7 Brutal Questions to Course-Correct your Life before 2026

Posted on by J.J. Hamilton

Don’t wait until the New Year to course-correct your life. Success doesn’t start on January 1st; it starts today. But, as I always say, it’s stupid to rely on New Year’s Resolutions. You’ll be full of motivation when you set those resolutions, motivated when you begin the new month, but suddenly demotivated once you’ve returned to normality.

Let’s take a second to slow down, even before setting any resolutions or goals whatsoever, and ask ourselves 7 brutal questions to course-correct our lives in the direction that we’d rather take it for the next calendar year. That way, our lives run on autopilot more efficiently.

In theory.

Question 1: What draining commitment can I exit before January?

Usually, the whole idea of a resolution is that you’re going to change, improve, or introduce something new, right? 

Well, how can you hope to fit more in if you’ve not stopped something first? It’s what we go on about all the time in teaching; the very best new interventions that you introduce for staff to implement consider workloads and what can continue to be managed alongside anything new. What other commitments need to go?

So stick to that in your personal life too. You’re not being selfish; you’re prioritising your energy. To work out what to drop, try out the Joy Test. This is where you consider whether something makes you happy; if it doesn’t, and you don’t need to do it, it’s out.

Here, you’ll focus on your low-return, high-effort commitments (cut out those pointless weekly meetings or any toxic voluntary roles you’re doing).

Do now: Write an email to resign from your commitment – today.

Question 2: What Boss Battle have I been avoiding? What do I get for beating it?

Think of that one huge task that’s been on your to-do list for ages; that’s your Boss Battle, and you’re going to gamify it to make completion more fun.

However, it’s important to consider why it’s still on your to-do list. Usually, we avoid big tasks because they lack an immediate reward. So, you’ll need to define the task and clearly define the reward – something as small as 15 minutes of guilt-free Doom Scrolling, or something as big as a nice dinner out. What else can you put in place to encourage you to get it done?

Do now: Schedule your Boss Battle to get it done first thing tomorrow morning.

Question 3: What time sinks am I pretending are productive?

It’s time to consider the differences between what is busy work and what is effective work. Too often, it’s easy to trick ourselves into thinking that checking our emails every ten minutes is useful work. To address this myself, I’ve pinned the tab to my work browser so that Gmail stays open, but the notifications remain hidden – making it easy to check if I absolutely need to. You might rather close it completely and force yourself to check only twice a day.

An easy way to work out where your time sinks are is by conducting a Reverse Time Audit. Track every single minute of your day without judgement as an experiment to see where the minutes bleed away. Make a note of this on a Google Doc; I quite often do this when I’m marking students’ books to work out whether I’m actually being efficient with the process.

Do now: Set a time block in your Google Calendar for deep work only. Emails are banned.

Question 4: How can I actively schedule joy?

Hacking your brain for happiness isn’t passive, it’s an active task. You need to intentionally schedule activities which will give you feelings of serotonin, oxytocin and, in some case, dopamine. All of these will contribute to your Me Time – and these need to be non-negotiables to give you more control over your life.

So, consider doing things that bring active job, like a hobby, exercise, or reading. Schedule in oxytocin-inducing activities, like connecting with people, as a critical part of your wellbeing. For my full breakdown of what’s called our neurochemistry pie, read more here.

Do now: Open your calendar and block out three 30-minute slots for pure joy before the end of the year.

Question 5: What systems will I implement to support next year’s biggest goals?

Don’t even bother with setting goals without putting systems in place to ensure that you achieve them by the end of next year. I’ve got a whole post planned to break this down right before the end of the year but, in short:

  • A goal might be writing a book. A system might be writing 100 words a day.
  • Trying to read a book and keep finding yourself buying more for your to-read shelf? Set a one-in, one-out system to ensure they get read.
  • Planning five gym sessions a week but only managing two? That’s fine; simply move the goal posts so you don’t feel as if you’ve failed.

Do now: Scale down whatever goals you’re planning to set for 2026 to a five-minute daily action.

Question 6: What’s the worst that could happen?

Imagine the big, lofty goals have failed. Why have you failed? Exaggerate as much as possible – what’s the absolute worst reason why you would have failed? We’re talking failure on a spectacular level – and then we can work backwards.

This isn’t an exercise in pessimism. You’re not being negative; you’re being proactive. Identify the pitfalls before they happen so that you can actively try your best to avoid them. So, during this process, you’re going to identify any issues, like time-sinks, underestimating contributions from a partner you might be working with, or distractions that could get in the way.

Well done for identifying these things! So, what are you going to do about them?

Do now: Write down one potential failure and plan for what you’re going to do about it.

Question 7: How will I measure progress?

Don’t make your goals intangible! It’s a pitfall that so many of us fall down and one that we need to avoid. Set actual, tangible goals that you can action. Or, set that lofty goal and break it down into smaller steps so that it’s easier to achieve, bit by bit.

Think about the quantifiable wins that you’re going to look for, or how long you’ve spent on your deep work, or any financial metrics, instead of just ‘yeah this feels good’.

Track your progress throughout the year with a mid-year audit or quarterly goals, or check out my whole guide to plan your entire life for the next year if you need the support (or if you’re just nosey and fancy reading more, click here).

Do now: Set mini goals along the way to your big target to help you to get there.

Don’t just sit there reading, or Doom Scrolling, or anything else; carve out half an hour tonight to answer these questions and get yourselves sorted before the new year begins.

Then, check out my latest posts:

Can you answer any of these questions in the comments below?

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