If you want to achieve your goals in every area of life, not just the area that shows up on your performance review, let me tell you about a dish scrubber.
I know, I know. Stay with me here.
At my office, we have a kitchenette that people use at lunch, for team gatherings, the occasional birthday cake situation. And for a while, we had this brilliant dish scrubber with a built-in soap dispenser in the handle. You’re scrubbing away and need more soap? Just push the button. Soap appears. It was magic.
I loved this dish scrubber so much I bought one for my house.
Here’s where it gets tragic. The scrubber has detachable bristles and recently someone ordered the wrong replacement part. Now we can’t refill the soap dispenser. The bristles work great. The scrubbing still happens. But the built-in soap dispenser? Gone, for all intents and purposes.
It still works. It’s just not fully what it was designed to be.
When You Don’t Achieve Your Goals in Every Area of Life, Something’s Missing
That little scrubber is a surprisingly good picture of what happens to us when we’re only chasing goals in one area of life.
Maybe you’re absolutely nailing it at work. Promotions, projects, recognition — the whole professional package. But your personal goals? The ones that are about who you are outside of your job title? Those have been on the back burner so long they’ve evaporated. And the goals tied to your sense of purpose — the things you feel called to do, contribute, or become — those might feel like a distant memory.
Or maybe it’s flipped. You’ve invested deeply in your relationships, your faith, your health, your hobbies. Life feels rich and meaningful in those areas. But professionally, you feel stuck, unchallenged, or like you’re just going through the motions.
Either way, something feels off. Not broken, exactly. Just… not fully you.
Here’s the important thing I want you to hear: that doesn’t make you less of a person. Not even close. But it does make your life less enjoyable and less fulfilling than it could be. And you deserve better than that.
Goal Setting in All Areas of Life Is the Point
This is why I talk so much about goal setting in all areas of life, not just the ones that show up on a performance review or a to-do list. The idea behind wholistic productivity isn’t to squeeze more out of yourself or to turn every waking moment into an optimization exercise. It’s almost the opposite.
It’s about recognizing that you are a whole person. You have professional goals that matter. You also have personal goals — relationships, health, creativity, rest — that should matter just as much. And you have purpose-driven goals: the things that connect you to something bigger than your inbox or your quarterly numbers.
When all three are in motion, life feels different. Fuller. More like the version of it you actually want to be living.
When one or two are neglected, even if the third is thriving, there’s a hollow quality to it. Like a soap dispenser that won’t open. You can still get dishes clean, but you know something’s missing.
How to Live a Fulfilling Life Starts With Showing Up for All of It
Figuring out how to live a fulfilling life isn’t about grand gestures or radical overhauls. It rarely is. Most of the time, it’s about paying attention to the areas that have quietly been left behind and deciding they’re worth your effort.
Your personal goals aren’t a luxury you earn after the work is done. Your purpose goals aren’t a nice-to-have for someday when life slows down (spoiler: it won’t). And your professional goals aren’t shallow or self-serving. They’re part of how you contribute to the world around you.
All of it matters. All of it is part of who you’re meant to be.
That’s why your goals matter. Not because some productivity framework demands it, but because you are worth showing up for in every area of your life. The world doesn’t just need you professionally competent. It needs you whole.
Dream Big. Plan Smart. Live Fully.
The scrubber at the office is still doing its job. It’s not useless. But it’s not living up to what it was designed to do, and honestly, every time I use it, I notice.
I don’t want that for you. I don’t want you to spend your life functioning but not fully flourishing, getting by in some areas while the others sit unused and untended.
You were designed for more than that.
So, here’s the question I want to leave you with: Which area of your life has been running a little dry lately — and what’s one small thing you could do this week to start filling it back up?
If you’re ready to start showing up for every area of your life, I’d love to help. Book a free 20-minute strategy call and let’s figure out together what “living fully” actually looks like for you.