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Feeling the pressure to “get 2026 right” before the year even starts? You’re not alone. And, you’re also probably setting goals the hard way. In this episode, Deirdre Martin dismantles traditional goal setting and shows why goals are meant to give you direction, not become another stick you beat yourself with. Drawing from real CEO conversations inside Millionize and her work at the intersection of strategy, leadership, and neuroscience, Deirdre introduces SMARTCARE, a more human, sustainable way to set goals that actually stick for you and your team. You’ll walk away with a clearer sense of where you’re running toward in 2026 and why celebrating progress, not end results, is the real CEO move.

For the full list of timestamps, key takeaways, and all resources mentioned, visit the full episode page here: https://deirdremartin.ie/blog/2026-goal-setting-ceo

Want to talk to Deirdre about scaling your business? ⁠⁠Click here.⁠⁠

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Smart goals are out.

Let's burn them.

We're done.

2026 is about direction, momentum, and becoming the version of you who

actually enjoys growing your business.

I'll show you the smarter way to set goals and no, it doesn't involve punishing

yourself if you don't reach them.

As entrepreneurs, we put a ridiculous amount of pressure on ourselves at

the end of December, early January.

There's this quiet hum in.

You're at the back of your mind that says, okay, it's time to set next year's goals.

But don't mess it up.

Don't pick the wrong thing.

Don't fall behind.

And how the fuck do you actually set goals for your business?

When everything is always such a roller coaster and you're so much

in the weeds, can you relate to the weight of that internal chatter?

I know I certainly feel it very often and probably more than I care to admit.

And yeah, you're definitely not imagining that weight if you feel it too.

And let me tell you, you are so not alone in feeling it.

But here's the thing, goal setting isn't meant to feel like you're sitting an

exam you didn't study for, or it's not meant to feel like you're about to go

in and have a performance review that you're terrified you're going to fail.

Your performance review is with yourself.

Goal setting is meant to feel like clarity, possibility, expansion,

direction, like giving you a future line to run towards that actually

energizes you the entire time.

When you think about, you're like, yes, let's fucking go, instead of exhausting

you when you start working it and like one or two days, or one or two weeks

into it, you're like, you're done.

You're burned out.

And recently during a Millionized CEO boardroom session, one of my newest

members lowered their voice in the session and said, I didn't hit the

revenue number I set, and in their mind what they meant was they failed.

But when we unpacked the actual year, their margins were

up, their confidence was up.

They'd made some fucking badass moves, so their strategic leadership was up.

They'd put systems and structures in place, so their foundations are stronger.

Their preparing to hire support for the first time, their personal and

professional boundaries are all improving.

Their visibility was up.

Clients are coming with more ease.

All the things they essentially made.

So much progress in every direction that matters, and suddenly it clicked for them

that the actual number wasn't the win.

The progress was the win.

The direction they were going in was the win.

The person that they were stepping into, the identity that they had become.

That was the win.

That's what today's episode is about, not the mechanics of goal

setting, not the worksheets or planning shit that you typically get.

When people talk about goals.

Today is the what and the why.

The mindset leadership, the identity behind setting 20, 26 goals that

will actually stick for you because they're designed for humans and

not corporate smart fucking robots.

Okay?

Lots of swearing today.

I'm clearly very passionate about this.

And if visibility, by the way is part of your direction for 2026, grab

the 15 minute LinkedIn visibility checklist from the link below.

Okay, let's dive in.

Point number one on this is goals are direction not destination.

And here's the thing.

Most entrepreneurs think of goals like the actual finish line, that

it's static, rigid, and final.

It's like that point and you're sat nav that you're aiming to get

to and hit it, like arrive at your destination and you're worthy.

Or miss it and you're not, or you're behind.

And the shame, the guilt, all of those fucking horrible emotions creep in.

But that's not how real growth works.

This year I have failed more than any other year, and my revenue has

been higher than every other year.

And real business growth looks a lot more like.

Rugby or American football, it's a slow strategic move up the pitch, play

by play, meter by meter, regrouping, reassessing, and then moving again.

And that line that you're trying to cross, that's your goal.

It was never meant to be a destination carved in stone.

It's a direction.

It's the, you know, when the ref tosses the coin, it's, that's the way you're

playing for the first half of the game.

It's a direction that focuses your effort.

And your decision making.

And when you shift your mindset from destination to direction,

something really important happens.

You stop judging yourself and you start leading yourself.

Bruno wants to be part of this podcast episode today too.

He's coming to say hello.

This is exactly why smart goals don't work for entrepreneurs.

They are so fricking dumb.

Smart goals are dumb.

Yeah, smart goals were smart.

Was built for corporate checklists, not for founders.

Creatives, visionaries, neurodivergent thinkers, parents running businesses

and you know, in between mind and babies and all of the things are CEOs

navigating unpredictable markets.

Are like a lot of my clients CEOs run in three or four different businesses.

Smart is rigid.

Smart ignores how humans actually work.

Smart is external, so we need a goal framework that is internal, a

adaptive, human, and whole system.

Friendly.

By which I mean it feels good in your head, in your heart.

And in your gut, which is why I don't teach smart.

Like I said, smart is dumb.

I teach smart care, the evolved framework that actually honors how you

think, how you feel, and how you work.

But hold that thought.

I'm gonna come back to it in a minute.

Your action for this point is simple.

Choose the direction that you're running toward in 2026.

Not the number, just the direction.

Where are you headed?

What's the end overall destination on the SAT nav?

You don't need to, it could be a county instead of the actual location.

You know, it's like you're going to, you're going to France on your holidays.

Great.

You don't need to know exactly where you're gonna stay yet.

