Happy New Year from Olga Koroleva

This newsletter was originally published by WWSG exclusive thought leader, Olga Koroleva.

I received many emails this December about everyone’s 2023 life learnings (below is the most interesting one I read) and goal-setting rules for next year.

Goal-setting is actually quite easy: if you add a date to your dream, you turn it into a goal. Then every day you take a step towards your goal – and results eventually show up. There is nothing more to it.

We create our 10-year goals, then identify 1-year or 3-year milestones, track 90-day progress, write down our goals daily (per Brian Tracy), etc.

We make these lists and then we obsess over our goals, we stress and ruminate over all the things that could go wrong.

I encourage you to consider a different perspective.

Researchers from DTU, the University of Copenhagen, ITU, and Northeastern University in the US have developed an artificial intelligence model, life2vec, capable of predicting life events by analyzing extensive health and labor market data. The model has demonstrated superior predictive capabilities in forecasting outcomes such as personality traits and even accurately estimating the time of death.

If we can predict the future, why worry about it?

In the post-Covid world the preference for part-time work has been on the rise. Employers have been dealing with “quiet quitting” phenomenon as workers started questioning the concept of ambition, having a preference for doing the bare minimum at work instead. Gartner’s research found, people these days look for purpose, meaning, and joy in their jobs.

We actually could live joyful lives if we embrace “good enough” and don’t make ambition the main driver in life. If we learn to enjoy the journey and not the destination. If we pursue intrinsic goals instead of striving toward external motivators.

We still need to know where the summit is to make sure we are following the right trail.

But don’t wait for a particular date or time to start enjoying life. Just live that life now. Whatever happens happens. We are doing our best.

Perhaps, 2024 could be the year when we stop obsessing over achieving every goal on the list and consider that “good enough” is well, good enough.

Happy New Year!