🥅Get Free: A Goal Free Zone

Hey Get Free Fam,

Welcome to July, and if you’re in the United States, make the most of this Get Free Friday and the bonus long weekend. Because we DESERVE. Sleep in, eat something good and remember to laugh (and drink water. Always water. It’s HOT!) 

But aside from it being a holiday stateside, July also marks month two of The Get Free Guide! Thanks for rolling! We’re here every Friday, but you can go back and catch up on posts any time. This aside, July is also (gasp!) the midpoint of 2025. Somehow we skated through the first six months of the year, rolled into summer and then we’ll slide into New Year’s and chuck up the deuces on the first quarter century of the 2000s. Like, HOW DID WE GET HERE?

NEW HALF YEAR, NEW YOU?

What the midpoint also signals is a run on “Refresh, Renew, Revisit” articles and motivational social media posts encouraging us to recommit to our 2025 goals and lock in on our priorities; to get fit, to secure that promotion, to get our finances in order, to journal daily, to keep our closets organized, to be more productive, to be more strategic, to…insert all the things.

Now, I’m not gonna lie: I love goals. I love strategizing. I love making lists and crossing things off. I love big and small Post It notes that move as I move and keep me honest on the things I say I want to achieve. I’m about that goals life!

And yet…

Some lessons hit hard in the first half of the year. My community is suffering after wildfires tore through homes, businesses and schools in January. What took just hours to destroy will take years, maybe decades to rebuild. Everyone involved had goals and plans for 2025, and everything changed in moments.

On the job front I’ve seen the impact of layoffs as my industry shifts under economic pressures. People - super talented people - are suddenly having to figure out their next move, while navigating economic uncertainty. Needs changed, so goals changed.

STRUCTURE OR CONSTRAINT?

Is it important to have plans to give our lives structure? Of course. Should we strive to hold ourselves accountable? Yes. Does goal setting help us make the most of our time and talent? Absolutely. But do we have to put ourselves under pressure to perform and optimize every part of our lives at all times? I think the answer is … no.

Maybe the goal should be to have no goal. Would it really be so terrible if life wasn’t planned and scheduled to the second? Would our careers and personal ambitions suffer if we cut ourselves some slack, gave our brains a break and just … be? For parents, what would happen if we just let little people get bored and took it down a notch? I worry that our goal of creating well rounded, life-ready individuals is setting them up to always be on. When do we teach them to be off?

SO, WHAT’S THE TASK?

This week I’m resisting the urge to a) beat myself up for things I didn’t get to in the first half of 2025 and b) thinking long and hard about setting Q3 and Q4 goals, or rather NOT setting them. Yes, the time will pass whether I set goals or not, but between news articles, social, and maybe even our friends, we have to be sure we’re making goals for ourselves and not because of something that dropped into our feed or consciousness while doom scrolling at 3am. Are goals just busy work, or truly moving you forward?

Are you making new resolutions for the rest of 2025? Or are you trying to #getfree from goals? Let’s hear from you! Plenty of you are writing in already. More on your responses in a future post!

🚀Get Your Life: Things to read, listen to, enjoy🚀

📚What I’m reading: Currently nothing! Send along your recommendations for the GFF!

🎧What’s on the pod:  Closet Confessions with Candice Brathwaite and Coco Sarel. A new episode hasn’t dropped in over a year, but the five seasons in the back catalog will have you rolling on the floor. Candice and Sarel are real ones and living their best #getfree life! 

🎵 Soundtrack for the week: Tell Him by Moonchild feat. Lalah Hathaway. I don’t know what it is about Moonchild, but this mix with the soulful voice of Lalah Hathaway is beautiful

✨ If you’ve got a recommendation drop me a line. ✨

THANKS FOR READING!

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See you next Friday!