2026 Challenge: Defining Enough

Right-sizing goals.

Feb 17, 2026

I’ve talked before about how I’m not great at making big goals. Instead I tend to follow what interests me and explore my options accordingly. This works perhaps in part because I seem to have a fairly high level of internal trust that I will be ok. That trust doesn’t prevent me from being anxious or panicking at times, but these are minor episodes, not the norm.

This year I’m really feeling the no big goals thing. My brain is largely interested in working out ways to have fun and I’m more drawn to developing random skills than work specific skills. Part of me is annoyed by this, but it feels futile to fight it. I can’t make big goals just for the sake of it as they feel manufactured and not particularly motivating.

It was in this mood that I went to dinner a few weeks ago with a lovely friend and recent client. They shared that they had recently worked out that the goldilocks (not too big (hot), not too small (cold)) point of their business was actually much closer than they thought it was. The business only needed to be about 25% bigger for them to hit the sweet spot of both really enjoying their life and also making a very generous amount of money. And that felt super attainable, probably within the next two years.

Immediately, my body relaxed and I felt calm (and jealous). How wonderful to have a sense of what is enough, know it is attainable and work towards it. Even though I don’t have my ‘enough’ worked out, envisioning a version of business where I do was so relaxing!

I left dinner with a goal I’m excited to focus on: work out my enough. Sounds simple enough but I know myself, and know that I will find this really tricky to do. It will involve dissolving a lot of ‘I should’ beliefs and ways of being, and instead being very very honest about what I want, and what I have the capacity to do.

More generally though this speaks to something I often work with clients on - interrogating what the point of business growth is for them. Some people want growth for growths sake and thrive in the consequences. I find this to be the minority. Most reach a point where the business is doing well, and they continue to want growth simply because they think that’s what they should want.

That can land them in a bad place. In chasing growth for growth’s sake they are adding on services, or head count, or overheads and are often really struggling with the consequences. They don’t like managing a bigger team or the responsibility of so many salaries. They don’t feel an affinity with the extra services they are now offering or the type of clients said services are attracting. Or they feel stressed by the volume of overheads they are committed to.

Ramit Sethi talks about being aware of the total cost of ownership when purchasing anything (e.g. stamp duty, conveyancing and maintenance when you buy a house). We can do the same in business. As the business grows we can ask ourselves what is the total cost of ownership of a business this size? It might be a higher staff count, or less time to do fun things. If we are opting into those TCOs, let’s make sure we really want what we’re ‘buying’ or in this case, growing. It’s not a no, it’s just a consideration of the whole package, not just the shiny bits.

Something else we talked about at dinner - how boring it is to be a cynic. Good to know Ashley Rudolph also agrees. I will be bringing more unhinged enthusiasm to my life this year for sure.

Great read on coaching employees. And the first half of this Fixable episode is a good companion piece. Main takeaway - if you have an issue with someone at work, talking to them about it, even if you can’t do that in a sophisticated way, is likely to yield better results than not talking to them.

I am a business and career coach, offering career and business coaching, and team training. To explore working with me in 2026, you can book an intro chat, visit my website or email me at holly@holly-garber.com