It’s all well and good planning our goals, but lets actually reach them this year!

The new year is here and I can only assume you have started thinking about your New Year’s resolutions, and with this, looking back on last years. This blog is going to help you create the perfect goals, tailored to your life, as well as how to actually reach them! So, without further ado, let’s reflect on the past year and make ourselves some SPECIFIC and ACHIEVABLE goals for 2026!

Mel Robbins (motivational speaker, author and practical mindset coach) has a list... her best year list! If you haven’t listened to her podcast, I would highly recommend it, but for now I will just tell you the questions ? Grab yourself a little notebook and a pen (or you can do this on your phone or laptop) and answer the following questions. As honestly as you can. Mel suggests looking back though your camera roll of the year to remind yourself of everything you did and whether it was actually good or bad. For example, if I look back on the year, I would definitely say a highlight was being a bridesmaid. But if I remember back, I actually ended up having a disagreement with my cousin and getting really upset. It’s important to really reflect on how you were feeling in every moment to put it in the right category in order to reflect.

My sister had also listened to this episode and we were discussing the questions and our own ‘2025 audits’. We actually came up with a few more questions we thought dug a bit deeper and lead seamlessly into our 2026 goals:

After answering these questions, we felt the answers went hand in hand with our 2026 goals, we didn’t need to pluck ideas out of thin air, we had already come up with them in our answers.

Kathy Caprino (career and leadership coach) says she doesn’t write New Year’s resolutions as such but writes an end of year review of what she’s most happy with in terms of what’s been achieved and created, what has not gone so well, and what has transpired that lead to failed expectations and hopes. This is followed by coming up with some key themes to be the focus of the following year. Another article I stumbled across mentioned the same thing, Daisy Jones (features journalist at British Vogue) wrote that a ‘theme for the year’ worked better for her than resolutions. Past themes for Daisy include ’travel’, and throughout the year she happened to visit a new country every month or so for work. She believes that ‘themes’ are more flexible and encompassing than resolutions as it is more about funnelling your energy in one direction rather than saying ‘don’t do this’ or ‘do this more’ (Jones, 2025).

From answering the questions from Mel Robbins and my sister and myself, you will now have a 2025 reflective ‘life audit’. Take your answers and create a list of goals for yourself in 2026. For example, if the best version of yourself wakes up early, and a bad habit you don’t want to take into the new year is staying up late, a good goal would be to come up with and stick with a solid sleep schedule. Now look at your goals and see if there is an obvious theme sticking out, if there is then great! If not, that’s okay, you can just decide on one yourself.

Themes may include: Travel, Career, Health and fitness, Socialising, Trying new things, or anything that fits with your goals!

Now it’s time to think back to your 2025 goals. If you’re like me and got a bit complacent with them then chances are some may be pretty similar. And again, that is more than okay, because this year we will have a stronger way to keep our goals at the forefront of our mind - which you will learn about shortly. Let me share my goals from 2025 and how I came to write this blog, to help myself and others.

My 2025 goals included:

Now, if I compare this to what I actually achieved I haven’t done TOO badly, but I also haven’t reached all my goals. I didn’t get my drivers licence or even ATTEMP a 10k, and I visited 3 countries rather than 5 (still unreal btw and I am very grateful to have been in a position to be able to do this). But on the other hand, I did graduate University with a First Class Degree AND I secured a post grad job!! So, looking back, I achieved 2.5/5 goals from 2025 (and arguably the most important goals - minus the drivers licence whoops).

I asked myself ‘why did I not reach all of my goals?’ and the answer was that I simply didn’t keep up with them and didn’t make them a constant priority in my life. As 2025 came to an end and I started reflecting on this and thought I would do some research into how to successfully make goals and successfully reach them.

The first ‘theory’ I came across was the ‘12 week year’ by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington, which teaches people how to achieve more in 12 weeks than others do in 12 months. The idea is that you split the year up into four ‘12 week years’ whereby you give yourself goals to reach within the 12 weeks to create slight pressure and rush to complete them. At the end of each ‘year’ you look back and reflect on your goals and how far you have come. I think this is an amazing idea to implement as it holds you accountable, and there is a much shorter timeframe so it is harder to forget!

One of my goals this year is to run a consistent comfortable 27 minute 5k. Chances are, without knowing about the 12 week year, I would’ve written this down on my goal list and forgotten about it, then been disappointed in a years time when my 5k isn’t 27 mins. Whereas now, I can incorporate this goal into my ‘years’ to break it down and see slow and steady progress. I also wanted to aim to run 3x a week, but you know what it’s like in winter... pitch black, muddy and raining. I know myself that realistically I won’t be running 3x a week in the winter months, but that’s where the 12 week year comes into play. I have now split up my goals and they seem much more achievable and I can include the three runs per week in the ‘years’ that I will do them and not be disappointed at the end of the year when I didn’t run three times every single week. Here’s an example of my running goal, split up into four for you to see. You can use this framework for any goal, no matter what it is!

Year One:

January 1^st - March 26^th (followed by one week of reflection and adjustment of new goals)

April 2^nd - June 25^th (followed by one week of reflection and adjustment of new goals)

July 2^nd - September 24^th (followed by one week of reflection and adjustment of new goals)

October 2^nd - December 25^th (followed by one week of reflection and adjustment of new goals)

So, like I said, this framework can be used for any goal you have, and the weeks reflection in between ‘years’ gives you a good chance to reflect and potentially change you’re goal. I may be absolutely smashing my goal by the second quarter and have to change my goal for the better, or things may not be going as well as I’d hoped and I may have to change it to a slightly longer time. But remember, any progress is good progress. If I can look back in a years time and I’ve ran over 500k, I will be absolutely over the moon!

