plans while shelving your own
⇒ Heard that familiar inner voice asking, Why can’t I just do the thing?

Grab your notebook. This is for you.

FIRST: Desire 💛

Sometimes we don’t do the thing because—brace yourself—we don’t want it that badly.

If the reason behind a goal lives outside of you (obligation, approval, money, proving something), it won’t hold. The energy just… leaks.

✅ So when I’m staring at a potential goal, I ask:

• Why do I want this?
• What matters to me about it?
• What doesn’t matter?
• What shifts if I let this go, and what comes up if I keep it?

Example:
​“Do more volunteer work."

Which sounds generous—until the moment I hear any version of I should (or you should) underneath it—and I already know quantity-over-quality has never fueled my desire? 💭 That goal quietly exits the building.

Here's the deal-breaker:
​Misaligned motivation stalls goals.

The desire has to be true for me—not inherited or projected—no matter how good it looks on paper.

THEN: Feelings 😬

Most goal-setting conversations skip this part. It’s also where good intentions tend to go sideways.

Even when desire is genuine, we don’t always like how it feels when thinking about starting the thing… following through… staying with it.

So we talk ourselves out of it.

Usually disappearing down a dark little rabbit hole of what ifs 🕳️:

⇒ What if I put myself out there and judgment shows up early and loud?
⇒ What if I succeed and can’t sustain it?
⇒ What if I invest the time, money, and energy—and it doesn’t work out?

That’s logic jumping in too fast and shushing the feeling before it gets a sentence out.

✅ Instead of pushing through, I slow way down and ask:

• What feeling comes up when I think about doing this?
• If I move forward, what do I feel?
• If I let it go, what do I feel?
• How do I usually try to avoid this feeling?

Example:
​I say I want to spend more time teaching—offering workshops, webinars, and online courses. But every time I reach the edge of that expansion, my body feels the frostbite of fear.

That’s me naming the feeling.

And as I stand in my desire, that feeling surfaces right as my energy prepares to stretch.

Here’s the pattern I see:
​Unmet feelings stall goals.

So I don’t just plan the goal. I plan how I’ll meet the feeling when it shows up.

This is where a lot of people get stuck—and it’s exactly the work I do with clients: helping you harness feelings as fuel instead of friction.

FINALLY: Action 📝

Big ideas drain energy when they stay abstract.

“Get in shape.”
“Redesign my office.”
“Start a YouTube channel.”

Those aren’t tasks. They’re TED Talks.

When a goal is that big, your system doesn’t know where to start—so it doesn’t. You end up looping in But… hoooow? until overwhelm turns into avoidance.😶‍🌫️

Here’s the rule I live by:
⇒ If a goal can’t be translated into something I can do in 15 minutes to an hour, it doesn’t belong on my to-do list yet.

What goes on my list isn’t the whole thing. It’s the tiniest next step—small enough to schedule, specific enough to complete, and clear enough that my energy doesn’t short-circuit.

✅ So I shrink the goal and ask:

• What are three tiny actions that move the needle?
• Which one comes first?
• When will I do it?
• Where will I do it?

Example:
​“Get in shape” becomes: I weight train for 35 minutes on Fridays and Sundays at 9:00 a.m. in my home office.

That clarity is everything. Because...
​Vagueness stalls goals.

Small steps build momentum. Momentum builds self-trust. And that’s what keeps goals breathing past January.

For those of us who can’t not think about goals for 2026, here’s the move: start with what you want, don’t skip what you feel, and make the next step small enough to actually do.

As I sit here—me, in a sea of notepads and strong feelings—I’m getting honest about my energy: what fuels it, what drains it, and what actually earns real estate on my curated calendar.

That’s the invitation I’ll leave with you...

Choose goals that meet you in resonance, not resistance.

If you want help sorting through what’s yours, what's feeling-driven, and what’s just too big to be actionable yet?👉 Grab a session here.​

Simply resonating,

Stacy🌺

ps - As I lock in my 2026 goals, I’m exploring creating a webinar on working with feelings—understanding their signals and how to move forward with them, not around them.

If that would be helpful for you, take this quick poll 👇. Your answer directly shapes what I build next.