Beyond Busyness

39 || why your goals don't matter

• Kristen Van Horn

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0:00 | 21:53

As we wrap up 2024, let’s have a real conversation about your goals for the new year. Spoiler: It’s not your goals that matter – it’s the action you take to achieve them. In this episode of Beyond Busyness, I’m sharing the biggest mindset shifts and practical strategies you need to set AND achieve meaningful goals in 2025.

I’m diving into:

  • Why mindset is the foundation for achieving any goal.
  • The “5 Cs” that block your success – and how to overcome them.
  • How to set goals that challenge you AND push you to grow.
  • Why taking consistent action (+ letting go of the goal itself) is the key to long-term success.

Plus, I’ll share the personal story behind my planner launch, why it’s never too late to take action, and how releasing the timeline can actually move you closer to success.

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Hey, welcome back to another episode of beyond busy-ness. I'm Kristen van horn, your host. And we're going to talk a little bit about what pretty much everybody is talking about right now, and that is setting your goals for. 2025. And I know that I've talked about this in the past and goals are like a big part of business. Uh, but a lot of times we set these goals and they don't happen. 

And we either feel like a failure or we feel like her goals just aren't achievable. Or maybe we set tiny little goals because we know that we can achieve them. And that's just not going to get us results either. And I kind of want to share a personal story with this because. As many of you know, or if you've been listening to the podcast for the past few months, You know that I just turned 40 and I had a shit or get off the pot moment where I realized that if I. I didn't.  And I realize that I talk about this big goal that I have.  But I haven't done anything about it. 

So for those of you, again, who've been listening to the podcast for awhile, you know, that I just launched a planner. And I have been talking about this planner for two, three years, maybe for awhile. My goal was to write a book and I realized, yeah, I love to write. And I get a lot of satisfaction with writing content for my magnify, your content clients. 

However, I didn't realize that it wasn't writing that I want to do. It was a planner that I wanted and I have loved. Calendars and planners and things. Since I was a kid, I remember. On Christmas, we would get a new calendar for the year, every single year from quote-unquote Santa. And I remember being so excited just to write in all my friend's birthdays and the days that we were off school and to hang it up on my wall. 

I got so much satisfaction. Out of all of that. So my love for planning started at a very young age. Well, as I got closer to my 40th birthday. And, you know, you turn 40 and it's like, oh, you're over the hill midlife crisis a lot. I don't feel like I'm having. A midlife crisis. 

But what I realized, just like a realized when I, a couple of times actually. When I quit, my job was I, I can't keep saying I have these goals and not doing anything about them because here's the deal. Your goals don't matter. As much as the actions you take to achieve them. And so what I realized was I can keep saying that my big dream is to have my planner in target or in Michael's or somewhere we're. Moms who were an online business like you, or even on Amazon? 

I mean, that's really not the goal because like an, my planners on Amazon, you can get an Amazon right now. My goal is not to have a planner on Amazon. My goal is to be like the go-to. Planner for mompreneurs or moms and online business. Like that's my goal. But that's not going to happen if I don't actually take action to make it happen.  And I just had this huge realization. That. I got to take action. And so I stopped waiting around and said, what let's do this. 

And I set the timeline and I started actually doing the work and sure enough, I launched a planner on black Friday or the week of Thanksgiving. And has already exceeded my expectations.  And that's just showing you that. You can have the goal and you can talk about the goal. All you want. But unless you decide to take action on it, nothing is going to happen. And so I want to walk you through a little bit of how to set those goals, but not just to set them. How to actually achieve them in the new year. So the first part is we've got to talk about your mindset because if you don't change your thoughts, nothing is going to change. 

So one thing that I learned when I was going through my life coaching certification, there's this formula that we followed. And it's your thoughts, plus your emotions, plus your actions equal results. And that's exactly what happened. I had these thoughts. I had these emotions about this planner. But nothing was happening because I wasn't actually taking action. 

So you, you can think all you want, but your thoughts aren't going to get you anywhere. You can be excited about thinking. Thinking about having this planner and target, but unless you actually do the work nothing's going to happen, so you have to have all three. It's your thoughts and your emotions and your actions. That are going to equal the results. But there are a few things that block us from that success. 

First of all, it is constraints on time. Now. Listen. You know that I'm the expert in this, you know, that I'm going to help you structure your day so that you actually have time to take the action and achieve your goals. And a lot of times we have this block that we don't have enough time. And one of the things that I love to tell my clients is we have 24 hours in the day, 24 hours. Let's say you work eight hours in your business every single day. 