You can figure that out as you go.

You can figure out where you're going to eat every day.

Whether you're gonna hire a car, what the hotel's gonna be like.

Just know I'm gonna France next year.

That's all you need to know for now.

Okay.

Point two is that progress is built through plays, not tries.

In that CEO session with Millionize, someone else said something

that really stuck with everyone.

It's been a hard personal year, but I stayed, I kept going and I kept building.

They spoke it like it was nothing like showing up during a difficult year isn't

one of the most fricking courageous things that entrepreneurs can do.

And this is where so many of us go wrong.

We ignore the plays 'cause we're obsessed with the try.

But business is built in place.

Momentum is built in place.

Identity is built in place.

You don't become the next level version of yourself because you cross the line.

You become them because of who you were during the run.

That's how neuroplasticity is formed.

It's awareness.

Focus and then repetitive action.

And this is also where smart care becomes powerful because smart care isn't

about perfection, it's about traction.

So here's what SmartCare actually means.

And I'm not gonna go through the smart, you already know the smart goals.

Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic.

Time bound.

The time bound is the piece that really riles me up when it comes to smart goals.

And I'm talk about the T piece because.

I'm going to show you how to take the TPS and apply it during the a part of care.

So lemme explain to you what the c and a RE actually means.

C is for commitment.

Do you care enough about this direction to stay connected to it?

Are you going to commit on a scale of one to 10, 10 being fricking, I'm all in.

A is actions, are there clear actions that help you move

towards this specific smart goal?

If there are not clear actions that you can take, it's too fluffy a goal,

and you're never going to achieve it.

And T for time bound should be attached to these actions, not when

the goal is going to be achieved.

Because actions can be measured in time.

When are you gonna take that action?

That's where accountability comes in.

So what I think about this, A, is it's like AAA battery.

It needs to be like, is it aligned with your overall business purpose?

What actions are you going to take to help achieve this goal?

And the final A is accountability.

How are you gonna be held accountable to achieve this goal?

R is reward, is there a meaningful reward, internal or external that

reinforces your brain's motivation?

You're going to need a little bit of a dopamine hit because it's

like when you start anything new, whether it's a goal, anything.

It's like, I'm gonna join the gym in January.

I'm gonna get really fit in 2026.

All that bs.

What happens is you feel adrenaline, and so it's like starting a marathon.

You go out, the gun goes off and you take off like into a sprint almost.

But what's really happening is you're experiencing adrenaline and that's

what's driving you to begin with.

Over time, what you need are little dopamine hits to keep you motivated.

And if you don't have those dopamine hits, you're gonna run outta steam and

not be able to see it all the way through.

E is evaluation plan.

How will you check in, learn, adjust, and keep going without punishing yourself.

And that's so important because smart goals don't have a check-in framework

to see how you're getting on with it, because sometimes you need to adjust

course, especially as an entrepreneur.

So smart care takes goal setting outta the spreadsheet and brings it back into real

life, into your body capacity, energy, leadership overall into your business.

So here's the action for point 2.

Document your progress, write it down weekly.

Your brain will forget if you don't remind it, but all those little

small wins, all the progress that you're making in the right direction.

That's everything.

All of the things that you know now that you didn't know this time last year.

That's everything because every meter counts.

And when you track the meter ridge, you start to trust yourself in a way that

changes absolutely fricking everything.

Okay, point 3.

Goals aren't just for you.

They're also for your team.

Woo-hoo.

This is the part so many entrepreneurs skip, and it costs

them momentum all year long.

Your business should have a clear direction for 2026.

Sure, but here's the magic.

Your team needs their own goals that feed into the business goals

because goals aren't just about achievement, they're about alignment.

Aaa, right?

If the business holds the vision, but the team doesn't know their

part, you end up dragging the entire organization on your back.

But when the business has its direction and each team member's

goals that support that direction, and those goals are structured

through smart care, so they feel safe, achievable, and motivating, then you

are no longer the only one rowing.

Everyone is rowing.

Everyone is moving the business forward.

Everyone knows where they fit, why it matters, and how it feeds

into the overall business goal.

This is also leadership.

Ownership identity culture.

And when I watched someone in that session describe hiring their

first support person this year, the emotional shift was visible.

Like really tangibly visible because suddenly they weren't alone.

Their goals weren't just theirs anymore.

They had people feeding into them, and that is how a

business becomes sustainable.

So here's the action for point 3.

Set your business goals first, then break them down into SmartCare goals for

each person on your team, including you.

And even if you only have a VA or an accountant, like give them a goal.

Their goal should be to help you in some way feed into the overall thing.

So maybe your goal is to be more profitable in 2026.

Well ask your accountant to help you with that, right?

That's how you create a business where everyone moves in the same direction.

That's how you finish the year.

Feeling supported instead of drained.

So let's bring this home.

Today you discovered goals are direction, not destination.

Progress is built through plays, not tries.

And smart care is the evolved goal framework built for

humans, not corporate robots.

Your team needs goals that support the business and make sure that

they're aligned to the direction that you're going in, so you're

all pulling in the same direction.

Now, here's your one action.

Define that one direction you're running towards in 2026.

The line on the pitch, the North Star, the thing that brings

everything else into clarity.

When you know the direction your team can align, your decisions can be sharper,

clearer, you'll feel more confident in them, and your progress will compound.

And again, if visibility is part of your direction for 2026, grab the 15

minute LinkedIn visibility checklist at www.DeirdreMartin.ie/LinkedInvisibilitychecklist,

share this episode with the one Entrepreneur who needs a gentler, more

powerful way to think about goal setting.

And until next time, keep mastering your business.