Latest / Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing / #201| How to Hit Every Goal You Set—Without Overwhelm
Transcript
- 0:00Michelle Gauthier: Making progress on your goals while still feeling overwhelmed, A, I think it's kind of impossible, and B, it takes all the fun out of it.
- 0:11Michelle Gauthier: You're listening to Overwhelmed Working Woman, the podcast that helps you be more calm and more productive by doing less.
- 0:18Michelle Gauthier: I'm your host, Michelle Gauthier, a former Overwhelmed Working Woman and current life coach.
- 0:23Michelle Gauthier: On this show, we unpack the stress and pressure that today's Working Woman experiences.
- 0:28Michelle Gauthier: And in each episode, you'll get a strategy to bring more calm, ease, and relaxation to your life.
- 0:38Michelle Gauthier: Hi, friends.
- 0:39Michelle Gauthier: Thanks for joining today.
- 0:40Michelle Gauthier: I can't believe it's almost December, and therefore it's almost 2026.
- 0:46Michelle Gauthier: It seems like this year has gone by so quickly.
- 0:49Michelle Gauthier: Today we're going to be talking about one of my absolute favorite coaching tools, which is the monthly pause and review.
- 0:58Michelle Gauthier: When you listen today, you're going to learn why it matters to pause and review for your month.
- 1:04Michelle Gauthier: And this is especially important, I think, as we are just about to start.
- 1:09Michelle Gauthier: The I would say for most people, the busiest month of the year, December, is a month that could definitely use planning more than probably any of the other 11 months of the year.
- 1:18Michelle Gauthier: So you'll learn how to review your month, how to reflect meaningfully and simply on what went well, and then how to plan ahead so that the next month feels more aligned and less overwhelming.
- 1:31Michelle Gauthier: As I've been a coach for the past eight years, it's so much fun because as I do things for and with my clients and myself, I'm just continually learning, like, wow, that thing really, really worked.
- 1:42Michelle Gauthier: Or okay, that was interesting, but that's not something that I'm going to keep doing.
- 1:46Michelle Gauthier: I started sharing this monthly review process with my clients after I consistently did it for an entire year.
- 1:54Michelle Gauthier: And I got to the end of the year - I always have reviewed my years.
- 1:59Michelle Gauthier: So I got to the end of the year and I reviewed the year and I compared it to what I set out to do at the beginning of the year.
- 2:06Michelle Gauthier: And when I looked back, I had hit every one of my goals that I set for myself.
- 2:11Michelle Gauthier: And I'll say more about the way that I set up goals in just a second, but I had hit every one of the goals that I set for myself.
- 2:17Michelle Gauthier: And I do goals all across the board.
- 2:19Michelle Gauthier: I have business goals.
- 2:21Michelle Gauthier: I had a goal last year to redo my dining room in a really colorful way and then host a dinner party with girlfriends.
- 2:29Michelle Gauthier: Like I have those kind of goals too.
- 2:30Michelle Gauthier: So I have goals all across the board.
- 2:32Michelle Gauthier: And when I looked back on this particular year, I think it was like three years ago, and I'd hit every one of those goals and I thought, well, how did that happen?
- 2:40Michelle Gauthier: Like usually I'll forget about one or just lose interest in it or whatever.
- 2:44Michelle Gauthier: And I realized that it was this monthly review that I was doing that was really making the difference because when you review every month, you never get too far off track.
- 2:54Michelle Gauthier: And so I decided to include that as part of my coaching.
- 2:58Michelle Gauthier: And last year in 2025, for the first year ever, I had a coaching group.
- 3:02Michelle Gauthier: And at the beginning of the year, we planned all of our goals.
- 3:06Michelle Gauthier: We did a vision board and then we planned all of our goals.
- 3:09Michelle Gauthier: And the way that I plan goals is I make the goal something that is a hundred percent in my control.
- 3:15Michelle Gauthier: So for example, I had a goal about my podcast.
- 3:19Michelle Gauthier: And instead of saying, oh, I want my podcast to get in the top 1%, I said, put out a two times a week podcast with a very simple process, the process for getting the podcast out.
- 3:31Michelle Gauthier: And the desired outcome, the result that I want is to get into the top 1% for podcasting.
- 3:37Michelle Gauthier: So if you do your goals that way and you put the goal as something that is in your control.
