We’re taught to set goals like they’re math problems: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely.

And while I love a good SMART goal as much as the next strategist…a goal that doesn’t feel good will never work.

Because your energy is the strategy.

When you set goals that align with your energy — your rhythms, your capacity, your nervous system — you create momentum you can actually sustain. When you set goals that fight against all of that, you create resistance, burnout, and frustration.

Why “Good Goals” Still Fail

Most entrepreneurs don’t fail because they’re lazy. They fail because they set goals that:

• Copy someone else’s strategy instead of honoring their own.
• Sound impressive on paper but feel heavy in practice.
• Don’t account for their actual energy, life, or rhythms.

And when you ignore your energy, you end up forcing your way toward goals that were never aligned in the first place.

I’ve seen it in my own business. Anytime I’ve set goals just because I felt like I “should” or because that’s what “success” was supposed to look like, I was left me drained, uninspired, and questioning why I was even doing it.

Your Energy Is the Strategy

Instead of asking “What do I want to accomplish?” start asking “How do I want to feel?”

• Do you want your year to feel spacious or full?
• Do you want to create more connection, or more focus?
• Do you want momentum that’s steady and sustainable, or big bold leaps of growth?

When you start with energy, strategy flows naturally. Because your energy points you toward what’s actually aligned.

How to Set Goals That Feel Good

This doesn’t mean abandoning metrics—, t means letting them serve your energy, not control it.

Here’s a simple way to approach goal setting as a Feminine CEO:

Reflect on Energy First.

Before you write down a single goal, check in: How did this year feel? When did I feel most alive? When did I feel drained? (If you need help with this, go back to Reflecting Like a CEO).

Redefine Success.

Get rid of the conditioning of what you’ve been told success “should” look like, and actually define it for yourself. (I dive into this in Building Spacious Success).

Align Strategy with Energy.

Once you know how you want to feel, build goals that support it (ie: if you want more spaciousness, set goals around systems and delegation, not just revenue).

Choose Fewer, Better Goals.

You don’t need twelve goals for Q1. You need 1–3 that are deeply aligned and actually move the needle.

Create Rhythms, Not Rigid Routines.

Goals don’t happen in one big leap, they happen through consistent rhythms. (See Rhythms Over Routines for more on this).

The Bigger Reframe

The old model says: set the goal, then push your way toward it.

The aligned CEO model says: align your energy first, then let that energy guide the strategy.

Because a goal that feels good is a goal you’ll actually sustain. And that’s the kind of success that doesn’t just look good on paper, it feels good in real life.

Ready to set goals that align with your energy (and actually follow through on them)? That’s exactly what we do inside my Vision-to-Execution Accelerator!