Latest / Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing / #213| Why Confetti Goals Create More Overwhelm Than Actual Change
Transcript
- 0:00Michelle Gauthier: When our goals don't work, we don't assume the system is wrong.
- 0:03Michelle Gauthier: We assume there's something flawed with us.
- 0:05Michelle 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.
- 0:35Michelle Gauthier: Hello, friend.
- 0:39Michelle Gauthier: I just saw the other day that January 1st is a soft launch for the new year, but the real new year starts today, on the first Monday of the year, when everybody's back to work.
- 0:51Michelle Gauthier: If you're like me, your kids are back to school.
- 0:54Michelle Gauthier: So since today is the official launch of 2026 per social media anyway, I want to talk to you today about confetti goals.
- 1:02Michelle Gauthier: Confetti goals are when you decide that you want to change everything, that everything in your life needs improvement and everything feels urgent.
- 1:10Michelle Gauthier: And then suddenly the year feels heavy before it really even starts.
- 1:14Michelle Gauthier: And it's probably unlikely that you would write these goals down or try to take action on them.
- 1:19Michelle Gauthier: But if you do, because there's so many and a too much improvement all at the same time, they usually don't end up getting accomplished.
- 1:26Michelle Gauthier: So today we're going to talk about why confetti goals create more overwhelm than actual change, beliefs about doing more quietly sabotage your goals and what it means instead to focus on the essential few so your goals actually fit into your life.
- 1:43Michelle Gauthier: Before we jump in, I want to remind you that I am teaching a workshop tomorrow, Tuesday, January 6th, that is going to address exactly what I'm talking about today.
- 1:53Michelle Gauthier: It is not too late for you to sign up.
- 1:55Michelle Gauthier: The link will be in the show notes.
- 1:57Michelle Gauthier: And I would love to see you there to set the essential few goals.
- 2:02Michelle Gauthier: Okay, let's get into it.
- 2:05Michelle Gauthier: So let's talk a little bit more about what confetti goals are and why they create overwhelm instead of change.
- 2:11Michelle Gauthier: Here's what this looks like in my life.
- 2:13Michelle Gauthier: For example, just this morning was looking around my office and thinking, okay, there's a bunch of stuff in here that I don't want in here anymore.
- 2:20Michelle Gauthier: I need to hide all those cords.
- 2:23Michelle Gauthier: I need to change the way that I'm doing my business.
- 2:26Michelle Gauthier: And I just start thinking about absolutely everything that I quote unquote need to change.
- 2:31Michelle Gauthier: I do the same thing in my house.
- 2:33Michelle Gauthier: Last night I was brushing my teeth.
- 2:34Michelle Gauthier: I'm like, oh, I really need to renovate this bathroom.
- 2:37Michelle Gauthier: Gotta do this thing differently.
- 2:39Michelle Gauthier: Went to the gym yesterday for my first workout of the year and thought, okay, I did a good job last year, but I'm really gonna hit it hard this year.
- 2:46Michelle Gauthier: And if you're a mover and a shaker and an overachiever, you probably like to make changes and you like to make improvements.
- 2:52Michelle Gauthier: But the problem with confetti goals is it's just too many, too vague, and not based on where you actually are in life.
- 2:59Michelle Gauthier: They're usually set from the pressure to change everything all at once.
- 3:03Michelle Gauthier: And when they don't stick, so let's just play this out.
- 3:07Michelle Gauthier: So let's say that I make a goal in every single area of my life, and I'm like, yep, this is what I'm gonna do.
- 3:14Michelle Gauthier: I'm gonna get in even better shape.
- 3:18Michelle Gauthier: I'm gonna totally change how I'm doing business.
- 3:21Michelle Gauthier: I'm gonna renovate my bathroom on my own.
- 3:24Michelle Gauthier: Yesterday, when I was thinking this, I was like, I wonder if I could rent a saw and maybe do some trim pieces.
- 3:30Michelle Gauthier: You guys, I have no idea how to do that.
- 3:32Michelle Gauthier: Why would I want to do that?
- 3:34Michelle Gauthier: And you, of course, be the best mom and have an amazing relationship in just every area of my life.
- 3:41Michelle Gauthier: When you pick too many goals in too many areas of your life, what happens is the goals don't stick because it's not possible, right?
- 3:49Michelle Gauthier: We can't change everything all at once while we're still continuing to live the busy life that we were already living before it turned into a new year.
- 3:57Michelle Gauthier: And what happens when we don't make progress on those goals is we don't question the goals.
- 4:03Michelle Gauthier: We question ourselves.
- 4:04Michelle Gauthier: We're like, oh, maybe I'm incapable of change, or I'm just too stressed or overwhelmed to make any changes, or maybe this is just always how it's going to be.
- 4:14Michelle Gauthier: So let's talk about how we got to that place where we're trying to make too many changes all at once.
- 4:20Michelle Gauthier: I don't know about you, but for a long time I believed that making change required doing more.
- 4:26Michelle Gauthier: So if something in my life didn't feel good, I just had to do more, put more effort into it, push more, try harder.
