ISSUE 62
29 OCTOBER 2025 | READ ONLINE
Hi Reader,
It’s Wednesday.
And I’m staring at my Notion page. It’s where I set my weekly goals.
Usually, I do this on Sundays. I write a few intentions for the week, anchor them to my quarterly themes, and start Monday knowing what matters.
But this week, the page is still blank. Did I mention it’s Wednesday?
It’s not that I’ve been avoiding it. I’ve just paused. Because every time I sit down to write, nothing feels quite right.
And it’s made me wonder about something: when the goals don’t come easily, what’s really going on?
When Focus Doesn’t Flow
Do you ever question what’s going on when your focus won’t flow? Is it perfectionism? Or something else?
Maybe it’s a quiet signal that the goals you thought you wanted might not fit who you are right now (or what you need right now).
I’ve got to tell you – I’m results-oriented and I love goal-setting. Give me those quarterly themes, weekly outcomes, and daily check-ins.
But lately, I’ve been learning to treat it more like a conversation, asking different questions before I set goals at all.
The Three Questions That Change Everything
I start with these:
- What would I like to focus on today?
- What’s important about this for me?
- What would a successful outcome look like?
These three came from my coaching work, but they’ve reshaped how I lead myself.
The first pulls me out of the noise and into the present.
The second reconnects me to meaning, not momentum.
And the third helps me define success in terms of alignment, not only achievement.
When I ask these questions honestly, the right goals usually surface and the wrong ones fall away.
What the Research Says
It turns out this isn’t just intuition.
A 2025 Harvard Business Review article found that when people chase goals set by external expectations, motivation drops sharply after the initial burst of effort. But when goals are tied to identity and purpose, consistency increases dramatically.
Another study from Yale (2025) showed that intrinsic motives such as curiosity, mastery, and meaning outlast obligation every time.
So maybe the blank page isn’t resistance. Perhaps it’s your intuition saying, “Slow down and realign.“
This Week, Try This
If your goals feel fuzzy, don’t rush to fill the space. Instead, ask yourself:
- What truly deserves my focus right now?
- Why does this matter to me (not to anyone else)?
- What would it look and feel like to get this right?
- And maybe the hardest one: what am I not willing to chase anymore?
Write your answers in the space where your goals would normally go. That reflection might be the most productive thing you do all week.
I’ll set my goals later today. Maybe.
But this pause has already done something important: it’s reminded me that direction is useless without alignment.
And sometimes, the real goal is to stop long enough to find your own voice again.
See you next week,
Megan
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