How Kelly achieved 90% of her 2024 goals
[Written January 7th, 2025]
Hi friends —
Happy #goalsettingszn. Here at Womanhood, we love a good goal… but one that is going to make us feel alive, rather than stressed.
So today, Kelly is sharing her goals from 2024 (including the more personal ones she won't post on social media) and how she fared in achieving them. And of course, she'll be sharing her 2025 goals… alongside a deep dive into how she plans to achieve the most important (and hardest) one.
This newsletter is for those of you who find yourself setting primarily career goals (neglecting your whole womanly self) and/or setting goals that make you question whether you can achieve them. Read on, because by learning how Kelly sets ambitious yet achievable and authentic goals… you'll feel that Christmas fog dissipate… and some of that beautiful energy come flooding back.
Now, off to hear a bit from Kelly…
anything is possible
In January 2024, I decided I was going to make my wildest dreams come true.
Because for the first time I decided to put my intention & goal setting energy into areas that were not my work life.
~jaw drops in shock and horror~
By following a series of processes and prompts I've collected over the years, I ended up with the below list of intentions (ok, goals) for 2024:
I feel financially abundant working part-time as a strategist alongside / for female leaders I respect & admire
I find a badass specialist who helps me grow a highly engaged subscriber list for Womanhood, setting the foundation for ease-filled entrepreneurial success
I get invited to / win a big ‘stage’ opportunity (TED talk, book publishing deal, prominent podcast guest, university lecturer, etc) that shows me being famous is not as “scary” as I think it will be.
Our family grows with ease & in perfect timing ... until it is complete
We buy a home that provides each of us the space we need, feels homey inside and out & does not overburden us financially + is near a values aligned community that includes at least some people we know.
I have a local bestie — a fellow mom, creative, intellectual, spiritual, down to earth yet ambitious human
I become more grounded in who I really am, and feel it’s safe to be my full authentic self
I finally stop feeling I need to keep saving / earning so much money. I feel in my body I have more than enough.
I receive an invitation to a community of mega expanders
I discover a new life affirming outlet for my active brain that allow me to “switch off” as I did pre pregnancy through fitness / going out w friends
Now, the process of coming up with this list was a many week long endeavor… and quite meticulous. Every single word you see in this list is particular, and important.
For example, I initially had a goal of “I earn £5k+/month from working part-time as the right hand woman of an expert I respect”, which I changed to “I feel financially abundant working part-time as a strategist alongside / for female leaders I respect & admire”.
Because really, that £5k/month number was arbitrary. That was the minimum I needed to feel financially abundant… but I was also limiting the way the universe could realize my need. And ironically, much of my income now comes through investing – rather than the month to month pay checks I receive.
Every single one of these goals came to be (bar the home purchase… I guess we can't have it all 😛).
And yet I feel like I truly did achieve so much. So much so that I took what I learned through experimentation in 2024, and solidified it into an anti-SMART goal (byeee corporate jargon!) goal setting exercise for 2025.
From intention to action
And so here we are, with a fresh slate of opportunity in the first month of a new year. I followed my goal setting exercise and the intentions I've set for 2025 are:
Prioritizing sustainability over intensity
Seeing my net worth grow by 10%
Finding joy in ~15 hours of computer based work
Buying the house that is our family home
Maintaining physical / mental / emotional / spiritual wellbeing as a core part of my identity and focus
Feeling confident going into birth / having a second child
Feeling even more comfortable living life without a clear plan
Becoming Miss KK
Doubling the Womanhood subscriber base
Fostering 2 weekly moments with my on & offline community, in a way that strengthens my reliance on it and contributes to my personal growth
Teaching my daughter a key life lesson each month of the year
Birthing 1-2 creative projects I’m hugely proud of
Finding the way back to romance with my partner, like when we first met
You'll notice the language here is open ended yet ambitious. It's powerful yet feminine. It's intentional yet unattached.
And while having goals is important, moving from intention to action is where the magic lies.
However, when you begin to set goals that live outside the realm of career / work… it becomes a hell of a lot more difficult to move into making the changes we know we need to. So let me tell you a short story about my first goal – prioritizing sustainability over intensity.
sustainable dopamine, please!
When I was younger, I followed the crowd in search of intense dopamine hits.
I went out for big nights… at fancy clubs (ew) and I often traveled to places I wasn’t very interested in (shame on me!).
But now – and as many of my fellow 30 somethings will nod along with – I'm much less willing to do the things I'm not excited to do. And so many of us (myself included) fall trap to fuelling our need for dopamine through the limited means by which we are still motivated to – work.
My theory on why we do this? Work is motivating because we get paid for it. I mean yes, duh, … but more specifically… we get intellectual and social stimulation while also getting paid.
Work is unique, because it's a simple way to access “the 2-for-1" method (a term I coined myself, thank you very much!).
Because not only are you getting a sense of achievement of novelty challenge of newness, but you’re also getting money.
Through my goal setting exercise (and many a therapy session) last year I realized that this 2-for-1 concept is a core value of mine. It’s also one of my fatal flaws.
And yet with any value or fatal flaw, knowing how to work with it, leverage it and/or ignore it is what allows you to maintain a sense of uniqueness – and the energy that comes with it.
So my intention in 2025 is to learn how to harness it… turning it into a sustainable method for providing myself a drip of dopamine. One that doesn’t rely on my career, but instead on my core values (hint: values are a key part of my goal setting approach).
As such – over the last few weeks, I've begun listing new ways to meet my very intense need for dopamine (in only a way a gifted x divergent individual can need) that avoid a reliance on work (aka the “easiest” but least sustainable 2-for-1). The list I have already come up with is:
Engaging in Pilates also is improving my hip rehab, and Spin also gives me a mini-party-at-the-club experience
Writing this newsletter also allows me to engage in reflection exercises, and also share them with my community (oooh – a 3 for 1!)
Walking my daughter to nursery, while also walking the dog, and also getting myself a coffee each morning
Crocheting stockings, hats and scarves for the family while also watching trashy reality TV (tbh my fav so far!)
Baking cookies with my daughter, creating holiday magic while also teaching her core life skills
Even just this short list of 5 simple ways to translate my intention of prioritizing sustainability over intensity is incredibly grounding. It inspires confidence that in 12 months time.. I'll be a sustainability queen (and yes, her name is Miss KK 💫).
Because by now I hope you know that the first step to personal growth (in any form… including goals) is self-awareness. So if you notice yourself moving through any patterns and want to change, this is your suggestion to firstly look at your unique values… and from there form a set of goals that span the entirety of your woman self 🧚🏼♂️