I had so much fun doing this exercise, and I hope you do too. I’ve always been into manifesting and stuff like that so when I heard the Mel Robbins podcast with Debbie Millman (professor and creative professional) I knew it was something I had to get back into and start doing again. Millman has taught a life design course for many years and does this exercise with every class after learning it from her past professor Milton Glaser. It’s called the 10 year exercise. It’s a future visioning activity designed to help you imagine your ideal life a decade from now, without being limited by current fears, doubts or ‘realistic thinking’.

Pick a date 10 years in the future from now (2036) and imagine waking up on that day and describing what your life looks like in as much detail as possible. Where do you live? What does your daily routine look like? Who are you with - family, relationship, community? Do you work? Have hobbies? Travel? Write it as if you could have anything you wanted and weren’t afraid to pursue your dreams. The aim of this is to let yourself dream without judgement or limits, get clear on what you actually want, not just what seems practical or likely, and using your imagination to fuel action. Your brain doesn't know the difference between your thoughts and what’s real (why it’s really bad to think negatively of yourself). Millman did this exercise when she was in college and years later found that many of her goals actually came true.

Even if you think this is silly, just do it! There’s no harm in it! Personally, I did this exercise twice, I did it once for ten years time, and another for a years time, only because I don’t think I can wait ten years to find out if everything comes true!

So, pick a random date a year from now. Write a diary entry about your dream day as if it’s already happened. Include anything you want. You could be on the beach in Australia. You could’ve moved into a bigger house, be driving your new car, to your amazing job. Then go crazier and write one for 10 years in the future. You could have kids, grandkids, be married, live abroad, have retired, live in your dream house, have your dream job, have a major career change, be travelling the world. The world is your oyster. So much can happen in a year, and even more in ten.

I might keep writing these throughout the year, it’s fun to just let your mind run free and envision your life in dream form. When you imagine a future in sensory detail, your brain activates the same neutral networks as when you actually experience something. This makes the future stop feeling abstract and distant and so starts feeling personally relevant and emotionally real. Once something feels real, your brain is more likely to pay attention to opportunities related to it, remember information that supports it, and treat it as worth effort and persistence (Kosslyn, Thompson and Ganis, 2006). Nothing happens without action, using your imagination frequently aims your attention, biases your decisions and improves follow through in order to align your imagination with your real life (Oettingen, 2014).

My final thoughts:

From my research, I thought I’d share my own thoughts on new years resolutions! Personally, I like to come up with goals rather than resolutions. For example, for me, its much more motivating to see ‘run a 27 minute 5k’ than ‘run more’. ‘Run more’ is slightly naff, there’s no end goal, there’s nothing to work towards, and it’s easy to forget about the goal. I suppose if your goal is to stop smoking then ‘stop smoking’ would suffice but with most goals I think it is best to be super specific. You want to save some money? How much will you save per month? How much do you want to have saved by when? You want to start a new hobby? What hobby are you starting? How much time will you put aside a week to focus on this? What level of skill would you like to be and by when?

I am really excited to split all of my yearly goals into 12 week goals and see consistent progress though out the year. I might even reward myself at the end of each ‘year’ if I have hit my goal! And if I don’t quite reach my goal, it doesn’t matter, I can just adjust my next goal. There is no rush when it comes to reaching goals, but personally I would rather push back my milestone by 12 weeks than 12 months!

I’m excited to come back to my dream life diary entry in a years time and see how accurate it is and how many of my dreams came true - no matter how unrealistic they seem now. I think I will continue to write these diary entries to try and wire my brain into thinking it’s my reality and will help me to meet my goals.

I hope this has been a fun and motivating read for you and you have lots of reflections and goals scribbled down on your notebook! I am super excited for the next year and the March check-in to see how everyone’s doing with their goals or themes for the year!

Izzy x

Reference list

Caprino, K. (2022). The Top Reasons 80% of New Year’s Resolutions Fail, And How Yours Can Succeed - Kathy Caprino. [online] Kathy Caprino. Available at: https://kathycaprino.com/2022/12/the-top-reasons-80-of-new-years-resolutions-fail-and-how-yours-can-succeed/ [Accessed 22 Dec. 2025].

Jones, D. (2025). Why I Stopped Doing New Year’s Resolutions – And Did This Instead. [online] British Vogue. Available at: https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/why-i-stopped-doing-new-years-resolutions-and-did-this-instead [Accessed 22 Dec. 2025].

Kosslyn, S.M., Thompson, W.L. and Ganis, G. (2006). The Case for Mental Imagery. [online] Google Books. Oxford University Press. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=F45JCAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=Kosslyn [Accessed 28 Mar. 2024].

Kraemer, H. (2025). How To Set The Most Effective New Year’s Resolutions. Forbes. [online] 16 Dec. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/harrykraemer/2025/12/16/how-to-set-the-most-effective-new-years-resolutions/.

Oettingen, G. (2014). Rethinking Positive Thinking. [online] Scribd. Available at: https://www.scribd.com/document/804191572/Rethinking-Positive-Thinking-2014 [Accessed 5 Jan. 2014].

Theakston, S. (2025). How the 12-Week Year Approach is Changing How I Work. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/swlh/how-the-12-week-year-approach-is-changing-how-i-work-1b11ced02727 [Accessed 22 Dec. 2025].

Zomick, B. (2024). Top 10 Most Common New Year’s Resolutions (and How to Follow Through on Them) | Awaken. [online] Awaken. Available at: https://awaken.com/2024/12/top-10-most-common-new-years-resolutions-and-how-to-follow-through-on-them/?utm_source=chatgpt.com [Accessed 23 Dec. 2025].