When Goals Become Just Another Box to Check

Let me guess: You've already started seeing them. The posts, the tools, the methods - all shouting the same thing: New Year, New Goals, New You.

And if you're like most leaders I work with, you're feeling... nothing. Or worse, you're feeling that familiar weight of obligation creeping in. Time to set goals that will satisfy the board, or your executive team. The spouse. The coach. The vision statement gathering dust in your drawer since last January.

Here's what I've learned after five years of not setting a single goal:

Goals don't work. And you know it.

Oh, they may sometimes work for a few things—hitting a revenue target, reading more, or losing weight – and the reality is that even those don’t always get achieved just because you set a goal. But for Kingdom-focused leaders? For people who want their lives to actually mean something beyond what can be measured on a spreadsheet? Goals often become one more performance metric in a life already drowning in them.

What Happened When I Stopped Setting Goals

Five years ago, I quit. I stopped the yearly ritual of goal-setting and asked a different question: What if, instead of manufacturing my own plan, I learned to discern God's?

It felt risky. Irresponsible, even. But here's what happened: God completely reengineered my life.

Not because I worked harder or got more strategic. If anything, I still worked a lot, but not “hard.” The surrender was what was very hard, especially when everything I used to rely on got stripped away in the process. It took at least three years for me to even realize what surrender would mean.

Learning to let go is tough when you’re in it. That surrender went against against every fiber of my working class, hyper independent, performance driven self. But something shifted – I started to listen first, then move. I stopped forcing outcomes and started positioning myself for what was already being shaped.

The Life Reset and LeaderPrint experiences I now offer emerged in that process. I am still living aligned to my purpose and mission. I still teach, coach, mentor from my central messages. But they are in a new type of packaging. Instead of being formulaic, self-driven, and target/metrics driven, both of these were born out of my new dependency on insight and alignment from God.

The renewed clarity and energy I have about my purpose emerged when I stopped trying to create it and started paying attention to what was already there. (Makes me think about a loaves and fishes story…)

This isn't about being passive or "letting go and letting God" in some abstract, Pinterest-quote kind of way. It's about being so deeply aligned through prayer and devotion that you can actually hear His voice and direction—and then acting with intention on what you hear.

A Different Framework: Pillars, Scaffolding, and Desires

About three years ago, I began my year to year process in a way that aligned with this listening, surrendered posture. After doing it for the fourth time this week, I decided to write it down and “make it plain” so that others may learn from it to.

It's built on three elements:

1. Foundation Pillars

These are one-word anchors that hold everything else in place. Not goals. Not aspirations. Foundations.

They're drawn from what God has been revealing to you, from your core values, from the spiritual disciplines He's been calling you toward. For the past three years, mine have been: Surrender, Obey, Abide, Rejoice (SOAR). They don't change with every mood shift or new opportunity. They're what you build on.

Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain, right? These pillars are how you let Him build.

2. Life Scaffolding (The Four Quadrants)

This is the honest work—the kind most people skip because it requires looking at what actually happened, not what you wish had happened.

Using the Life Reset framework, you evaluate the four areas of your life: Spiritual, Physical, Emotional (relationships, mindfulness, mental health), and Intellectual (work, learning, business, abilities).

For each quadrant, you ask specific and honest questions to draw out a true reality of your past year. Contrary to only focusing on what didn’t happen, or didn’t work – this analysis is a wonderful way to also realize just what did work – and how many times God showed up!

Personal story on this - I also have a blessings jar. In the second year of my hard journey of surrender, I felt pretty low and down on things that December. Imagine my surprise when I emptied the blessings jar and celebrated more than 27 specific, unexpected blessings from God!  My mindset did a 180, I can tell you!

Doing a life scan analysis isn't navel-gazing. It's assessment. You can't build on shaky scaffolding, so you have to look at what's actually there.

3. The Desires of Your Heart

Here's where it gets interesting—and where most people get it backwards. This is the key shift I made that’s been working so well.  Keep in mind though, that I could only consider the desires of my heart, when I was standing on a strong/solid foundation, and had established a secure scaffold of ongoing life alignment. I had already been doing that, so moving into the desires process was an easier shift.

In the free tool I’ve created to share this, I give you the step-by-step process of putting the pillars and scaffolding in place first.