- 3:42Michelle Gauthier: So it's not how much money you make or how much better a relationship feels, or one of the other things I wanted to get results on this year was not feeling awful because of perimenopause.
- 3:54Michelle Gauthier: And so that isn't the goal, that's the result.
- 3:57Michelle Gauthier: And the goal was to find a new doctor and get new labs and try eating different macro combinations and see how that makes me feel.
- 4:04Michelle Gauthier: So I set up the goals so that I know for sure they're all in my control.
- 4:09Michelle Gauthier: And then I set up what I hope to get as the desired result.
- 4:13Michelle Gauthier: So in this course that I put together, we all did that together.
- 4:18Michelle Gauthier: We envisioned what we wanted for the year.
- 4:20Michelle Gauthier: We created a vision board.
- 4:22Michelle Gauthier: If that makes you feel scared, it's okay.
- 4:24Michelle Gauthier: I guide you exactly all the way through it.
- 4:26Michelle Gauthier: You create a vision board, you come up with the goals and the actions to take in order to get those goals that you're envisioning for yourself.
- 4:35Michelle Gauthier: And then you spread them out over the course of the year.
- 4:37Michelle Gauthier: So for example, there were a couple goals that I had in Q3 and Q4, and I just knew for the beginning of the year I didn't even have to think about those.
- 4:46Michelle Gauthier: So you've got these well-spaced goals to work on for the year.
- 4:49Michelle Gauthier: And then every single month we meet and we do live group coaching.
- 4:53Michelle Gauthier: And everyone before the class does this review that I'm about to teach you about, and then they plan for the next month.
- 5:00Michelle Gauthier: And that essentially means that you're consistently staying on track to hit your goals.
- 5:05Michelle Gauthier: And the other great thing is as women who are busy and overwhelmed and priorities change, you can go back and say, oh my gosh, that was the goal that I wanted at the beginning of the year, but I actually don't want that anymore.
- 5:17Michelle Gauthier: I'm just going to take that one off my list.
- 5:18Michelle Gauthier: Or you might have a brand new one that all of a sudden comes into view for you, and you want to add that in so you can just for the full year be flexible on what matters most to you at that time.
- 5:29Michelle Gauthier: So this particular class that I'm talking about that I've been leading this year called Your Best Year.
- 5:36Michelle Gauthier: And I surveyed the participants in this year's program.
- 5:39Michelle Gauthier: And the question that I asked them, because this was the promise, is how much did this program help you make consistent progress on your goals without overwhelm?
- 5:48Michelle Gauthier: Because making progress on your goals while still feeling overwhelmed, A, I think it's kind of impossible.
- 5:53Michelle Gauthier: And B, it takes all the fun out of it.
- 5:55Michelle Gauthier: And every single person in the class responded with a nine out of 10 or a 10 out of 10.
- 6:00Michelle Gauthier: They were able to just make this progress.
- 6:02Michelle Gauthier: And so I want to share with you today two things.
- 6:05Michelle Gauthier: One is this is going to be my Black Friday offer, purchasing this program for 2026.
- 6:12Michelle Gauthier: So if this has your ears perked up and you're like, wow, that sounds really nice.
- 6:16Michelle Gauthier: I would love to be gently guided through getting all the goals that I want for the next calendar year, my Black Friday offer could be for you.
- 6:24Michelle Gauthier: And it's the only sale that I have for the whole year.
- 6:27Michelle Gauthier: So it is going to be more than 50% off.
- 6:30Michelle Gauthier: So I want to tell you that.
- 6:31Michelle Gauthier: And then B, if you just want to give this a try for November, for the November to December transition, then I'm going to tell you exactly how to do this, how to do what we do inside of the group.
- 6:43Michelle Gauthier: Okay, so we have talked about why monthly reviews matter.
- 6:47Michelle Gauthier: Now let's look at how to actually do it.
- 6:49Michelle Gauthier: So when you're doing a monthly review, here are the questions that I recommend.
- 6:53Michelle Gauthier: Inside the group, we have a workbook and it has several questions in it.
- 6:57Michelle Gauthier: But if you were thinking of taking this and trying it for November, here are the three questions that I would recommend that you ask yourself for sure.
- 7:03Michelle Gauthier: These will get you a long way in the right direction.
