What's Your Personal Goal for This Year?

The basic idea: Earlier this week, I wrote in The Journey with Bruce Kasanoff that "my personal goal is to make this a year of travel—as soon as it becomes safe and feasible to do so—one in which we escape wherever we holed up in 2020 and get reacquainted with the world and other people."

But that's not really the whole story. In truth, I don't have a fully-formed picture of my goal for the year ahead. It will probably be 3-6 months before I can start travelling again in the way we used to—meeting people along the way, stopping in bars and restaurants—and I'm not willing to spend 3-6 months just waiting to implement my personal goal.

So every morning, I wake up and watch the sun rise, asking myself what my goal should be. I am open to possibilities. I am actively seeking my answer.

A bit more background: Professional goals are easy. In many cases, your boss or CEO or investors tell you what they expect. Or perhaps your goals this year are merely an extension of last year (i.e. grow 10% again.)

But personal goals can be more elusive. They are NOT resolutions, which often are fleeting and abandoned by March. In my mind, they are your single main focus for the year ahead. For example, last year my goal was to find a life partner, one of my most challenging goals ever, which I somehow managed to accomplish in the midst of a pandemic.

I'd love to start a discussion here about personal goals, and am curious to hear...

• What's your personal goal?
• If you don't yet have one, how are you taking the time to find the right one for 2021 and beyond?
• What, if anything, makes this question challenging?

Bruce Kasanoff is the founder of The Journey, a newsletter that helps you focus your life on what matters most.