The Problem With Traditional Goal Setting
I used to try to set big goals at the start of every year. I’d write them all down, feel motivated for a few weeks, and then somewhere around February or March something would happen — a work crisis, a shift in priorities, life getting in the way — and I’d be off track. Most of those goals ended up abandoned by Q2.
The pattern kept repeating, and for a while I thought the problem was discipline. But the more I looked at it, the more I realized the structure itself was broken.
Big annual goals are hard to keep because they’re too far away. It’s hard to stay connected to something you set in January when you’re living in a completely different context by June. Monthly goals are too short to make meaningful progress on anything substantial. Daily goals are useful but they’re really about habits, not outcomes.
But the real enemy isn’t the timeframe. It’s the amount of goals. I used to have a list of a dozen things I wanted to get done, and after weeks of seeing no progress on most of them, I’d mentally give myself permission to just let the whole list go. When everything is a priority, nothing is. And that’s a really easy way to end a year feeling like you were busy the whole time but didn’t actually move anything forward.
The One Goal Per Quarter Rule
I picked this up from an Ali Abdaal video, but I’ve stuck with it because it matches how my brain actually works. The idea is simple: you plan in quarters, not years, and each quarter gets one main goal. Not five, not a whole list. Just one clear outcome.
You ask a single question: If I only completed one meaningful thing in the next three months, what would make me genuinely proud?
That goal should be tangible and emotionally satisfying — something you can point to at the end of the quarter and say, this moved my life or my work forward. It can be personal, professional, or creative. Learning a new tool. Changing jobs. Shipping a product. Starting a side project. The category doesn’t matter. The commitment does.
This constraint forces clarity. It also protects you from spreading your energy thin. And this is something I think creatives especially need to hear, because we tend to be curious about a lot of things at once. We want to learn new tools, start new projects, build new skills, explore new directions — all at the same time. That curiosity is an asset, but without focus it becomes scattered energy that doesn’t compound into anything.
Think about your three most valuable resources: time, energy, and focus. Time is fixed — you only have so many hours and you can’t manufacture more. Energy fluctuates but it’s limited. And focus is what actually turns time and energy into results. When you spread all three across a dozen goals, none of them get enough to actually move forward. When you concentrate them on one, things start to happen.
Side Quests, Not Secondary Goals
Once the main goal is locked, everything else becomes optional. This is where side quests come in.
If you’ve played any open-world video game, you know the concept. Side quests are things you can do along the way — they’re interesting, sometimes rewarding, but they’re not what actually moves the main story forward. You can complete them or skip them entirely, and the core narrative doesn’t change.
The same framing works for your goals. Side quests are things you want to do, but they don’t get to compete with the main mission. They’re additive, not critical. They feel good to complete, but they don’t define success for the quarter.
This distinction is really useful because it gives your curiosity somewhere to go without hijacking your focus. Instead of feeling guilty about all the things you’re not doing, you’ve already categorized them as optional. If they happen, great. If they don’t, nothing is broken. It removes a lot of that quiet self-pressure that builds up when you have a long list of things you “should” be working on.
What This Looks Like in Practice
Since I’m building Thriveful in public, I’ll share my own Q1 2026 goals as a real example of how this works.
My main goal this quarter is to launch the Thriveful community. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while but kept pushing off due to other commitments in 2025. The biggest open question I’m working through right now is pricing — that decision affects positioning, commitment level, and who the community is really for. Getting that right matters more than polishing features. Everything else I’m doing supports that one outcome.
My side quests are intentionally secondary: redoing my portfolio site, starting the YouTube video series, and posting consistently on social platforms. All of those are valuable, and I’ll get to them when I can. But none of them are allowed to slow down the core launch.
The reason I’m sharing this is that I want you to see how the framework plays out in practice. It’s not about doing less. It’s about being honest about what actually matters right now and giving that thing the resources it deserves.
Why This Compounds Over Time
Here’s where this system really pays off. Over a year, four completed quarters means four meaningful outcomes. That’s four things you can look back on and say, “I actually finished that.” Compare that to the typical experience of setting ten annual goals and finishing maybe two of them — while carrying the weight of the eight you didn’t get to.
Four completed things compounds in ways that feel surprising. Each completed goal builds confidence for the next one. You develop a track record of finishing things, which changes how you approach new projects. Instead of wondering whether you’ll actually follow through, you have evidence that you will, because you’ve been doing it quarter after quarter.
It also helps you adapt to how your life and priorities actually change throughout the year. Something that feels urgent in January might not matter by July, and something you couldn’t have predicted in January might become your most important project by September. Quarterly planning gives you natural checkpoints to reassess and adjust without feeling like you failed.
How to Start
Set aside an hour. Pick the quarter you’re in. Choose one outcome that would make the next three months feel worth it. Write it down somewhere you’ll actually see it.
Then list a few side quests, knowing they’re optional by design.
This isn’t about being less ambitious. It’s about being more intentional with where your ambition goes. The goal is not perfection, just forward motion with intent.
If you want, I’ll keep sharing how this plays out as Thriveful launches. Thanks, ’til next time.
-K