Allow the true desires of your heart to rise to the surface is where things get really interesting and exhilarating.  It’s when you hold this space and allow the Holy Spirit to join you, that your course is set for next year.

Those are the desires of your heart. Not manufactured goals—desires. The things that light you up when you think about them. The things that align with those foundation pillars and fit naturally on the scaffolding you've just put in place and prayed about.

And here's the Kingdom principle most people miss: "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." Not the desires you think you should have. The actual desires He's placed there.

Quick anecdote – I recently encountered two amazing women of God – who also happen to be accomplished business leaders in their respective fields. In both conversations, they confessed they had “this other thing” that turned out to be God’s invitation to do [the idea | the project].  What had they done with that? Nothing – because it got buried under the pile of “goals” and the stuff of business. I mean, we have to pay the bills, grow the business, achieve the…[fill in the blank] – while our dreams lie dusty and forgotten. No wonder leaders get burned out. We’re losing touch with what we have been equipped and prepared by Him to do, in the context of the very spaces and jobs we’re in! (“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” – Matthew 6:33NIV. Jesus was referencing every aspect of our lives!)

For the top desires that emerge, you then sent a couple (no more than 3)  mindful intentions—not rigid goals, but clear and compelling commitments. Then you commit them to prayer and let God shape them throughout the year.

Why This Works (And Goals Don't)

Traditional goal-setting starts from lack and is normally aligned to Self and ego: What's wrong? What needs fixing? How can I get better? How can I do more?  …these are often external pressures dressed up as personal development.

This process starts from alignment with Him: What's God already doing? Where is He calling me? What desires has He placed in my heart? How has He already prepared the way and equipped me?

Goals can be rigid and hence trigger resistance or worse, a self-fulfilling fear of failure from the get go. Desires held in prayer are dynamic—they can shift as God reveals more, but they never shift because of the world's distractions.

Goals measure performance. Desires pursued in Kingdom alignment measure faithfulness and fruitfulness.

And here's the practical piece: You don't white-knuckle your way through this. You review quarterly (I do this alongside my LeaderPrint monthly scan), make course corrections, and stay alert to what God is revealing. You celebrate His answers and clarify His corrections.

An Invitation

If you're tired of goal-setting that feels disconnected from what really matters—if you're ready to anchor your year in something deeper—I want to invite you to try this process.

I've created a free downloadable workbook called Yearly Forecasting for Kingdom Focused Leaders that walks you through the entire framework: establishing your foundation pillars, assessing your life scaffolding, discerning the desires of your heart, and setting mindful intentions.

It's designed to be done over several days, with space for prayer and reflection between each section. Because this isn't about hustling through another worksheet. It's about positioning yourself to hear from God and then moving with intention.

[Download the free workbook here - link]

The Awkward Pause

You know that space between Christmas and New Year's? When the gift wrap is tossed (or folded and stored for next year!); the food is packed away in containers for six months of meals, and you're left with this awkward pause before everything kicks back into gear?

That's not dead space. That's sacred space. Hold that space. Use it. Not to manufacture another list of goals you'll abandon by February, but to anchor yourself in what matters. To listen before you move. To build on pillars instead of sand.

Allow the pause in the flow of life to give breathing room to hidden purpose and stifled dreams.

Five years ago, I stopped setting goals and started seeking alignment. God reengineered my life in ways I never could have planned. I’ve emerged from the desert and can now eagerly see how He is unfolding new chapters, without my help. I’m enjoying riding shotgun in this chapter! To echo the words of Paul – “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” Ephesians 3:20 NIV. This verse was my life verse in my first surrender year but I am only now experiencing the truth of that promise. It took a while.

I don't know what He wants to do in your life, but I do know this: He's already at work. The question isn't whether you'll accomplish more next year—it's whether you'll be aligned enough to recognize what He's building and step into it with intention. He is already in the next step of your journey, where He’s waiting for you to join Him.

That's better than any goal you could set.

Want to go deeper? The Yearly Forecasting workbook is just the beginning. If this resonated—drop a comment or send me a message. Better yet - let me know about how your life shifts when you embrace a new way to approaching your future forecasting. Come and be a part of a LeaderPrint Community and walk this amazing journey with other like minded leaders.