Isn’t it odd how much importance we assign to January 1st? The flip from December 31st to January 1st is cosmically no different from any other midnight. Nothing special happens, geologically speaking. We’re still the same people. And yet, we mark the transition with greater fanfare than any other midnight.

We are, as a species, a superstitious lot. The incrementing of the big number in our time-tracking system carries real psychological weight. Over time, we’ve tied that number to taxes, budgets, and fiscal years. Because the calendar says “start,” we treat it as a new beginning. We hang a new calendar on the wall. We make resolutions to work hard to become the ideal version of ourselves. At least until February.

It’s never too late to start planning. Google Trends shows people begin searching for New Year’s resolutions right about now, with interest peaking during the first week of January. If you’re lucky enough to have some time off during the holidays, this is a good moment to think ahead. You can be ready for the inevitable, “What’s your resolution?” You can slide into 2026 ready to go.

Each year at work, I helped my team define their goals and posted my personal work goals where everyone could see them. Goals look a lot like resolutions at first glance. The difference is that goals survive contact with reality.

Resolutions are grounded in good intentions. They tend to be brittle, lacking the structure to keep them from breaking under the pressure of the real world. The most common resolutions for 2026, according to this survey, will be familiar ones. Exercise more. Save money. Eat better. Spend more time with family and friends. I know I want all of those things. I also know myself well enough to know that wanting them is not going to be enough to get them.

Most resolutions fail because they lack specificity. What are you exercising more than? I doubt most people track their exercise. If you don’t know where you’re starting from, you can’t notice improvement. Unless you’re starting from zero. In that case, lifting a single kettlebell technically counts as progress. Resolution met!

Weak resolutions explain why gym memberships spike by ten percent or more every January then drop in February. A shiny new membership feels like momentum. But you, and I, and the gym owners all know it’s a hollow promise. A more honest resolution would be to get a gym membership. That’s one we could all complete.

In 2024, I watched a CGP Grey video that introduced me to the idea of themes instead of resolutions. The idea is simple. Pick a theme for the year, quarter, or month. Then look for ways to align with it. I tried it in 2025. It didn’t quite work for me. Maybe I picked too many themes. Maybe I didn’t internalize them. Practice matters, so another year of themes might get them working for me. Even so, themes might work very well for you. They just weren’t my answer.

Goals worked better for me. Themes ended up feeling a lot like resolutions. They were easy to set aside as the year wore on. By contrast, the goals I set at work did stick. I got more done. I interviewed more candidates. I helped more people. I expressed gratitude more often. Those outcomes were a result of using goals and not just resolutions.

The point of a goal is to help make decisions. Goals help decide where to invest your limited time and resources. They help you say yes to the right things. They also help you say no. Good goals keep you from over-indexing in one area while neglecting others. They give you a way to correct before it’s time for the next calendar replacement.

Over the years, I’ve helped with a lot of goal writing. My own and those for my team at work, the Amazon Stores Accessibility team. I learned what works and some comon patterns to identify goals with no chance of success. Here are a few things I now look for in a good goal.

Goals should be measurable. Measurable means thinking beyond just pass/fail. You should be able to tell whether you’re making progress toward completion. Good goal: Be able to run 26.2 miles. You can track how far you run and if that number is increasing. Bad goal: Run a marathon. You either do it or you don’t. In both cases, you might run the same distance. Only one lets you see progress.

There should be more than one way to meet a goal. If there’s only one way to meet the goal, it’s likely too fragile or it’s measuring the work instead of the outcome. A good test is to imagine multiple paths you might take to fulfill the goal. Good goal: Publish four books. Which books doesn’t matter. Bad goal: Publish my cookbook. If that one idea stalls, the goal collapses.

Goals should drive action. Measurements tell you when to adjust your time and effort. A goal shouldn’t just complete on its own. We want our goals to guide us in our decision making, not just be natural outcomes for things we were going to do anyway. Good goal: Travel to six new places in 2026. Not only does it spur you to travel more, but helps you decide to travel to new places versus the same ones you’ve visited a dozen times. Bad goal: Travel more. You won’t know you’ve failed until the year is already over and it doesn’t help decide where to go.

Goals should be un-nullifiable. One mistake should not destroy the entire effort. You should be able to recover from a stumble. Good goal: Drink no soda for ninety consecutive days. You can always restart if you do give in to temptation. Bad goal: Stop drinking soda. One Coke and it’s over.

Goals should be under your control. Goals that rely on others, or rely on convincing others to do something are likely to leave you frustrated when people prioritize their own goals over yours. Good goal: Practice math with my daughter one hundred times this year. Bad goal: Have my daughter get straight As. Too much of that outcome lies with teachers and circumstances outside my influence.

The final rule is the most important one. If you meet every goal you set, your goals were probably not ambitious enough. Part of setting good goals is to encourage us to push ourselves and to have to make choices. If all your goals are complete at the end of the year, think about how you can be more ambitious.

Goals are tools, not verdicts. Progress matters more than perfection. Partial success still counts. When life changes, goals can change too. That’s not failure. That’s planning.

I had already started sketching what I wanted my goals for 2026 to be. Then November happened and layoffs threw a wrench into those plans. I’ll lose access to my work resources at the end of the week. That means I need a new place to write my goals, likely this newsletter. I suspect a lot of people are in the same boat. 2025 saw more layoffs than any year since COVID.

I’m still working on my new goals for 2026. I hinted at some of them in the examples above but I’ll write more about them in a future post. As a newly minted free agent, these goals will be a mix of encouragement and structure. They’ll help me finish projects, meet more people, and use my time well. The previous sentence was vague. Not good goals at all. Before 2026 I’ll have turned them into real goals and be ready to meet the New Year head on.

Are you writing goals for 2026? Sticking with resolutions? Trying something else entirely? I’d love to hear what you’re planning, and if there’s any way I can help.

Check out more on goals and resolutions.

This creature is a creation of the necromancer Valdric Morneau, a vintner who believed death was simply another form of fermentation. Morneau’s vineyards were famous for their heavy, inky reds. His wines carried a lingering numbness on the tongue. They imbued the imbiber with a dreamlike calm in the hours after drinking. He claimed the grapes drew their character from soil enriched with carefully prepared remains, and that properly cultivated undeath could produce enological perfection. To guard his vines from thieves and rivals, he stitched together predator and locust, binding the creature to the land and its product. In the end, Morneau’s obsession proved fatal. The monster’s necrotic foam seeped into his cellars, infecting the bottles and barrels he guarded so jealously. The same qualities that made his wines singular masked the poison and eventually he succumbed.

The necromaleapard and more monsters are available (for free) on Patreon.

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