- 4:35Michelle Gauthier: And what that actually led to was the opposite of progress.
- 4:38Michelle Gauthier: I'd get so overwhelmed that I'd just do nothing, or I would do all the things and then just feel dissatisfied because it never felt like it was enough.
- 4:47Michelle Gauthier: So I don't think that's a motivation problem.
- 4:50Michelle Gauthier: I was plenty motivated.
- 4:52Michelle Gauthier: It's conditioning because what we're taught to believe is that we're not enough unless we're trying our hardest at all times on all fronts.
- 5:01Michelle Gauthier: So when our goals don't work, we don't assume the system is wrong.
- 5:05Michelle Gauthier: We assume there's something flawed with us.
- 5:07Michelle Gauthier: And before I came to life coaching, and maybe you're in this position now, the only strategy I had for making myself feel better when I felt overwhelmed was to do more.
- 5:18Michelle Gauthier: And confetti goals are a great example of that.
- 5:21Michelle Gauthier: Something in my life doesn't feel good, so I'm going to try to change everything dramatically all at once.
- 5:27Michelle Gauthier: And when you have that belief that doing more is the answer, it's usually a pretty predictable process.
- 5:33Michelle Gauthier: So you are struggling in some area and you decide the answer is to do more and try harder, and then you do more and try harder.
- 5:41Michelle Gauthier: And either the idea of doing more and trying harder is so overwhelming that you just don't do anything, or you actually do the trying harder and it doesn't feel good when you do it.
- 5:52Michelle Gauthier: So no matter if you do the thing or not, it still doesn't give you the feeling that you're going for.
- 5:58Michelle Gauthier: So let me tell you my approach on goals.
- 6:00Michelle Gauthier: The essential few.
- 6:02Michelle Gauthier: We do not need a lot of goals.
- 6:03Michelle Gauthier: We need a few goals, and we need goals that actually fit into our lives.
- 6:08Michelle Gauthier: The essential few is about choosing quality over quantity and focusing on what matters right now.
- 6:15Michelle Gauthier: In the workshop tomorrow, I'm going to explain what exactly that means.
- 6:20Michelle Gauthier: You might be at a time in your life where taking on new goals isn't the best idea, or you might be at a place in your life where you want to take on some new goals, but the best thing to do is just focus on a few goals at work or focus on a few goals in your relationship.
- 6:40Michelle Gauthier: The essential few method, we talk about choosing quality over quantity and making the goals what matters to you right now based on where you are in life.
- 6:52Michelle Gauthier: And as you work on these and we spread these goals out over the year, maybe there are some goals you won't start on until June, and you know that's the good thing.
- 7:01Michelle Gauthier: So let's take my bathroom renovation where I'm not renting a saw, but I'm hiring someone who knows how to use a saw.
- 7:07Michelle Gauthier: What I'm planning to do for that is to put that on my calendar actually for somewhere in the third quarter.
- 7:12Michelle Gauthier: I haven't decided yet, but somewhere in the third quarter.
- 7:14Michelle Gauthier: And then when I go to evaluate that month and plan that month, there it is.
- 7:19Michelle Gauthier: Okay, that's the goal that I need to pick up on and start now.
- 7:22Michelle Gauthier: When you focus on the essential few, you will be able to accomplish all of your goals and you'll start building evidence along the way.
- 7:31Michelle Gauthier: This is working.
- 7:32Michelle Gauthier: I can trust myself to just have a couple really specific goals that fit into my life right now.
- 7:38Michelle Gauthier: I don't need to change everything to feel better.
- 7:41Michelle Gauthier: And that is how momentum is built.
- 7:44Michelle Gauthier: So if you're heading into the new year thinking I should be doing more and creating some confetti goals for yourself where you're just throwing them all up in the air and kind of hoping something sticks, just notice that you don't need to change everything.
- 7:57Michelle Gauthier: You probably don't even need to try harder.
- 7:59Michelle Gauthier: You don't need a whole bunch of goals.
- 8:01Michelle Gauthier: You just need fewer goals that actually fit your life.
- 8:04Michelle Gauthier: And tomorrow, when we plan 2026 together, we're not just picking goals.
- 8:08Michelle Gauthier: We're intentionally planning a year that feels doable and supportive and aligned so that you can make it all the way through the year and make the changes that you want to make this year.
- 8:18Michelle Gauthier: If you're joining me for the planning workshop tomorrow, if you've already signed up, amazing.
- 8:22Michelle Gauthier: I will see you tomorrow.
- 8:24Michelle Gauthier: If you haven't yet, you can sign up in the show notes.
- 8:27Michelle Gauthier: You do not need to have clarity yet.
- 8:29Michelle Gauthier: You don't need to know what you want to change this year.
- 8:32Michelle Gauthier: Just come as you are, and I can't wait to plan this year with you.
- 8:36Michelle Gauthier: Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
- 8:44Michelle Gauthier: If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at michellegauthier.com.
- 8:50Michelle Gauthier: See you next week.