It’s time to rebrand

When most of us think about goals, we tend to treat them like goalposts off in the distance. Maybe you’ve written yours down, stuck them to your monitor, or added them to your calendar.

But then what?

I often feel like I’m sitting on Santa’s lap telling him everything I want for Christmas: “I want lots of new clients, I want more money, and I want to work fewer hours!”

We send our goals off and then… we wait.

But goals aren’t gifts. They are very unlikely to be delivered just because we wished for them. I think this is why so many people have given up on setting goals at all.

But instead of giving up on goals, maybe they just need rebranding.

What if, instead of setting goals, you accepted missions?

When you’re on a mission, you’re not peeking under the tree every day to see if it’s here yet, you’re out there making it happen. Missions are proactive. They’re about taking action, getting creative, and pushing through to meet your objective.

Instead of saying “I want more clients,” make it a mission: “I’m going to onboard two new clients this month by reaching out to past contacts, leveraging my network, and running targeted ads”.

Woah. Suddenly, I believe you.

Instead of “I want to launch a new service,” your mission becomes: “I’ll develop a new service by dedicating 5 hours each week to ideate and gather feedback from beta testers, to create a strategic launch plan.”

A mission isn’t a wishlist — it’s a call to action.

What I love most about this reframing is that it’s less binary — not just about checking yes or no. When you’re on a mission, you’re focused on the journey. You’re fluid and agile. Always willing to adapt, pivot, and explore — using creativity to continue making progress.

You’re expected to run into obstacles, and that’s not a discouragement, it’s proof that what you’re doing is pushing boundaries and gaining XP (“experience points” for us dinosaurs).

We still have well over 100 days left in 2024, which is plenty of time to complete a mission or two.