Every year we make the same mistake:
We abandon our goals from last year (which we’ve made no progress on) and set new, even grander goals.
I don’t find goal setting useful; in fact, goals can act as a demotivation, because we’re adding new projects to our plate at a time when we’re already maxed on time.
I find Jan – March period often feels like swimming upstream; There’s an overwhelming sense that we have to “catch up” on old stuff that we left dangling before the Xmas break, plus a new deluge of tasks as everyone has a new fire up their ass.
We’re also forced to witness everyone’s New Year’s resolutions and reflections on how great 2025 was. Of course, no one’s sharing the shit bits. It can lead to “compare and despair”.
We’re already dealing with overwhelm;
As business owners we suffer from chronic business. that prevents us from even keep up with the stuff we have on our plate now, never mind adding new goals onto our todo list.
Setting goals, without a plan for daily action is nothing more than wishful thinking….
A new way to think of new year resolutions
So what if instead of adding new behaviours, projects and goals to your plate that you know you can’t possibly stick to,
instead commit to stay consistent on stuff you’re doing already that’s already working for you.
Or even better, take stock and let go of obligations that aren’t serving you anymore.
So Instead of asking
❌ “What new goals can I add?”
Instead, ask yourself
✅ “What can I stop doing?”
When we take on too many projects and goals we spread ourselves so thin that it’s impossible to make any progress on any of them:
There are always more things on our plate than we have time to do them.
To compromise, we chip away at each item, never truly making enough progress on any of them to make a difference.
This can make it feel like we just can’t win.
It can seem like every year, we put more & more in, but get less and less back out.
As people become pinched at both ends, we often see the worst qualities of humanity come out:
People start putting themselves first.
They start taking more, and giving less, hoarding what they have.
They pull down others to push themselves up, then brag about their success on social media.
Maybe the world is against us.
Maybe the game is rigged.
But we can choose how we lose.
And we can choose how we play, too.
The opponents may be cheating, the umpire may be biased, but we can still play fair.
Even when margins are tight, we can commit to doing our best work & still live a good life.
Don’t join zero sum thinking or “dog eat dog” mentality.
We can still treat others with kindness and be helpful.
The worse things get, the more important it becomes to do good & provide value where we can.
Doing our best ‘despite of‘ is it’s own form of winning.
⚙️ A System I use for consistency every year
Here’s my framework that will actually change your life, turning those grand goals into tiny actions you can take action on every day. If you actually want to make changes in 2026, here’s how I do it:
- Figure out what you want your life to look like
- Set goals for each area of your life
- Turn your vague goals into an actual plan to reach your goal
- Break your goal into steps and habits, so you can take action instead of just thinking about it.
- Plug habits into a schedule that you can work on every day
- Stay consistent to your schedule for weeks, months and years
My annual lifestyle review templates and worksheets
If you’re curious, here’s the exact process I use to review my life every year,
and to design my lifestyle for the next year
Here's my framework to change your life, turning big goals into tiny actions you can take action on every day.
Subscribe for instant access to My "goals to actions" workshop.
0:00 🎯 Design your life goals
1:20 ▶️ Break down Grand Goals to Daily Actions
2:20 ✅ Habit Tracking
3:40 🧑🏻 Case Study: build a new website
4:30 📦 Timeboxing – Parkinson’s law
5:00 💥 Cut 80% of the work using 80/20 Rule
6:30 👌🏻 Done is better than perfect
7:00 ⌚ Just in Time method
7:50 🧠 Build a second brain
8:30 🔥 Avoid burnout and overwhelm
9:20 🪝 Let yourself off the hook
9:40 🩹 Weekly Todo Triage
11:40 🗑️ Braindumping
