Start by Getting Your Priorities Straight
Do this before goal setting. Especially if you're overwhelmed.
After a year of collectively kicking to keep our heads above water many of us are stumbling into 2026. If you’re like me, you came into January praying for this year to be different. If you, like me, also feel like you’re reeling from the events of Minneapolis last week please know you’re not alone.
At the same time every coach out there (and self-styled wanna be) is pumping out content on goal setting and recycling the same tired advice: set SMART goals, make an action plan, and don’t rely on “motivation”. They’ll follow with some twist on those old ideas that they think makes it original thought leadership.
This is not that.
AND, if you’re feeling lost or overwhelmed, starting by setting a ton of goals will just drive you farther into burnout and deepen your mental health spiral when you start to struggle.
My advice instead: get your priorities straight first.
That’s right. Your priorities. Defined as “a thing that is regarded as more important than another”.
In a world designed to exploit and manipulate our attention many of my clients and students have benefitted from taking a step back and asking themselves what they actually care about. Doing this when we’re overwhelmed allows us to trim the nonsense from our feeds and schedules, identify energy sucks, and re-allocate our resources to what matters.
When it’s time for my clients to reassess this way we do a Priorities Audit. A sit-down self reflection exercise that pushes them to recognize how they’re spending their time and contrast it with what they claim to care about.
In essence: are you living in alignment with your priorities.
Quick sidebar: In the wake of Renee Good’s murder I’m finding myself doing the same, but at a different scale. I’m asking myself what things are worth saying, standing up for, and speaking up about. As a consequence, you may notice some tone and content changes in this space in the coming weeks and months.
This year, before you set goals and start making plans and beat yourself up for all you’re not getting to - consider making time to take a closer look at what you actually care about, your values, and how they’re being expressed in the ways you spend your time. Then set goals on the most important ones (instead of trying to do everything all at once).
Enter: The Priorities Audit
Paid supporters of Better Than Fine will have access to The Priorities Audit exercise I use with my clients.
