Story of the week 50

It's the end of 2025. Maurice and I are on a video call, both a little tired, both with the feeling that this year is ending faster than we'd like. A few days ago, we recorded the last episode of our podcast, “Server Side Stories”—a retrospective. It should have been a triumphant conclusion. Or so we thought. Because we didn't achieve our big goal for 2025. We wanted to generate leads. We didn't.

The call doesn't turn into frustration, but rather into reflection. We go back to the beginning of the year together. In January, we took the time to define our annual goals and derive monthly goals from them. For the first few weeks of January, we were exemplary: The monthly goals were clearly broken down into weekly goals, scheduled, and discussed. Everything felt structured and manageable.

And then something subtle happened. In those first few weeks, we lost sight of the monthly goals. It wasn't a conscious break, more like a quiet drifting away. After the first quarter, even the annual goals had vanished from view. I'm familiar with this pattern. It's a recurring pattern – not just in our professional lives, but also in our personal lives.

What's disconcerting is this: We're delivering results. Our clients are satisfied; the projects are progressing smoothly; we're working successfully and reliably. It's just the goals we set for ourselves and our development that we've lost sight of along the way. Not out of laziness, but because they're not sustainable in our daily routines.

So we turn the question around. Not: What did we do wrong? But: What's wrong with these goals?

Objectively speaking, they were reasonable. Generating leads, using the podcast strategically – all of that makes sense. But they didn't align with what we're good at. Not with what motivates us. Not with what we truly want.

We delve deeper and ask ourselves fundamental questions. What do we actually want from the podcast? Who do we want to reach? And what kind of podcast do we want to make? The answers don't come immediately, but they come honestly. Slowly, a new goal emerges: to gain reach.

Not as a classic sales goal. But it is a different form of lead generation. One that isn't about selling, but about doing good – and raising awareness. Sharing content that's important to us. Passing on experiences that help others. And not running the podcast as a side project to our day-to-day business, but closely integrating it with our other activities.

We realize that these insights didn't come about by chance. We both keep bullet journals that guide us through the weeks. In addition, we have weekly planning meetings, which we document in Notion. These allow us to recognize patterns instead of just evaluating results.

We end the video call with new goals, a rough content strategy, and – surprisingly, clearly – a good feeling. No pressure, no guilt. Instead, there is a sense of being closer to ourselves again.

Later, reflecting on the conversation in my bullet journal, I notice something else. One piece is still missing: a system for regularly comparing our goals with our actual progress throughout the year, not just at the end of the year, not just after each quarter.

I'll write it down. And I think: We'll probably need another call about this.