And let's say you get eight hours of sleep. Now I have a feeling. Both of those things, you're probably doing less.  I know for me, eight hours, that rarely happens not even on vacation. Do I get eight hours of sleep? I rarely get eight hours of sleep and I don't work eight hours a day. Okay, that's me, but I want you to think about you.  So let's say you work eight hours a day. 

You get eight hours of sleep. That's 16 hours. Where are the rest of those eight hours going? And I think it comes to that realization. And one of the things that I teach in my group coaching program beyond busy-ness is we're not aware of where that time is actually going. And so that constraint on time is really just this mindset block thinking. 

I don't have enough time to do that. We're really, we're just not utilizing the time that we have well, And so that can block us from actually taking the action. The other thing, and this was one thing that really held me back for a long time. The other, these are five CS. I don't remember if I mentioned that, but these are five CS that blocks success. 

So the first one is constraints on time. The second one is your capability. This held me back for so long. And I think I talked about this in my 40th birthday episode is I never thought that I was smart enough. This. I mean, I just got back from like a life-changing.  Life teaching business conference. 

And so this came up a lot was one of the thoughts that I had was.  I'm not good enough. I'm not smart enough. Well, who am I to be the one doing this? And I have a feeling like you probably feel the same way. Who am I? I don't, I don't know how to do this. I don't know how to create a planner. I don't, I don't know how to sell anything on Amazon. 

I don't know how to get this in target. How do we do this?  And so we're blocking that. And it finally, I finally got to the realization.  That. Everything is figureoutable. I can figure this out. One of the best compliments I've ever gotten is that I'm scrappy. Because I, number one, I'm really independent. 

I don't, I don't like asking for help. And that comes as a blessing and a curse. But I'm scrappy. I can figure something out. And the funny thing is.  The reason that I launched this planner and the timeline that it took, and the timeline was real short. I was like October and I was like, I'm launching it. 

I think I was like, after my birthday, I'm launching this on black Friday. So I had a really, really short timeline and I don't always recommend that, but it worked really well for me, but I. Was in this program that I really didn't like didn't, I didn't love this program. I wasn't getting anything out of it that I was promised to get out of. 

And I'm sure you've been there. I'm sure you've been there too. The program was fine. I just didn't get out of it. What was promised? It happens.  But one of the things, and it was like, right at the beginning, it was like the start here part. She gave an example of an ad and it was an ad for a course that taught you how to create a workbook or a planner and sell it on Amazon. 

And I was like,  Okay. Show me how to do that. I immediately went and bought it because guess what? I'm scrappy and I am capable of doing it. I just might not know how to do it yet, but I can figure it out. Everything is figureoutable. So that might be another thing you might be thinking like, I cannot do this. 

I don't have the capability to do this. But you do because you like, we are scrappy.  The next C that blocks you from success might be confusion. It might come around to that capability, but might be confusion. Like, I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know how to do this. I am. I'm lost. I'm lost. Where do I, what do I do? 

So you're confused. You, you don't know what you're doing. 

Or maybe you're just not sure of the goal. What is the goal that you want? And sometimes this is, this is what happened with me. I, I am not. At a meditation person at all. I'm.  But when you have the right person to lead you through a meditation, it makes all the difference. And it helped really clarify the goal for me  but I was confused about what my goal actually was, or I was confused on the transformation that you need. Once I got clear on that.  It made a big difference. So  confusion and clarity go together. 

Confusion and clarity. That are keeping you from that goal, because we don't know what the goal is.  Or maybe, and this was another thing and something that is still keeping me from my actual goal is cash. I don't have, I don't have the money to create this planner or it's going to cost me more money to create the planner than it is for me to sell it. Sometimes that holds us back. 

Or I really, one of my goals, my big goals is I want to be part of James Wedmore's mastermind his performance mastermind. Guess what? First of all, you have to be a seven figure business owner that I am not. But also, I, I wouldn't be able to afford it right now because I'm not a seven-figure business owner. So sometimes cash money. Becomes an issue that block us from that success. 

And lastly, and this is probably, this is probably the biggest one, honestly. Is, we don't have the commitment.  We're not committed to the goal because maybe you're confused about it. Maybe you don't feel like you're capable of it. Maybe you don't feel like you have the time. Maybe you feel like you don't have the cash or you're not committed.  And when you're not committed, you're not gonna take action. And that happens a lot. And so I want you to think about each of these five. 

