As HETMA embarks on the #Roadto10K, this journey is about more than just growing our numbers—it’s about supporting the personal and professional growth of each member. Every month, we’ll explore a new theme centered on reflection, growth, mental health, and confidence. If the themes ever feel overwhelming, this column will offer them in small, approachable steps to help you engage at your own pace.
January’s theme is:
Start Your Engines: New Year, Same Goal
The new year is about a reality check, renewal of focus, and re-committing to professional and personal intentions. Resolve to finish strong.
The confetti has been swept away, the champagne flutes washed and put back in the cabinet, and here we are again: a fresh calendar year stretching out before us. But this isn’t about reinventing yourself or becoming an entirely new person. The new year is really about something more grounded—a reality check, a renewal of focus, and a re-commitment to the professional and personal intentions that actually matter to you.
This year, resolve to finish strong.
Not to start perfectly. Not to transform overnight. But to finish what you start, to show up consistently, and to move meaningfully toward what you care about. That’s the real work.
Know What You Want
Before you can move forward with any real momentum, you need clarity about your destination. This doesn’t require a vision board or a five-year plan etched in stone. It requires honest answers to three straightforward questions.
What matters to me? Not what should matter, not what matters to your parents or your partner or that person from college who seems to have it all figured out on Instagram. What actually lights you up? What would you regret not pursuing if you looked back a year from now?
Do I feel aligned? This is about the gap between who you are and what you’re doing. Are your daily actions reflecting your deeper values, or are you running on autopilot, going through motions that don’t really fit anymore? Alignment isn’t about perfection; it’s about direction.
Will this matter in X amount of time? This is your filter. Plug in whatever timeframe feels right: six months, five years, on your deathbed. Some goals survive this test. Others dissolve immediately, revealed as distractions or obligations you’ve been carrying out of habit rather than intention.
Know How to Do It
Knowing what you want is only half the equation. The other half is understanding the path from here to there. That path is almost never a dramatic leap; it’s a series of small, deliberate steps.
What small steps can I take? Big goals are paralyzing. They loom over you, heavy and impossible-feeling. But small steps? Those are manageable. What’s one thing you could do today, this week, that would move you incrementally closer? The magic is in the accumulation. Small steps, taken consistently, compound into transformation.
Who can help me? You don’t have to do this alone. In fact, you probably shouldn’t. Who has knowledge you lack? Who has walked a similar path? Who believes in you and will hold you accountable when your motivation flags? Ask for help. Hire the coach. Join the group. Call the friend. Community and guidance accelerate progress in ways that solo effort simply can’t match.
What do I need? Be practical. Do you need time? Money? Skills? Information? A different mindset? Get specific about the resources, tools, or conditions that would actually support your goals. Then figure out how to secure them or work around their absence.
Know When to Do It
Timing isn’t everything, but it’s not nothing either. Forcing yourself to tackle the wrong thing at the wrong time is a recipe for burnout and failure. Give yourself permission to be strategic about when you act.
Does this need to be done now? Urgency is seductive. It makes us feel important and busy. But not everything that screams for attention deserves it. Some goals can wait. Some should wait. Distinguish between what’s genuinely time-sensitive and what’s just loud.
When would this feel right? Trust your intuition here. There are seasons for different kinds of work. Sometimes the conditions aren’t ripe yet because you need more information, more support, more internal readiness. Other times, everything aligns and you know: it’s time. Pay attention to that knowing.
When do I have the most energy? Work with your natural rhythms, not against them. Are you sharpest in the morning? Most creative late at night? Do you have more bandwidth on weekends or weekdays? Is the winter simply too dark and dreary to take on a new thing? Schedule your most important work for when you’re at your best, and you’ll accomplish more with less strain.
The Vegan Plus Bacon Approach
Here’s the thing nobody tells you about goals and resolutions: you don’t have to be all-in.
There’s a concept worth borrowing from the dietary world. People say, “I could never be vegan because I would miss bacon too much.” The response? Consider being mostly vegan and eating bacon. You don’t have to be trapped by the tyranny of perfection.
Apply this everywhere. You don’t need to work out seven days a week—maybe three is enough to feel stronger and more energized. You don’t need to quit your job to pursue your passion—maybe dedicating five hours a week to it is sufficient to keep that spark alive. You don’t need to overhaul your entire life—maybe adjusting 20% of how you spend your time would make you 80% happier.
Sometimes giving 50% is enough to get started and feel good. Sometimes it’s enough, period. Progress doesn’t require maximum effort at all times. It requires sustainable effort over time. And sustainable means leaving room for imperfection, flexibility, and yes, the occasional piece of bacon.
Finish Strong
This year, don’t put so much pressure on the starting line. Everyone starts. The gyms are packed in January. The planners are pristine. The intentions are earnest and abundant.
What matters is April. July. November. What matters is that you’re still showing up when the initial excitement has faded and the work has gotten hard or boring or complicated. What matters is that you adjust when things don’t go according to plan, that you recommit when you fall off track, and that you give yourself grace while still moving forward.
Start your engines, yes. But more importantly, keep them running. Stay the course. Make the small choices that compound. Ask the right questions. Honor your timing. Allow yourself to be human.
And when December comes around again, may you look back not on perfection, but on progress. Not on how you started, but on how you finished.
That’s the goal worth keeping.
