Weekly Spark #252: Mid-Year Check In & Aborted Goal Pursuit
Welcome to The Weekly Spark, my weekly+ newsletter featuring insights on mental and physical wellness, intentional living, and personal development. Since September 2020, I’ve published 252 reflections hoping to motivate myself and others to live more thoughtful, purpose-driven lives.
We are (almost) at the mid-year point of 2025. Wow. The year has absolutely flown, as every year seems to. As we approach the second half of the year, it’s time to check in on our goals. Remember those lofty resolutions, goals and motivations you had for the year back in January? How are they going? Maybe they’re still guiding your daily routines, actions, and you’re as pumped as ever to pursue them… awesome! Maybe that sheet of paper is dusty and you haven’t touched it since January 1st… awesome! Maybe you didn’t have goals for the year and don’t really know what I’m talking about. In any camp, as we continue the conversation, now is a great time to take stock of where you’ve been, where you’re at, and where you’re going.
How’s 2025 been for you thus far? Be real with yourself. What’s going well? What’s not going so well?
As I think reviewing goals and ensuring alignment of goals with my personal direction, I’d like to talk a bit more extensively about the process of abandoning goals. When you set a goal, you must do whatever it takes to achieve it, right? By any means necessary! Even when the going gets tough, the tough get going, and they persevere to achieve their goals! I hope you noted my sarcasm, but anyways; most of the time I pursue the goals that I set out for myself. When you’re intentional about knowing yourself and setting them in the first place, usually they’re aimed in the right direction. However, there are times when I know that abandoning a goal, while it would be easy for outsiders to dismiss it as “giving up,” will actually provide me MORE personal and professional growth than continuing to pursue it and ultimately achieve it in the first place.
It all comes down to opportunity cost of time, effort, and personal investment. Every ounce of physical and emotional energy that you put into the pursuit of something (could be a goal, a relationship, a job, etc.) is an ounce of energy that you inevitably can’t put into something else. If it’s not the most worthwhile pursuit and best use of that energy, you could be optimizing in another direction. Reading books is a good analogy for it. You ever pick up a book that you thought you would be interested in and really enjoy? Let’s say the book is 300 pages, so not short by any standards. It will take work and time (say 10 hours for illustrative purposes) to get through. As you started it and got going, it seemed ok. It wasn’t great, but it was good enough to keep going. Eventually, you get to the 150-page mark; you’ve put in 5 hours to this book but you don’t love it. You’re not convinced it’s going to get that much better. What do you do? Personally, I’ve left many books unfinished with no shame of moving onto the next one. It’s not worth that extra 5 hours reading something that’s just ok. I could get eaten by a shark tomorrow; why would I want to spend my last days reading something that’s just ok when I could be doing a million other things and in the reading context, I could be reading or taking a chance on a book I’d love. Spending 5 hours on anything that’s “good enough” or “just ok” is something to avoid at all costs!
Goals are the same way. As we approach the halfway mark of the year, some of those goals you set yourself may not be relevant to the person that you’ve grown to be in the last 6 months. These are the “ok” books. Sure, you might gain something from continuing to pursue them, but can you gain more by pursuing something else? That’s the ultimate question. If my goal on January 1st was to run 5 marathons this year, but I ultimately suffered a leg injury that would prevent that from being realistic and good for me, it’s probably worth recalibrating. If I was deadset on it (or David Goggins), I would keep running. But if I was smart about it, I would recognize that another goal is a better use of my time; maybe it’s completing an XXX swim in YYY time (just for example). Resetting those goals, finding the new motivation and inspiration, and being intentional with how we invest our time is crucial.
Now there’s a major difference between recalibrating and setting goals to better align with the person you want to grow into and giving up on goals because they’re hard and you’ve fallen behind. By now, you are self-aware to know the difference in these two circumstances. If it’s the latter, quit babying yourself, dust yourself off, and go out and pursue those very same goals because they’ll move you closer to the person you are called to be. If it’s the former, recognize when it’s time to change goals and pursuit trajectory to ultimately move you even closer towards the person you are called to be, and your version of excellence.
As you think about your goals for the year and the direction you are heading, how’s it going? What’s worth continuing to pursue? What could you take a step back from and ultimately launch yourself to a higher place by NOT pursuing? What we do is just as important as what we don’t do and with the scarce resources we have, we need to use them in the most worthwhile ways.
Here’s to more intentionality and the pursuit of worthwhile goals in the second half of 2025… as we seek to grow into the best, most authentic versions of ourselves and move closer to realizing our own versions of excellence…
Mental Diet
Quote of the Week:
“Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt will have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on yesterdays.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing. If you are enjoying The Weekly Spark, please share with a friend, family member, or coworker who you think might benefit. If you have thoughts, comments, or feedback, please reply to this email and share them; I’d love to hear from you! Until next time… Take care of yourself and take care of each other. 🙏
Nathan
