#213| Why Confetti Goals Create More Overwhelm Than Actual Change: Overwhelm, Productivity, Time Management & People Pleasing

Have you ever started the year determined to change everything — only to feel overwhelmed before January is even over?

If you’re a driven, capable working woman who feels pressure to do more, try harder, and improve every area of your life at once, this episode will help you understand why that approach backfires — and what actually creates calm, sustainable change.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why “confetti goals” create more overwhelm instead of real progress
• How the belief that doing more equals success quietly sabotages your goals
• A simpler way to choose goals that actually fit your life and build momentum

Press play to learn how focusing on the essential few can help you feel calmer, more confident, and finally make progress this year.

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Life can be overwhelming, but on this podcast, you'll discover practical strategies to overcome overwhelm, imposter syndrome, and negative self-talk, manage time effectively, set boundaries, and stay productive in high-stress jobs—all while learning how to say no and prioritize self-care on the Overwhelmed Worki...

Transcript

Confetti Goals

Michelle Gauthier 0:00

When our goals don't work, we don't assume the system is wrong. We assume there's something flawed with us. You're listening to Overwhelmed Working Woman, the podcast that helps you be more calm and more productive by doing less. I'm your host, Michelle Gauthier, a former Overwhelmed Working Woman and current life coach. On this show, we unpack the stress and pressure that today's working woman experiences. And in each episode, you'll get a strategy to bring more calm, ease, and relaxation to your life. Hello, friend. I just saw the other day that January 1st is a soft launch for the new year, but the real new year starts today, on the first Monday of the year, when everybody's back to work. If you're like me, your kids are back to school. So since today is the official launch of 2026 per social media anyway, I want to talk to you today about confetti goals. Confetti goals are when you decide that you want to change everything, that everything in your life needs improvement and everything feels urgent. And then suddenly the year feels heavy before it really even starts. And it's probably unlikely that you would write these goals down or try to take action on them. But if you do, because there's so many and a too much improvement all at the same time, they usually don't end up getting accomplished. So today we're going to talk about why confetti goals create more overwhelm than actual change, beliefs about doing more quietly sabotage your goals and what it means instead to focus on the essential few so your goals actually fit into your life. Before we jump in, I want to remind you that I am teaching a workshop tomorrow, Tuesday, January 6th, that is going to address exactly what I'm talking about today. It is not too late for you to sign up. The link will be in the show notes. And I would love to see you there to set the essential few goals. Okay, let's get into it.

Why Confetti Goals Don’t Stick

The Do More Myth

The Essential Few Approach

Michelle Gauthier 2:05

So let's talk a little bit more about what confetti goals are and why they create overwhelm instead of change. Here's what this looks like in my life. For example, just this morning was looking around my office and thinking, okay, there's a bunch of stuff in here that I don't want in here anymore. I need to hide all those cords. I need to change the way that I'm doing my business. And I just start thinking about absolutely everything that I quote unquote need to change. I do the same thing in my house. Last night I was brushing my teeth. I'm like, oh, I really need to renovate this bathroom. Gotta do this thing differently. Went to the gym yesterday for my first workout of the year and thought, okay, I did a good job last year, but I'm really gonna hit it hard this year. And if you're a mover and a shaker and an overachiever, you probably like to make changes and you like to make improvements. But the problem with confetti goals is it's just too many, too vague, and not based on where you actually are in life. They're usually set from the pressure to change everything all at once. And when they don't stick, so let's just play this out. So let's say that I make a goal in every single area of my life, and I'm like, yep, this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna get in even better shape. I'm gonna totally change how I'm doing business. I'm gonna renovate my bathroom on my own. Yesterday, when I was thinking this, I was like, I wonder if I could rent a saw and maybe do some trim pieces. You guys, I have no idea how to do that. Why would I want to do that? And you, of course, be the best mom and have an amazing relationship in just every area of my life. When you pick too many goals in too many areas of your life, what happens is the goals don't stick because it's not possible, right? We can't change everything all at once while we're still continuing to live the busy life that we were already living before it turned into a new year. And what happens when we don't make progress on those goals is we don't question the goals. We question ourselves. We're like, oh, maybe I'm incapable of change, or I'm just too stressed or overwhelmed to make any changes, or maybe this is just always how it's going to be. So let's talk about how we got to that place where we're trying to make too many changes all at once. I don't know about you, but for a long time I believed that making change required doing more. So if something in my life didn't feel good, I just had to do more, put more effort into it, push more, try harder. And what that actually led to was the opposite of progress. I'd get so overwhelmed that I'd just do nothing, or I would do all the things and then just feel dissatisfied because it never felt like it was enough. So I don't think that's a motivation problem. I was plenty motivated. It's conditioning because what we're taught to believe is that we're not enough unless we're trying our hardest at all times on all fronts. So when our goals don't work, we don't assume the system is wrong. We assume there's something flawed with us. And before I came to life coaching, and maybe you're in this position now, the only strategy I had for making myself feel better when I felt overwhelmed was to do more. And confetti goals are a great example of that. Something in my life doesn't feel good, so I'm going to try to change everything dramatically all at once. And when you have that belief that doing more is the answer, it's usually a pretty predictable process. So you are struggling in some area and you decide the answer is to do more and try harder, and then you do more and try harder. And either the idea of doing more and trying harder is so overwhelming that you just don't do anything, or you actually do the trying harder and it doesn't feel good when you do it. So no matter if you do the thing or not, it still doesn't give you the feeling that you're going for.

Michelle Gauthier 5:58

So let me tell you my approach on goals. The essential few. We do not need a lot of goals. We need a few goals, and we need goals that actually fit into our lives. The essential few is about choosing quality over quantity and focusing on what matters right now. In the workshop tomorrow, I'm going to explain what exactly that means. You might be at a time in your life where taking on new goals isn't the best idea, or you might be at a place in your life where you want to take on some new goals, but the best thing to do is just focus on a few goals at work or focus on a few goals in your relationship. The essential few method, we talk about choosing quality over quantity and making the goals what matters to you right now based on where you are in life. And as you work on these and we spread these goals out over the year, maybe there are some goals you won't start on until June, and you know that's the good thing. So let's take my bathroom renovation where I'm not renting a saw, but I'm hiring someone who knows how to use a saw. What I'm planning to do for that is to put that on my calendar actually for somewhere in the third quarter. I haven't decided yet, but somewhere in the third quarter. And then when I go to evaluate that month and plan that month, there it is. Okay, that's the goal that I need to pick up on and start now. When you focus on the essential few, you will be able to accomplish all of your goals and you'll start building evidence along the way. This is working. I can trust myself to just have a couple really specific goals that fit into my life right now. I don't need to change everything to feel better. And that is how momentum is built.

Michelle Gauthier 7:44

So if you're heading into the new year thinking I should be doing more and creating some confetti goals for yourself where you're just throwing them all up in the air and kind of hoping something sticks, just notice that you don't need to change everything. You probably don't even need to try harder. You don't need a whole bunch of goals. You just need fewer goals that actually fit your life. And tomorrow, when we plan 2026 together, we're not just picking goals. We're intentionally planning a year that feels doable and supportive and aligned so that you can make it all the way through the year and make the changes that you want to make this year. If you're joining me for the planning workshop tomorrow, if you've already signed up, amazing. I will see you tomorrow. If you haven't yet, you can sign up in the show notes. You do not need to have clarity yet. You don't need to know what you want to change this year. Just come as you are, and I can't wait to plan this year with you. Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast. If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at michellegauthier.com. See you next week.