Time Moves on Anyway: Tackling Big Goals

The beginning of the year always leaves me a little conflicted. Culturally, we’re encouraged to set bold New Year’s goals and hit the ground running, yet the cold, dark days naturally invite us inward into a slower, quieter rhythm.

By late January, those big January 1st goals can start to feel overwhelming, especially the ones that can’t be accomplished in a single year: paying off student loans, building a seven-figure nest egg, learning a new language, or truly mastering a new skill.

I was complaining to a friend recently about how I’ve wanted to learn Spanish for years, but I always get discouraged about the 5+ years of diligent work it would take. And you know what she said? “Those 5 years are going to pass anyway.”

She was right. Time isn’t standing still just because I haven’t started. In five years, I can either be far more comfortable speaking Spanish, or still telling everyone I’d love to learn, but it just takes too long.

The same idea applies to our finances. We talk to so many women who dream of having a million dollars saved, but the 20+ year timeline feels too daunting to even begin. Yet those 20 years are going to pass regardless. At the end of them, you can either have built meaningful wealth or still be stuck at the starting line, telling yourself the timeline was too long.

So here’s to using this season to reflect, dream big, and stop letting long timelines discourage us from getting started. Let’s celebrate slow, deliberate progress: the kind that requires patience with being bad at things for a while, and the confidence to keep going anyway, one small step at a time.

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