Goals Without Anxiety: A Different Way to Move Forward

If the idea of setting goals fills you with tension instead of motivation, you’re not broken — and you’re not failing at “mindset.”

For many women, especially those who were raised in high-demand systems like Mormonism, goals were never neutral. They were loaded with pressure, worthiness, comparison, obedience, and fear of getting it wrong. So when you try to “set goals” now, your nervous system remembers all of that — even if your conscious mind doesn’t.

That’s why so much goal-setting advice quietly makes anxiety worse.

It assumes that the problem is a lack of discipline, clarity, or willpower.
But for many women, the real issue is how their body learned to relate to goals in the first place.

Why Goals Can Trigger Anxiety

If you grew up in a system where:

• Approval was conditional

• Progress was monitored

• Mistakes were moralized

• Rest was suspicious

• And “choosing” often meant “choosing correctly”

Then goals didn’t represent freedom — they represented surveillance.

So now, even well-intentioned goals can activate:

• Perfectionism

• Freeze or avoidance

• Overthinking

• Self-doubt

• Or a quiet sense of dread

You’re not anxious because you’re doing goals wrong.
You’re anxious because your nervous system learned that goals were tied to safety.

The Problem With “Just Set Smaller Goals”

You might have tried:

• Making your goals more realistic

• Breaking them into steps

• Using planners or habit trackers

• “Thinking positively”

• Forcing yourself to push through resistance

Sometimes that helps — but often it doesn’t last.

Because the anxiety isn’t coming from the size of the goal.
It’s coming from the relationship you have with wanting something.

Until that relationship changes, goals will keep feeling heavy.

A Different Approach: Safety Before Strategy

In the Goals Without Anxiety podcast episode, I talk about an approach that doesn’t start with productivity or performance.

It starts with:

• Safety

• Agency

• Emotional permission

• And reconnection to your inner signals

This is where creative healing becomes powerful.

Art, imagery, and embodied reflection give your nervous system a way to:

• Explore desire without pressure

• Reclaim choice without rebellion

• And move forward without force

You don’t need to convince yourself you’re safe.
You need experiences that teach your body that wanting is allowed.

What Happens in a Free Creative Healing Session

A lot of women hesitate to book a free session because they assume:

• “It’s probably a sales call”

• “I don’t know what I’d even say”

• “I’m not creative”

• “My problems aren’t big enough”

• “I should already have this figured out”

So let me be very clear about what this is and isn’t.

This is not:

• Therapy

• A performance review

• A test

• A pressure-filled coaching pitch

• Or a place where you need to impress me

This is:

• A calm, private, one-on-one space

• Where we slow things down

• Get curious about what’s actually blocking you

• And use gentle creative tools to access clarity without overwhelm

You do not need art skills.
You do not need a polished story.
You do not need to know what you want yet.

Benefits of a Free Call With Me

Women often leave a Creative Healing Session feeling:

• Less tense about their goals

• More grounded in their own authority

• Clearer about what actually matters to them

• Relieved to not be pushed or “fixed”

• And surprised by how much insight came from slowing down

Even one session can help you:

• Understand why anxiety shows up around goals

• Separate old conditioning from present-day desire

• Identify the next step that feels supportive instead of punishing

• Rebuild trust with yourself — not through discipline, but through attunement

And if coaching together makes sense after that, we can talk about it — calmly, honestly, without pressure.

If it doesn’t, you’ll still walk away with insight and tools you can use.

You’re Allowed to Want Without Fear

A better life after Mormonism doesn’t mean becoming fearless, hyper-motivated, or endlessly productive.

It means learning how to want things without abandoning yourself.

If goals have felt heavy, stressful, or emotionally loaded, that doesn’t mean you should stop wanting.

It means it’s time to change the way you relate to desire.

Ready to Take the Next Gentle Step?

If this resonates, I invite you to book a free Creative Healing Session with me.

This is a space to:

• Explore your goals without anxiety

• Reconnect with your inner signals

• And experience a different way of moving forward

👉 Sign up for a free Creative Healing Session

You don’t need to push harder.
You don’t need to be braver.
You just need a place where your nervous system can exhale — and start again from there.