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Most people set goals by thinking about what they want.
More clients. More revenue. More visibility.
But what if the secret to better goals is thinking about what you don't want?
Welcome to anti-goals.
What Anti-Goals Actually Are
Anti-goals are exactly what they sound like: goals defined by what you want to avoid rather than what you want to achieve.
Instead of "I want to make £100k this year", you write "I don't want to take on clients who drain my energy".
Instead of "I want to grow my audience", you write "I don't want to spend hours creating content that nobody reads".
It sounds simple. It's also surprisingly powerful.
I set anti-goals each and every year, and the technique has been boasted by both my friends and people I taught workshops for (so yeah, they work for both personal and professional goals).
When This Works
Traditional goal-setting: it assumes you know exactly what you want.
But sometimes we don’t know it just yet.
What we do know is what we don't want. What frustrates us. What drains us. What we've tried before and hated.
That's much clearer.
Plus, anti-goals do something clever: they help you say no.
When you know what you're actively avoiding, decision-making gets easier.
New opportunity comes in? Check it against your anti-goals. If it matches something you're trying to avoid, that's a hard no.
Last year, one of my anti-goals was: I will not create courses that require weekly live sessions.
As a heavily pregnant, woddly penguin I needed the flexibility.
So when someone pitched me a brilliant course collaboration opportunity that would've required weekly live calls, I said no.
Was it a good opportunity? Probably. Did it align with how I want to work? Absolutely not.
Anti-goals gave me clarity and permission to pass.
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How to Actually Create Anti-Goals
Grab a notebook (or your phone, I'm not precious about this).
Step 1: List Three Things You Don't Want
Think about:
What drained you last year?
What projects did you hate?
What types of clients made you want to fake your own death?
What working conditions make you miserable?
Be specific. Not "bad clients" but "clients who expect 24/7 availability and constantly change their minds".
Step 2: Turn Them Into Anti-Goals
Frame each one as something you're actively avoiding this year.
Examples:
I will not take on projects with budgets under £1,000
I will not work weekends except for launches
I will not say yes to speaking gigs that don't align with my positioning
I will not create content formats that stress me out
Step 3: Use Them as Filters
Every time you're faced with a decision, run it past your anti-goals first.
Does this opportunity violate any of them? If yes, it's probably a no. no matter how tempting it looks.
YOUR HOMEWORK ✍️
Right now, write down three things you absolutely do not want in your business or life this year.
Not the diplomatic version. The real, honest version. Then put them somewhere you'll see them when making decisions.
Sometimes the most important thing isn't knowing where you're going, but where you refuse to go.
What's one anti-goal you need to set?
Anti-goals force you to admit what you've been avoiding admitting.
Maybe you've been chasing a revenue goal that requires working in ways that make you miserable.
Maybe you've been saying yes to everything because you're afraid to narrow your focus.
Maybe you've been building a business that looks successful from the outside but feels awful from the inside.
Anti-goals are like holding up a mirror: they show you where your actions and your values are misaligned.
Make this an intention to bring more clarity in your business or life,
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