 I want you to think about. Each of these five CS that might be keeping you blocked. Is it constraints on your time? Is it your capability? Is it, you're confused about the goal. You don't have clarity on the goal.  Is it. The cash money. 

Do you feel like you have the cash money to make the goal happen? Or. And this is probably the most likely one. Is it your commitment? Is that what's holding you back from achieving your goal? So we have to fix our mindset first. If we don't fix our mindset, the goal isn't going to happen. And so.  That, that there's more to that. 

And I encourage you to probably go back to listen to. Brad Bez Jack's episode. I don't remember what number it is. But go back. It's Brad biz. Jack is in the title.  But go back and listen to that episode because one of the things that really propelled me forward to actually create this planner. Is having conversations with him and really digging deep into my mindset. 

And he's helping people like you rewire their mindset for success.  Okay. So part two, this is the actual. Thing that you've been really here for, because no one wants to talk about mindset, but it's, it's really the nitty gritty of it. But let's talk about setting those goals and we talk a lot about smart goals. 

We set. Those specific measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based goals.  We need to be really specific on what we want. So for example, let's talk about the planner again, because. I'm kind of obsessed with it. 

If you haven't realized it. But is it.  Is it specific. I want to have my planner and target is that's a big goal now.  Is it achievable? I don't know. Is it relevant? Yeah, absolutely. It is. Is it specific? Yeah. That's pretty specific.  I don't have a time for it though. And so when we think too big, When we think longterm, we're thinking this is like a 10 year goal for me. I want you to think about the one-year goal and maybe. And this is something that I really got from from Brad's course has rewired course was.  We have these big goals. But sometimes we're thinking like way too far in the future. 

And so I sat down and I'm like, I'm going to list out every single goal that I want. And then the next thing that I went through was I circled the ones that I could do in one year. And that made all the difference. And so it wasn't a planner that I wanted to launch then. I launched the planner. But it became more specific on what I really wanted. 

So for example, for magnify your content, our goal is to have a thousand members in the next year. I'm speaking that into reality, that's specific. So specific, we have a thousand members in magnify your content by December 31st, 2025. Is it measurable? Absolutely. A thousand numbers. That's pretty, that's pretty measurable. 

Is it achievable? Absolutely. Is it going to take work? Absolutely. But it is achievable. We know that because we've watched people do it. So we know because we've watched people do it, that we can do it too. Is it relevant? Yeah, absolutely. Because if I get a thousand people, that's a thousand more people I get to help. 

That's a thousand more people making money in their business. That's a thousand more people who who's helping me bring in revenue and live the life that I want. Is it time-based? Yeah. December 31st, 20, 25. That's plenty of time. We know how many people, it's a lot. It's a lot. It's a lot of people every single month, but we know that it can possibly happen. 

And here's the next thing. We need to talk about achievable versus challenging because I could easily set the goal with instead of a thousand members in magnifier content. Maybe we say like, we just want 200 members because we know it's a $47 product. We know if we have 185 members, obviously I've done the math on this a couple of times. 

That's a six figure membership. Cool. Awesome. I love that. However, that's a cheap that's. That seems easy. I feel like that can happen in the next month. So we need to push the boundaries a little bit. So really a thousand members is a stretch goal, but we need, we need to think of it a little bit different because we, sometimes we like to lower the goal. Because we want to achieve it.  And it doesn't challenge us.  

Let that sink in for a second. We lower the goal because we want to achieve it, but it's not challenging us. So we're not actually growing as a person or as a business owner. So I want you to think. Is this achievable. And is this going to challenge me to put in the work? 

So I want you to think of a goal that is going to push you.  But also doesn't feel impossible. So, yes, I, in the next 10 years, I want to have my planner in target or someplace. That like to be known. I think that's a big thing to be known. So maybe not target, maybe Michael's maybe it's, you know, people are just flocking to my website all the time. 

Like I'm the go-to person I'm, you know, being asked to BBD live. James Wedmore's live thing that I just came back from. It was live conference. I just came back for I'm there as a vendor and I'm selling my planner because I help moms structured their day. So they can be both a great mom and a great business owner. So I want you to think of like, yeah, that, that seems really impossible, but I am not going to get there unless I set the smaller goal, but I also want to make it. Push me.  Does that make sense? 

