Slowing Down: Choosing Not to Set Goals for 2023

Teresa Torres reviews 2022, when her business shifted to being course-first and reached far more people than one-on-one coaching ever could. She describes the grind of the pandemic years, including launching several courses while writing and promoting her book. Looking ahead, she finds she cannot commit to new goals, because three intense years have taken a toll. She chooses 2023 as a deliberate sabbatical focused on rest, pleasure, and curiosity, while keeping a limited set of existing commitments. The piece matters because it models how a founder can recognize sustainable pace and deliberately limit ambition.

01Key takeaways

• Track your own pace over time; a run of productive years can hide an unsustainable load.
• Ask what went well, what could improve, and what you would do with 100 wishes to surface overlooked annoyances.
• A product that serves individuals can hold up better in a downturn than one sold to budget-constrained companies.
• Being unable to pick new goals can be a signal to rest rather than a failure of planning.
• Deliberately saying no protects your capacity to fully show up for the commitments you keep.

02Key sections

Reflecting on 2022

The course-first model let far more people learn continuous discovery than direct coaching did. Torres calls the shift, which felt risky at the time, the best business decision she has made.

The Marathon Years

After pandemic lead drop-offs, she quickly built subscription and course products aimed at individuals, who kept investing in themselves during the downturn. Launching products also meant continuous iteration, and promotion of her book added heavy travel and exhaustion.

Annual Review Process

Each December she asks what went well, what could improve, and how she would spend 100 wishes. The 100-wishes exercise surfaces small daily annoyances that are often easy to fix.

Choosing No New Goals for 2023

For the first time, she could not pick one or two goals despite many ideas. She recognized that the last three years had been unsustainable and declared a sabbatical year with a short list of ongoing commitments.

Less Is More

She plans to cut speaking, promotion, and one-off calls, and to use the freed space for learning, travel, and boredom rather than new work projects.

03From the post

“Happy New Year! For the past several years, I’ve published a state of the business report as my initial blog post of the year. And this year will be no different. In this post, I’ll reflect on the past year and look at the year ahead. Let’s”

04Frameworks mentioned

Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.