- 7:06Michelle Gauthier: What were your favorite moments from this past month?
- 7:09Michelle Gauthier: You want to think of everything that felt like a win for you, big or small.
- 7:14Michelle Gauthier: So let's say you had like a huge win at work or a big parenting win, or maybe your family went on a great vacation, but also think of the little tiny thing.
- 7:23Michelle Gauthier: So for example, the other night I went to my niece who's in fifth grade.
- 7:27Michelle Gauthier: She had a school play and it was on a Thursday night, and it was like dark and raining and cold, and I was so tired from the day.
- 7:34Michelle Gauthier: And I decided that I wanted to go.
- 7:36Michelle Gauthier: So I just kind of went like in a blah mood, but I had said that I was gonna go.
- 7:41Michelle Gauthier: And I promise you, it was like one of my favorite wins from the whole month.
- 7:44Michelle Gauthier: It was so cute, and she was so happy.
- 7:47Michelle Gauthier: And their little fifth grade energy was just the cutest thing.
- 7:50Michelle Gauthier: So think big and think small.
- 7:53Michelle Gauthier: And when you look at the things that went well, what did you learn from them that you can take into the next month?
- 7:59Michelle Gauthier: Okay, so if I look at mine, I take that example of going to my niece's play.
- 8:04Michelle Gauthier: That for sure is a clue for me.
- 8:06Michelle Gauthier: I also noticed that the wins that I wrote down from a work perspective are things where I planned ahead and did things before they were due.
- 8:16Michelle Gauthier: My wins consistently, month over month, and best things from the month are always when I spend time with people who I love, especially my family.
- 8:23Michelle Gauthier: So every month I get to be reminded of that and to think for the next month.
- 8:27Michelle Gauthier: Okay, yes, what I can take into the next month is knowing that that is a very important way for me to spend my time.
- 8:33Michelle Gauthier: From a work perspective, if I think what went well and what did I learn from it, when I am very intentional and plan my work ahead and get it done before it's due, that always feels a million times better to me than when I'm last minute trying to get something done.
- 8:49Michelle Gauthier: And then the third question is to look at what didn't go well and what did you learn from that.
- 8:54Michelle Gauthier: And this isn't about shame.
- 8:56Michelle Gauthier: It's just really about insights.
- 8:58Michelle Gauthier: When I was writing this podcast, I looked back at each one of my months to read my what didn't go well and what did I learn from that.
- 9:05Michelle Gauthier: And it's essentially for me, it'll be like there were a couple weeks in this month where I didn't meal prep and that felt really stressful, or I didn't get to the gym as much as I wanted because I didn't plan the days that I was going to work out when I did my Sunday planning.
- 9:20Michelle Gauthier: Mine is always about how things go badly and feel badly when I don't plan them with intention.
- 9:27Michelle Gauthier: And yours might be completely different, but for me, that is it.
- 9:30Michelle Gauthier: And you would think that I would know that.
- 9:33Michelle Gauthier: And I guess I intellectually do, but unless I stop and take a look at it and review my month, I'm probably not even going to notice that.
- 9:40Michelle Gauthier: When you start to do this month over month and notice what really works for you and what really doesn't work for you, and maybe where you've overscheduled yourself, you can just over time slowly, and I think making change slowly is the best way to do it because then it sticks.
- 9:55Michelle Gauthier: You can change your whole life.
- 9:58Michelle Gauthier: So now that you've looked back on your past months, so in this case, maybe you look at look at November and you look ahead to December, you can ask yourself, what's my number one priority for this month?
- 10:08Michelle Gauthier: This can be a stressful question because as overwhelmed working women, we like to have a huge to-do list with 10,000 things on it.
- 10:15Michelle Gauthier: But what is your just number one priority for this month?
- 10:18Michelle Gauthier: I personally like to choose one for work and one for personal.
- 10:21Michelle Gauthier: You could do that, or you could just choose one goal.
- 10:23Michelle Gauthier: But that really helps me when I feel busy and overwhelmed to be like, okay, my number one goal for this month is X, is this one thing.
- 10:34Michelle Gauthier: So for me in December, my number one personal goal is to spend time with my family doing the one or two favorite Christmas things that we love to do.
- 10:45Michelle Gauthier: That's my personal one.
