130. Why I Don’t Set Time-Bound Goals (and What I Do Instead)

Have you ever noticed how setting a goal with a deadline can sometimes make you feel more anxious than inspired?

In this episode, I share a personal story about how I realized that my attachment to time-bound goals was actually creating stress, scarcity, and disconnection from the very abundance I teach and strive to live by.

During one of our biggest program enrollments, I experienced a powerful shift: instead of tracking numbers and pushing for results, I decided to remove the “T” from my SMART goals—the “time-bound” part. The moment I released the false urgency and pressure of having to meet a goal by a specific date, something extraordinary happened. I felt lighter, more creative, and deeply connected to Source again.

I talk about:
✨ How time-bound goals can trigger scarcity and stress rather than motivation.
✨ The difference between “relevant” goals and what I now call resonant goals—those that feel aligned with your heart and purpose.
✨ The practice that helped me detach from outcomes and stay rooted in service, joy, and flow.
✨ Why focusing on the journey, rather than the destination, is where true fulfillment—and sustainable success—lives.

By removing the timeline, I opened myself to infinite possibilities—and ironically, it turned out to be our most successful launch ever. But the real win wasn’t in the numbers—it was in how it felt: spacious, peaceful, and abundant.

So if your goals have been feeling heavy or pressured, this episode will invite you to loosen your grip, release the clock, and reconnect to what truly matters. When you stop forcing outcomes on a schedule, you make space for magic.

Listen in, and let’s explore what happens when you take off the “T.”

“When I have an idea that a goal has to be achieved in a certain amount of time, it creates stress and scarcity in my body. When I remove the timeline, I return to abundance.”–Kate Northrup

🎤 Let’s Dive into the Good Stuff on Plenty 🎤

00:00 Introduction to Abundance
00:35 The Concept of Goal Setting
03:37 Challenges with Time-Bound Goals
09:11 Removing False Urgency
11:16 The Journey vs. the Destination
13:10 Conclusion and Invitation to Change

✨ The Money Reset: Feel Good with Money—No Matter How Much You Make

Making more money doesn’t guarantee financial ease… but this will. The Money Reset is a free audio experience designed to help you rewire your nervous system for wealth—so managing money feels effortless. 🎧💸

Inside, you’ll learn how to:
💡 Break the ‘money in, money out’ cycle and create lasting stability.
🎯 Relax into a new relationship with money—where structure meets flow.
✨ Use the 5-Minute Calm Cashflow Ritual to bring instant clarity to your finances.

More money won’t solve money stress—a resourced, supple nervous system will. Ready to shift? 👉 Get The Money Reset Now! 👈

Related Episode:

How I Structure My Days, Weeks & Months to Stay Aligned with My Goals (126)

Episode Transcript

Kate Northrup (00:00):
When I have an idea that a goal has to be

(00:04):
achieved in a certain amount oftime, it creates stress and
pressure in my body, and itcreates a sense of scarcity and
lack. Welcome to Plenty. I'myour host Kate Northrup and
together we are going on ajourney to help you have an

(00:25):
incredible relationship withmoney, time, and energy, and to
have abundance on every possiblelevel. Every week, we're gonna
dive in with experts andinsights to help you unlock a
life of hunting. Let's go fillour cups.
So I wanna talk about goalstoday, which feels like,

(00:49):
honestly, like a bit little bitof a robotic personal
development topic. But I had anexperience recently during our,
Relax Money enrollment that wasso visceral and so profound that
I can't help but sharing it.Like, I must share this. So very
often, people say, you know,they say that you have to set

(01:14):
SMART goals. And like every goalsetting, you know, thing I've
ever been to, whether it was youknow, I got started in the
direct selling industry.
So in in network marketing, andthere was like a lot of personal
development training in thatspace, and one of the things was
goal setting. And we always weretold you have to start, set

(01:35):
SMART goals. SMART goals meaningspecific, measurable,
actionable, relevant, and timebound. Right? So that's what a
SMART goal is.
And okay, fine. That works forsome people. What I found is
that there's a couple of thingsabout SMART goals. And one of

(01:59):
them is that I do likespecificity. I do like
measurable, because that way youknow, did I hit the goal or not?
Right? Like, if my goal is,well, I just want to feel
better, well, is that specific?No. How and and is it
measurable? Like, how will Iknow if I achieved it or not?

