You Don't Have to Finish Everything You Start

At the beginning of this year, I decided I was going to read 100 books.

It seemed perfectly reasonable at the time. I’d read even more than that in previous years, and although I knew 2026 would be busy, surely I could manage 100?

We are now approaching October.

I recently looked at my Goodreads account and discovered that, to reach my goal, I’d pretty much have to read a book every single day until the end of the year.

Part of my brain immediately went: Challenge accepted!

Fortunately, another part asked a much more sensible question.

Why?

When goals become obligations

There’s nothing wrong with setting goals. I love goals.

The problem starts when circumstances change but the goal doesn’t.

When I decided to read 100 books, I didn’t know quite how demanding producing a daily podcast would become. I didn’t know how much time I’d spend recording, editing, traveling and doing everything else around it.

And yet there was still a little voice telling me that I’d failed because I wasn’t keeping a promise I’d made to myself nine months ago.