- 10:47Michelle Gauthier: And then the next question to ask is how can I plan ahead to support that?
- 10:51Michelle Gauthier: So one of the fun things that I love to do when I'm talking about our special family traditions, I think I've talked about this even on the podcast before, is we put on Christmas pajamas.
- 11:00Michelle Gauthier: My kids are 15 and 18, and they will still do this.
- 11:03Michelle Gauthier: And now we pick up my little niece who's six, and she also goes with us in her jammies.
- 11:08Michelle Gauthier: And we either get hot chocolate or sometimes we get those Chick-fil-A peppermint shakes.
- 11:14Michelle Gauthier: Oh my gosh, those are so good.
- 11:16Michelle Gauthier: We get those and we drive around and we look at Christmas lights.
- 11:19Michelle Gauthier: And so, how can I plan ahead to support that?
- 11:22Michelle Gauthier: Is I can text my sister-in-law right now and say, Hey, would this be a good day for us to go look at Christmas lights and then plan it with my kids on a day that I know they don't have practice or whatever else.
- 11:35Michelle Gauthier: So that is just one small thing.
- 11:37Michelle Gauthier: But when I look back and review December, that would be one of my wins for sure because it's special to me.
- 11:43Michelle Gauthier: Okay, so in summary, what I'm saying is if you consistently over time do this simple review at the end of your month and see what worked, what didn't work, and what those things are and how that can help you in the next month.
- 11:56Michelle Gauthier: And then you plan your next month, you will slowly but surely change your life and just keep going more in the direction of alignment and intention and having the things that truly matter in your life.
- 12:09Michelle Gauthier: This is exactly what we do in the your best year program.
- 12:13Michelle Gauthier: There is a full year workbook where you put all of your goals, you do all of your monthly reviews, we check in every month.
- 12:20Michelle Gauthier: One other fun thing about the group when I did this survey to get feedback on how the group went, one of the things I asked were what were some of the most helpful or your favorite parts about being in this group?
- 12:31Michelle Gauthier: And everybody said getting coached.
- 12:33Michelle Gauthier: So it's a group coaching.
- 12:35Michelle Gauthier: So sometimes, you know, people will say, Oh, I need help with this, and so I'll coach them on the group.
- 12:39Michelle Gauthier: So they said getting coached themselves, and then listening to other people get coached, which is also really helpful because you can be like, Oh, yeah, I should take that lesson.
- 12:49Michelle Gauthier: I think maybe Michelle's talking to me too in that.
- 12:52Michelle Gauthier: And then third, and these were an equal tie.
- 12:55Michelle Gauthier: Third was other women in the group supporting me and giving me suggestions.
- 12:59Michelle Gauthier: And I love that too, because sometimes when someone brings a problem and says, I feel really stuck on this, I'll give them coaching and then I'll say, What else do you guys have?
- 13:07Michelle Gauthier: What's worked for you?
- 13:08Michelle Gauthier: What can you share?
- 13:09Michelle Gauthier: So it's so much fun because we're all together moving in the direction of having more intentional, aligned lives.
- 13:18Michelle Gauthier: Like I said, this is my Black Friday offer.
- 13:21Michelle Gauthier: This is the only time in the whole year that I ever discount my coaching in any way, shape, or form.
- 13:27Michelle Gauthier: If you are listening to this and you're thinking, yes, this your best year program just sounds like something that I need in my life.
- 13:35Michelle Gauthier: I am opening up early access today just for podcast listeners.
- 13:41Michelle Gauthier: So you don't have to wait until Friday to get the Black Friday pricing.
- 13:45Michelle Gauthier: And the link is in the show notes.
- 13:47Michelle Gauthier: Grab your spot and then you can just stop worrying about 2026.
- 13:50Michelle Gauthier: We're gonna plan the whole thing together.
- 13:51Michelle Gauthier: We're gonna execute the whole thing together.
- 13:53Michelle Gauthier: I would absolutely love to help you create exactly the year that you want in 2026.
- 13:59Michelle Gauthier: And we will do it slowly, consistently over time while also not feeling overwhelmed and having fun.
- 14:06Michelle Gauthier: Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
- 14:14Michelle Gauthier: If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at MichelleGauthier.com.
- 14:20Michelle Gauthier: See you next week.