(02:19):
So I get the smart andmeasurable part. Is it
achievable? Right? Like, if I'mlike, oh, I wanna go live on
Mars, that's not achievable. Somaybe maybe the a makes sense
too.
Relevant to me, I wish we wouldchange that word to resonant.
Meaning, does this goal feelexciting to you? Does this goal

(02:41):
feel connected to your heart?Does this goal feel connected to
what really matters to you? Sofor example, I might set a goal
around a monetary amount andfeel like it's a little flat.
Like maybe I have a monetarygoal for the launch. But for me,
when I think about a monetarygoal, it feels a little

(03:02):
disembodied, it feels a littleabstract, and honestly it feels
pretty about me and not aboutwho we're serving. So I always
switch it and think about acertain number of people that I
want to serve. So rather than Iwant this to be an x number of
dollars launch, I think about Iwant to serve x number of people

(03:26):
in this cohort of our program.And that really helps me for it
to be a resonant goal.
But then the t is what reallytrips me up. The t is for trips
you up, for me. And so the timebound thing gets real tricky,
and I'll tell you why for me.When I have an idea that a goal

(03:50):
has to be achieved in a certainamount of time, it creates
stress and pressure in my body,and it creates a sense of
scarcity and lack, and I findmyself operating out of like,
what if it doesn't happen? Igotta I gotta do more.

(04:13):
I gotta be more. I'm not enough.Like, it just triggers the fuck
out of me, to be honest. And soin this last promotion, one
thing that Mike did that Ithought was so brilliant is
after the first day ofenrollment, he decided to not
have the team tell him thelaunch numbers every day,

(04:33):
because usually it would be likenine a. M.
And sometime in the evening wewould know the launch numbers,
we would know how many saleswe'd made during a cart open,
and after day one Mike said, Youknow what team, I actually don't
want to know the numbers. If youwant to know the numbers, you
can ask our project manager, butplease don't put them in the

(04:54):
team thread. And so I followedsuit because I was like, gosh,
that actually sounds reallyrelaxing. And so we were able to
do our four day enrollmentperiod not knowing how we were
doing, quote unquote. Notmeasuring how we were doing in
terms of our goal on externalresults, but instead focusing on

(05:19):
sticking with the launch plan,showing up in our fullness,
being as heart open, serviceoriented, serving the people,
and just following through onwhat we had already planned.
So we didn't end up getting intograspiness, we didn't end up
getting into, oh my gosh, we'realmost at the end of our launch,

(05:41):
we're not at our goal yet, whatdo we do? Because always when I
have known the numbers during anenrollment period, there is
always a freaking emotionalroller coaster where I go into a
dip thinking, it's not enough. Ihaven't done enough. Oh my gosh.
It's it's not gonna work out.
I I, like, spin out. It's notlong, but there is a moment

(06:02):
where I always meet face to facewith scarcity, and it just is
like, ugh. So we decided todetach from the results and
instead stay focused on theprocess, and there was one
particular moment. So the launchopened on a Monday. I think it

(06:23):
was the Tuesday I still ended upemailing our project manager for
the launch numbers, so eventhough Mike decided not to know
them, I was like, well I stillwant to know them.
So I found out what they were,and they weren't as high as I
would have expected at that timein the enrollment, and they
started to spin out. And Istarted to go into scarcity and

(06:45):
fear and lack, and like all thiscraziness that I was just like,
this does not, this does notserve me. A, I don't want to be
showing up on my calls this way.I don't want to be showing up on
my lives this way. Like, this isnot the frequency.
And so I did my own tools, I didmy helical breathing nervous

(07:09):
system tool, if you're inRelaxed Money, helical breathing
is in the nervous system healingtoolkit. It is one of my
absolute faves. I did a wholedancing and singing break in my
bathroom. I did like, know, itwas like about five minutes of
frequency shifting. I got myselfback in alignment, and I ended
up having a conversation with mygirlfriend Liz.

(07:31):
I love having conversations withher about my business because
she's not in our industry. Sheunderstands our industry, but
she's not in our industry. She'sincredibly successful in her own
lane, in her industry as abusiness owner. So she doesn't
bring any layers of her ownconditioning or her own she's

(07:52):
not projecting anything on meduring my launches or
enrollments because it's likeshe has a totally different
business model. And so it'ssometimes why like we actually
can get the best parentingadvice from our friends who
aren't parents, for example.
I know that sounds kind ofsilly, but sometimes we bring so
much baggage to giving adviceabout things we know quote
unquote know so much about fromour own experience versus

