How to actually achieve your goals in 2026: The Anti-Resolution toolkit

Posted on by J.J. Hamilton

Fireworks, sparklers, good times, merriment. Resolutions set, in bed by 2am, attempt resolution for the next month, fail miserably.

Sound familiar? It’s the classic New Year’s setup. It’s the reality for so many of us, myself included. For years, we set these lofty goals while around others who set lofty goals. We succumb to peer pressure and decide that, actually, yes, this year will be the year when I push myself and do what I set out to do.

Except we don’t.

By February, like so many other people around the world, we fail. Look, I’m a huge fan of setting lofty goals, and have done so at New Year many times before but, without proper systems in place, the odds are against us; we’re unlikely to achieve what we set out to do.

And that’s tough.

Too often, our goals are simply copied and pasted from last year without any real changes. Even if you’ve done a mid-year audit to figure out what’s working and what’s not, something still isn’t working.

So, this guide is not actually about setting goals. I’ve written plenty of those, which you could read here or here. Instead, it’s about establishing intentionality and unbreakable systems for 2026. We’re going to retire any idea of motivation, which I think is a huge myth anyway, and replace it with the idea of mechanics.

What mechanics are you going to put in place to ensure that you achieve your goals? Let’s explore them together.

Once you’re done here, head on over to this post to help you to actually plan out your life before the New Year hits.

The New Year Pre-Mortem

Before starting anything new, be it in your personal or professional life, take a step back and have a breather. Look back on the previous year, on your quarterly and mid-year audits, and think: how did it go? What went well in the past and what’s been dragging you down?

We’re going to proactively remove those obstacles before the clock strikes midnight.

Firstly, cut away any commitment, habit or draining activity that you did in 2025 and didn’t enjoy. If it’s not making you happy or serving some future purpose, it needs to go. Be ruthless here. If you’re struggling, focus on just one thing first, and we’ll go from there.

Then, audit your time commitments. I spoke about the concept of a neurochemical pie in my article on planning out the best month of your life, and how you should spend your time on activities that boost your serotonin and oxytocin levels (the happy chemicals), rather than getting stuck chasing yet another hit of dopamine. If your life isn’t geared up to make you happy, and you’re not spending your time doing what you love (you might get energy from sports, being a parent, your job, going to the movies, working out – it doesn’t matter what; you just need to identify what it is), then you’re setting yourself up for failure.

Finally, lay out your vision for 2026. What do you desperately want to do or achieve this year? Are you saving for a Big Trip to Japan? Planning a wedding? Or is it something more lowkey, like flexing your creative muscles with ten minutes of drawing per day?

Take a second to describe who you want to be and how you’re going to get there. Work out the non-negotiables for 2026 You.

A Systems-Led Approach

Goals are the finish line; systems are the race. You can’t have one without the other so, to get to the end and achieve our goals, we’re going to focus on making our behaviours repeatable over a long time. Make 2026 a long distance race, rather than a sprint.

So, to make these behaviours repeatable and achieve your goals, start with the smallest things first. Set the smallest possible action and do that thing. If you want to write a bestseller, don’t make that your goal and leave that as it is. Instead, your behaviour is going to be ‘write 100 words a day’.

Realistically, you could tick that off your to-do list in a couple of minutes.

Then, we’re going to set our behaviours out using the VITAL framework:

  • Visible: Must be easily trackable (rather than an approach which is simply ‘I’ll try harder’)
  • Intentional: Everything that you’re doing is for a reason
  • Time-blocked: decide when you’re going to do each system. Fill up your Google Calendar if it helps you stay on track
  • Actionable: What is the single thing that you’re going to do next?
  • Lower the bar: set the minimum viable effort needed to accomplish something related to your goal – and then raise the bar once you’re consistent
What goals are you planning to set for this year?

Gamification to make it stick

One of the reasons that I love Duolingo so much, and have continued to think that Super is worth the investment, is because of how it gamifies language-learning. I need to earn XP to move up the leaderboards each week, encouraging me to do more lessons, which in-turn helps me to learn the language.

We’re going to borrow that gamification concept and apply it to the rest of our goals. 

Your first gamification is going to be the Boss Battle, which I wrote about over in my time management strategies article. Identify that one task each week which is going to push your main goal forward, but also causes you the most issues with procrastination. Conquer it early and reward yourself in whatever way you want. This will reframe your to-do list as a list of challenges to beat.

However, be aware that life will continue to try its best to get in the way of your goals, which is why they should remain elastic. They can stretch and retract, but we’re going to try our best to ensure that they never snap. If you’re planning 5 gym sessions a week, but only manage 2, then don’t see that as a failure; instead, you’ve lowered the bar to remain consistent.  It’s exactly what I had to do when I was tracking my calories in the summer.

Finally, break your year up into four 90-day sprints, focusing on the four quarters of the year. Every 90 days, you’ve got the chance to run a mini-audit and start again, ruthlessly pivoting or ditching any systems that aren’t working.

So, don’t wait for the next calendar year to begin. Sit down and start your pre-mortem audit tonight. Do one small thing to prepare your mind, environment or systems for 2026.

Which single draining commitment are you going to ruthlessly cut from your life before the start of the new year? Let me know in the comments below.

Then, check out my latest post!

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