One of the biggest roadblocks I see when people set goals is that they try to chase them all at once. And while the intentions are great, the outcome is often burnout, guilt, and frustration. Because if your goals compete with each other, none of them win.
We all have those foundational aspirations:
- Prioritize our physical and mental health
- Create financial freedom
- Reclaim our time
- Spend more meaningful time with loved ones
But trying to give 100% to all of them at once? That’s a recipe for overwhelm. The better plan? Work in seasons.
Why You Need to Think in Seasons
Think of life like a farm. You can’t plant, grow, harvest, and rest all at the same time. You need a plan. You need seasons.
Start by asking yourself: “What season am I in right now?” And from there, build an intentional routine and realistic expectations for your goals.
For example, if I’m in a business growth season, I know it’s going to cost me time, energy, or even a bit of my health routine. But it’s not forever. Spring is the busiest time of year in my mortgage brokering business. So I front-load my health goals in January by doing Dry January, making premade healthy meals, reducing screen time, getting more fresh air, doing daily workouts, and a few biohacks (a personal hobby of mine). This routine fuels me so I can hit the ground running when the spring market is in full swing. Now I can build on this over the next few months as I grow my business and reap the rewards.
Blending Goals Strategically
When you know your current season, you don’t totally abandon the other goals; you just reduce them. As I prepare for the spring real estate market, I’m optimizing my business’s backend.
To grow, I’ve:
- Hired out day-to-day household tasks
- Researched tools and systems for my business, including AI and started to implement them
- Built-in routines that support growth and sustainability
Once spring is in full swing, I’ll be “harvesting” by working long hours. That’s why this upfront work matters. It gives me more time, space, and energy later.
Usually, my business slows down in the summer. That’s when I shift focus toward fun and family time. To be totally honest, I overdid it last year with fun and completely dropped my healthy routines and ignored my business goals. So this year, I’m planning my summer differently. Before my rest and recharge season, I’m reclaiming my time.
Buying Back My Time
At a conference, Dan Martell spoke about “buying back your time.” I read his book, and it flipped a switch for me. I realized I didn’t need to go back to the drawing board with my goals. I needed support. I needed leverage. I started to think of money as a tool.
This is when I decided to:
- Hired a tutor for my son
- Subscribed to a healthy meal service
- Hired a house assistant (more than a housekeeper)
- Invested in wellness tools in my home to save travel time to the gym
And just like that, I started regaining my time, focus and energy.
Reclaiming your time works for any season. Sometimes there is a cost, and it’s hard to justify until you have that financial freedom. Sometimes you’re at a breaking point, where your health and family are more important than your bank account balance.
Here’s the reality: if you want to scale your business and have more “you time” and family time right now, something’s got to give. And that something is usually money.
You either:
- Keep doing things yourself and sacrifice your time
- Spend some money and buy back your time
Neither option is wrong. But pretending you can have it all at once without trade-offs? That leads to disappointment.
Figure out your seasons. They could all be in a one-month period, or more spread out. Plan your goals on a calendar based on your seasons. Maybe you have a family vacation, and you load up on family goals for that week. And you know that when you come back, your inbox will be full, so you plan for 3 weeks’ worth of work goals. Or maybe you are like me and have a busy spring market for 3 months, then plan 2 months of family and friends goals during the summer. I promise you will feel less overwhelmed and not like you are failing at everything. You will be more focused on the goals that lead you to more alignment. That’s intentional living.
Here’s an example:
“I will establish a healthy routine (insert goals/time frame), so my focus and energy are optimum (reducing my financial and family goals.) Then I’ll shift my focus on growing my business (insert goals/time frame, while (reducing my health and family goals.) When I hit that goal, I’ll hire more help so I can shift my focus to family (insert goal/time frame) while not having to reduce so much of my (financial and health goal going forward).” Because you reclaimed your time.
A few cycles and I promise that your “reduced goals” will start to become equivalent to your “first cycle” of focus goals. It magically happens, trust me!
When you know your season and align your energy with it, things start flowing. You stop tugging yourself in 10 directions and start bridging your goals instead.
Want a list of tasks I have hired out personally and in my business? I have tried a lot of different things, trying to find the perfect solution. Message me, and I’d love to share what’s made the biggest difference alicia@tmcweconnect.ca