(08:14):
something where we're just liketotal beginner's mind. And so
Liz, in our quick back and forthvoice memo exchange, helped me
to realize that it was the teathat was tripping me up. I had
this idea. So I had a particulargoal, the number of students I
wanted to serve in thisparticular way, and I had it

(08:36):
very time bound. I was like, itmust happen by this Thursday at
midnight when we close thedoors, yada yada yada yada.
And I was like, it was making mefeel so stressed out. And in my
quick back and forth with Liz, Irealized, Oh, I can just remove
the T. Right? Like, I can stillhave that goal. Do I have any

(09:01):
doubt that we can achieve thisgoal?
No, I don't. Do I have any doubtthat I can achieve this goal in
some way this year? No, I don't.I have no doubt about it. It was
putting false urgency on thattime bound goal that it needed
to happen in this certain way bythis certain time.

(09:26):
That's what was limiting my owncapacity to connect with
abundance. That's what wascutting off my connection to
Source. And you can tell you'redisconnected from source when
you don't feel good. Like,that's all you need to know.
When you don't feel good, youare disconnected from source.

(09:47):
And my false urgency, myaddiction to creating false
urgency was disconnecting mefrom source. And when I took off
the t, when I took off the timebound, then suddenly I was like,
oh, the world is my oyster. Thisdoesn't have to happen by
Thursday. Like, it can happen inan infinite number of ways all

(10:09):
throughout these other offers inour business, all throughout
these other ways we do business.And I suddenly felt so spacious
and so blissed out.
And I was able to move throughthe rest of the launch, a, not
knowing the launch numbers,which also helped me stay in the
beingness and on the journey asopposed to focusing on the

(10:30):
destination, and then it justhelped me feel so spacious and
abundant in general. Now thecool thing is this actually was
our highest enrollment period ofall time. It was our biggest
launch by far. It was a bannerlaunch. But what was so cool is
I didn't know the numbers untilafter the fact.

(10:53):
And by removing the T, byremoving the time bound on my
goal, I entered a field ofspaciousness and abundance that
felt instantly infinite. So ifyou have financial goals, if you
have goals of any kind, I inviteyou to take off the tee. Like,

(11:16):
just see what it would be likeif you removed the false
urgency, possibly replaced therelevant with resonant, and see
if your relationship with thegoals becomes more fun. Because
here's what any wise elder willtell you. There is no there
there.

(11:36):
It is about the journey, not thedestination. Every single one of
us has achieved something we'vedreamed of in this lifetime,
whether it was the medal, thediploma, the wedding, the
closing on the piece of realestate, the buying of the car
that you'd ever dreamed of, thethe biggest cash week of your

(11:56):
life. And it's great. Like, it'sgreat in the moment. And then
it's like, yep, I'm still me,still living my life, still have
laundry, still need to empty thedishwasher.
Like, fundamentally, there is nothere there. If we are not
filling ourselves up along theway, if we're not fully enjoying

(12:20):
the moment, if we're not makingthe experience of achieving our
goals as delicious, if not moreso than the achievement of the
goal itself, every single goalwe ever achieve will feel empty
in the end, and will absolutelynever give you a sense of

(12:41):
sustainable joy, because noachievement will ever give you a
sense of sustainable joy. Onlybeing the fullness of who you
are can ever give you that senseof sustainable joy. It's about
the connection with others. It'sabout the connection with
source, the connection withourselves.
And the truth is manufacturingfalse timelines does not

(13:07):
contribute to most of ouraliveness. It just repatterns
old neural patternings that areaddicted to stress and pressure.
And I was so proud of myself andI was so excited when I could
feel myself in the momentunplugging from my addiction to
false urgency and just removingthe timeline and entering the

(13:29):
infinite field of abundance inan instant on a smelly street
corner right here in Miami inthe burning hot sun. So that is
my story for you. Please feelfree to remove the tea, and I
hope that helps you in your goalsetting.
Thank you. See you next time.What if managing money felt

(13:50):
effortless? You've worked sohard to earn money, so why does
it feel stressful? Well, I wannaintroduce you to something brand
new that I've created called themoney reset because abundance
starts in your body, not in yourbank account.
This free audio experience willhelp you rewire your nervous

(14:12):
system for wealth, stop themoney in, money out cycle and
create a foundation for truewealth, and relax into a new
relationship with money. Plus,it comes with the five minute
calm cash flow ritual. So youcan have financial clarity and

(14:32):
magnetism anytime you want. Allyou need to do to get the free
money reset is go tokatenorthrop.com/reset.