Hopefully it does. 

And so let's, let's talk a little bit about the time-based thing. Cause like I said, that's a 10-year goal for me. And so that's really far out and I can be like, Ugh, when I'm 50 that'll happen.  Okay, but that doesn't mean that I get to sit back and wait till I'm 49.  So I need to set those smaller goals. 

So that timeline is actually really important. But we also can't. Beat ourselves up when the timeline takes longer. I have talked about this in the past, but I really thought I'd be farther along in my business at this point than I really am. But some things change. I didn't know that we were going to have a global pandemic in 2020. And so that kind of changed some goals. 

I didn't know that I was going to a year ago over a year ago, I was going to step away from a business partnership that I had, and that was really hard. And so things happen. That change the timeline. And we have to be okay. That even, even when we have the goal again, not lowering the goal, but being okay when the timeline takes longer than we want. Because the reason you are successful in business is because you're not giving up.

And so set your goal, set your goals, make sure that they're achievable, but challenging. You make sure that there is some time-based, but you know, let go of the time. And now here, here's the thing. Here's the thing. And this is something that I learned from my friend and my mentor. Rachel McMichael.  When it comes to your goals, I love the goals.  However, like we said at the beginning, the goal doesn't matter if you don't take action. So what she taught me. Was set the goal set the big, scary goal. Set the goal that's going to push you.  And then I want you to write down all the things that need to happen. 

Brain dump it, spend, you know, the next five, 10 minutes. Brain dumping all the things that you know would need to happen for you to achieve that goal? 

And here's what I want you to do. I want you to put it in your planner. I want you to put it in a Sana, Trello, whatever you do on a, on a piece of paper, write it down. Or write down all the actions.  And then I want you to erase the goal.  Because it's, it's not the goal. Is not the goal that matters. It is the actions. That you take. So, I don't want you to think.  That because in 2024, this past year, You didn't achieve your goal. Because the goal doesn't matter. Did you take action towards that? 

So as you do some reflecting.  I want you to think about what action did I take to achieve that goal? Did I, did I do everything to, I. Leave no stone left unturned. Did I do everything in my power to make that happen and not, I'm not telling you to hustle. So I don't believe in hustling. But I believe that we can take intentional action. Toward a goal and actually achieve it. But if we don't achieve the goal, but we took the action that success. That is what success looks like. 

And so here's what I want to wrap up with this with let's let's recap some of those key things. 

So number one, we got to change our mindset. We got to figure out what is blocking us from that goal. Then I want you to set that goal. I want that to be challenging. I want it to be like a reach goal. Like, man, that seems really hard, but I I've seen people do it. So I know it's possible.  And then I want you to write down, oh, all of those actions, all of the actions that I would take that you can think of, because you're probably not going to know all of them right now. 

And things are going to get in your way. I want you to release that timeline, and then I want you to release the goal, the goals there, you know, it. You know the goal, but I want you to release the goal. Okay.  So take some time in the next, you know, next few weeks. Cause we, we got, uh, we got a week or two. Before the new year, we're going to take some time to set those goals. 

Write down those actions. Figure out what is holding you back from achieving those big goals?  And then release it.  It's not the goal that matters because what really is going to matter is the person you become as you take the action toward the goal. So thank you again for listening to beyond busy-ness. 

I am going to take a few week break.  As we go into a new year, I'm going to enjoy some time off with my family over Christmas and the new year we're going to spend some time traveling. And I'm going to come back in the new year and I have so many exciting guests lined up that are going to teach you soul many amazing things, not just on how they are balancing their business, as well as being a mom. But who have like really good tangible tips for you. For different things that they are the expert in, because  I am the planner for mompreneurs. 

I, that is me. I'm going to help you structure your day so that you can be a great mom and a great business owner. However, that's my expertise.  There are women out there who have a such great things to share. And I cannot wait to have them on the podcast and teach you. These are my friends. 

These are people I've learned from, and I cannot wait to have them. So expect a lot more interviews so that you're not just hearing me talk, but expect a lot more interviews from people who are really going to give you some amazing results and help you achieve those goals next year. So, thank you so much again for listening. Be sure. to leave a review and follow the podcast so that you don't miss an episode reviews really help my podcast get seen. And I would love for more people who are struggling with structuring their days and achieving their goals, find my podcasts. So thanks again for listening. And I'll see you in the new year.