Why I resisted money goals
Just over a year ago I went from full-time employment as a chiropractor with a coaching "side-hustle" to a fully-fledged coach entrepreneur.
And it was the best decision ever.
However, one of the "ghosts of my past" (when I owned my own chiropractic practice) quickly showed up in this new world of business ownership: my beliefs about money.
In practical terms, this showed up as a stubborn resistance of anything that resembled a financial goal.
Here's what I believed setting a financial goal would do:
Turn me into a greedy & superficial person
"Contaminate" my work because I'd have to change what I do & the way I do it in order to focus on making money
Towards the end of last year, I finally decided to address this resistance with one of my coaches and set a goal for how much money I wanted to make in my coaching practice.
One of the things this coach taught me that really stuck with me was this...
The mind drama that comes up when you set a goal was there before you set the goal.
Setting the goal or the intention just brings those underlying beliefs and assumptions to the surface, like disturbing the mud that's gathered at the bottom of a pool so it rises to the top and you can finally see it.
So the problem, then, was not the actual act of setting a financial goal but everything my mind offered me about what that meant.
And through the process of pursuing this goal, I learned that not only can I make money in my business without sacrificing my values and integrity, it can actually amplify them. My clients - present & future - also benefit SO much from me having a financial goal because it requires me to show up even bigger, learn to handle more discomfort and manage my own mind better in order to achieve it.
I am a better coach for it, and more people are impacted by my work.
(Not to mention, I got to work through some beliefs that had been affecting me for YEARS)
So if you're considering a goal for 2025 but you have allll kinds of beliefs about setting goals like...
It will make me "hustle" & burn out
I'll treat myself badly if I fail
It creates an unhealthy focus on performance & achievement
It'll involve sacrificing my health, happiness or values
If I don't achieve it, I'll just be disappointed (so it's better not to set one at all)
All of these are there, regardless of whether you or not you set a goal. The way you treat yourself, your approach to work, what you sacrifice to get to your goals, your avoidance of emotional discomfort and failure - these are already affecting you, whether you're aware of it or not.
What if instead of avoiding setting goals because of what it brings to the surface, you set a goal precisely BECAUSE it will bring those things to the surface?
So that you can finally look at them straight on and deal with them.
So you can live more boldly in pursuit of what matters.
And so you can create new beliefs about what is possible for you.
