Fluid Visioning: An Alternative to Goal Setting

Recently, I was asked about my goals for my business. It is a very natural question, especially for someone who usually thrives with a clear purpose. But this time, it completely stumped me.

It was not that I do not believe in structured goal setting. Frameworks like SMART goals and KPIs have a real place and purpose - I’ve built a lot of my career instilling these frameworks with teams. They build momentum, provide accountability, and help track progress. But they do not suit all of us in every season. Sometimes, the structure that helps one person move forward can make another feel boxed in and that was me.

I felt the familiar pressure of trying to define what is next in neat little boxes - short term, medium term, long term. It was as if I needed to predict the unpredictable, to know exactly how long growth would take, or what success would look like before I had even started and that created a mental block.

So instead of pushing harder, I paused. I closed my laptop and decided it was a great time to alphabetise the spice rack instead (ask me for a pic, I dare you).

Sometimes when we are stuck, it is not because we lack ambition or direction. It is because the tools we are using to define them do not fit the way we think, create, or grow. That is when I turned to what I know works for me: a more fluid, creative approach to visioning.

When structure becomes a straitjacket

Conventional goal setting can create unnecessary time pressure. If you do not know how long something will take, and most things worth doing have unknown timelines, then you are setting yourself up to feel behind before you have even begun.

If I label something a short term goal but it takes me longer to reach, is that failure? Of course not. But that is how our brains often interpret it.

Traditional goal setting frameworks assume that progress is linear and predictable. But human growth is not linear. It is iterative, dynamic, and often messy. We learn, pause, recalibrate, leap forward, circle back, and often discover what we actually want along the way.

Psychologists studying creative cognition (Finke, Ward, and Smith, 1992) describe this as the “geneplore model,” a process of generation, where we explore ideas without constraint, followed by exploration, where we refine and develop them. In other words, creativity and clarity rarely come from strict planning. They emerge through flexible experimentation.

A sparkly mess that made sense

So I went back to what works for me: unstructured, creative mindmapping. I pulled out some nice paper, grabbed my sparkly pens (because why not, I never had them in high school and still hold some mild (ok, extreme) pen envy) and just started writing.

I threw ideas at the page with no particular order or hierarchy; people I wanted to work with, skills I wanted to learn, content I wanted to create, certifications I wanted to complete, how many days I wanted to work, how much I wanted to earn to pay my bills, partnerships that excited me - everything. It was chaotic. It was colourful. It was energising.

Somewhere in that sparkly mess, I started to see patterns. Not in a short, medium, and long term way, but in a now, soon, and someday kind of way. It became obvious what I wanted to put my energy into now, and what I wanted to nurture in the background for later.

No deadlines. Just direction.

The “blinkers-on” effect

I see this often with clients too. They set goals with intense focus on one specific action, and that tunnel vision can create a blinkers effect. When that one element starts to feel unattainable, frustration and disappointment creep in. They feel like they have failed, when in fact they have just reached a natural pause or pivot point.

Opening ourselves up to alternative pathways does not derail progress. It expands it. Sometimes, taking the scenic route gets you to the same place with a better view and a stronger sense of self along the way.

Introducing Fluid Visioning

I have started to call this approach Fluid Visioning.

It is about creating space for goals to evolve, without the rigidity of timelines or the binary of success and failure. It is not anti-structure. It is pro-human. It acknowledges that our energy, motivation, and circumstances shift, and our plans should too.

Fluid Visioning invites curiosity over control. It lets you stay connected to your values, intuition, and creativity while still moving forward with purpose.

Research in creative psychology supports this. Studies show that flexible thinking and open-ended exploration increase intrinsic motivation. We are more engaged when we feel autonomy, choice, and ownership over how we pursue something (Amabile, 1996; Deci and Ryan, 2000).

The takeaway

If traditional goal setting feels tight, heavy, or uninspiring, try loosening your grip. Swap the columns and calendars for a blank page. Let ideas flow in all directions then, look at what patterns emerge. What feels alive and urgent? What is quietly waiting its turn?

Because maybe it is not about perfect planning. Maybe it is about staying in motion, curious, flexible, responsive, and trusting that clarity comes through movement, not measurement.

So, I will leave you with this:

What would your goals look like if they did not need to fit a predefined structure?
Would a more fluid approach enable more curiosity?