Goal Setting for Empaths and Highly Sensitive Entrepreneurs

Perhaps you set some big goals at the start of the year. You did some planning for how you wanted your business to go. Then as the month progressed you started to lose focus.

When you take a moment to look back through your history, this seems like a pattern that has repeated itself a few times. Goal setting seems like a good idea but staying connected to the goal isn’t easy.  

I know first hand what it feels like to set goals that aren’t aligned with your inner knowing. When the goals aren’t aligned they don’t often go anywhere. These were goals I thought I *should* be setting.

Shoulding is shaming

I remember the first time I heard a mentor say this.   “Shoulding” on ourselves is shaming ourselves.  It hit home pretty hard since there were a million things I did every day because I thought that’s what I should be doing.

When I took a step back and looked at this, I started to realize that YES there are things I need to do to move my business forward.

Doing those things because I want to do them feels completely different than if I think I HAVE to do those things.

My Business My way

I’ve spent  over 15 years as an entrepreneur running a variety of different businesses.  During this time, I’ve learned that goal setting works much better when I take my sensitives and my personal cycles into account.

Cycles and sensitivities

For pre-menopausal women, you have monthly cycles that help you know when to start setting goals.  During your menstrual cycle those first few days are the perfect times to start getting clear on your goals.  It’s a time to slow down and nurture your physical body.  Find out more about this by checking out this quick video from the lovely Stasha Washburn, the Period Coach. 

Dong this gives you enough space to get reflective and listen to your inner knowing.  Your intuition is eager to connect with you during this time.  Your intuition starts off as a whisper until you strengthen the muscle.  Be sure to give yourself quiet time.

For menopausal women you can honour the cycles of the moon. You can use the New Moon or Dark Moon as your guide.  This is the time to get clear on what goals you want to set going forward.

Bite sized pieces

As an empath entrepreneur, I know my system can easily become overwhelmed.  Knowing this, I like to break my goals down.

I take time during the new moon/menstrual phase to set out how I want to feel.  Looking at both my business and my life.  I write down a few goals that feel possible as well as those that feel like a bit of a stretch. My aim with these goals is exciting/energizing but not so far out that my nervous system hits fight/flight before I even start.

From here, I look to the quarter and create a few larger goals. I add smaller steps to my moon cycle goals to fill in what needs to be done to accomplish those quarter goals.

Then I also have a few year long goals. I place these at the top of the pyramid and so as I check in monthly with my goals I can see if what I am focused on is bringing me closer to the overall goals or not.

It makes it easy to see how each goal is supporting one another.

As well, it becomes crystal clear when I have veered off into shiny object syndrome and gives me the opportunity to get refocused without my nervous system stepping offline.