Dear Travel Agent,

Do you set personal and/or business goals for the New Year?
Do you believe in doing this?

Allow me to share my experience in this area. I was raised in Brazil where the Afro culture is very prominent. December is summer time, and for the New Year, most people (including me) dress in white and go to the beach to send flowers to the Orixás in hopes of a good year. We ask the Orixás for all of our wishes and set our goals for the new year.

I have been living in the US for over 30 years, and haven’t dressed in white, nor gone to the beach to send flowers to the Orixás for many years, but I still set personal and business goals.

I was a size 16 for many years and set goals to lose weight. It was very hard and frustrating, and every time I thought about the goals I had set for losing weight, I ate even more. In 2004, I gave up on that goal and decided to understand myself better.  I learned that I was addicted to bread and pasta. I gave up gluten, and without promising anything to myself, I lost weight, and for years was a size 8. Last year, I gave up dairy, and now I am a size 4.

The same thing happened with my business. I have set goals every year since I started. My business really moved ahead after 09/11 when I focused on understanding my business at that moment in time, rather than continuing with the goals I had set, especially when I had no control over what was going on in the US and with travel.

From my experiences coming from a cultural background, and even later, my personal and business experiences, I have realized that setting goals does not work as well as understanding and being nice to myself.

For 2018, I suggest that you try to understand yourself better; learn more about who you are and where you stand, and things will fall into place.

Happy 2018!

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