A Different Way to Think About 2026 Goals

Days away from 2026, the world is doing what it always does best this time of year: offering advice.
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Advice on goals.
On resolutions.
On intentions.

I won’t lie, as someone with Future Success as a top motive, I love this time of year. I love the possibility. The optimism. The sense that something new is about to begin. Which is why, as you’re reading this, I’m tucked away in a cabin, diving deep into my New Year planning.

But with the abundance of advice that includes goal-setting frameworks. Systems. Books. Blueprints. “Do this every day and your life will change,” promises – an important truth often gets lost.

It’s a truth our research at Motives Met is built on:

Thriving isn’t universal. It’s personal.
​What works for one person or one team won’t necessarily work for another.

This is longer than our typical Monday Motive Minute, but rather than offering a quick fix, I want to share a few principles that have actually held up for me, personally, professionally, and across the teams I’ve worked with. Just different ways of thinking, different approaches to consider, as you step into the year ahead.

Take what resonates. Leave the rest. There’s no universal formula for thriving in 2026, only the one that fits you.

1. Pay Attention to Obstacles, Not Just Desired Outcomes

“What stands in the way becomes the way.” — Marcus Aurelius

We spend a lot of time naming what we want.
​We spend almost no time naming what will stop us from getting what we want.

That’s why so many goals quietly roll over from one year to the next. Because you didn’t design for friction.

You plan for best-case scenarios, and then real life shows up. I’m guilty of this, too. One of my goals for this year is rolling over from 2025.

Instead of asking only “What do I want to achieve?” try asking:

• What will be the toughest challenge I’ll face?
• Why didn’t this happen last time?
• What consistently derails me (or my team)?
• When pressure hits, what do I default to?
• What will I do when those obstacles show up?

Planning for the real obstacles is a powerful strategy that I break down more deeply here: 👉 3 Surprising Things That Sabotage Team Goals​

2. Choose a Word of the Year

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language, and next year’s words await another voice.” – T.S. Eliot

Choosing a word of the year has been one of the most grounding practices I’ve adopted. Over the years, words like Bold, Unwavering, Rejuvenated, and Alive have shaped how I make decisions, set boundaries, and respond when things don’t go according to plan.

A word works because it’s flexible. Goals will change. Circumstances will shift. A word gives you something steadier to return to, an anchor when plans evolve, and a reminder of who you want to be, not just what you want to achieve.

I also pair this with my core desired feelings: How do I want to feel while going after my goals? Because progress that costs you your energy, values, or well-being rarely feels like success.

This practice is also incredibly powerful as a team. When a group reflects together, it creates shared language, alignment, and clarity about how people want to work and show up together.

👉 If you want to kick off the year with a bang, lead a Team New-Year Reflection & Intention Gathering and discover your team’s word of the year.

3. Prioritize Like You Mean It

If everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.” — Jim Collins

I’ve seen this constantly – in coaching, in leadership teams, and in myself.

Too many goals. Too many initiatives. Too many things labeled “important,” all competing for the same limited time and energy.

Here’s the uncomfortable but freeing truth:

You can’t do everything.
You can’t hit every goal.
You can’t meet every need.

Prioritization isn’t just choosing what matters most; it’s also letting go of what doesn’t. It often requires redefining success, happiness, or progress in a way that’s actually possible, rather than pretending everything can matter equally, that everything can be achieved.
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​At Motives Met, this is why we help people, teams, and leaders move past the “work happiness delusion” and focus on the motives that matter most in this season of people’s work life. When you and your team take the Motives Met Human Needs Assessment™, you identify which five of the 28 motives are truly driving well-being and performance. From there, clarity follows. Decisions get simpler. Energy goes where it actually counts. Leadership becomes more intentional. A roadmap to thriving based on each person you lead reveals itself.
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4. Think bigger to get clearer

“10x requires becoming someone different, not just doing things differently.” – Benjamin Hardy

You’ve probably heard the advice to get 1% better every day.

Small habits. Small wins. Compounded over time, add up to significant gains.

James Clear’s Atomic Habits made that idea mainstream.
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But here’s the part we don’t talk about enough.

Sometimes 1% better just keeps you small.

If your team only needs to increase profits by 5%, or you only want to lose 5 pounds, you don’t actually have to change much. You can keep most things the same and try a little harder.
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There’s a counterintuitive truth that Ben Hardy drives home in his book, “10x Is Easier Than 2x”:
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​Thinking bigger can actually make things simpler while 10xing your results.

2x thinking keeps you negotiating with your current reality.
You optimize the same systems. You keep the same team members. Most habits stick around. You don’t face hard truths or change your outdated beliefs.
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10x thinking doesn’t negotiate.
It interrupts.

It forces uncomfortable but clarifying questions:

• What actually matters right now?
• What am I willing to stop doing completely?
• What no longer fits who I’m becoming?
• What needs to be redesigned, not improved?

When I was writing my book, “Work Life Well-Lived,” I could have stayed in “1% better” mode, writing here and there. That worked for a while, but it wasn’t getting me to the finish line or where I wanted to be. Deciding to finish the final manuscript in three months meant choosing something bigger. To eliminate so many distractions from my life.

Choosing 10x can give you clarity you didn’t have before and far bigger results.

5. Lead with your future self

“People are trapped in history, and history is trapped in them.” — James Baldwin

It’s easy to stay loyal to who you’ve been.
Harder and more powerful to be loyal to who you’re becoming.

Ask yourself:

• What does the future version of me who has the success I desire do differently?
• What do they say yes to and NO to?
• Which obstacles no longer hold power over them?
• What mental limits have they already outgrown?

If you want the future success you desire, personally or professionally, it can be powerful to think about how that future version of you thinks, feels, and shows up. Then you start practicing that way of being now.

We don’t get the success and then become the person.
We become the person, and the success follows.

For leaders, this work extends beyond yourself. Coaching your team means guiding them to see how they need to show up differently today in order to create the future they want tomorrow.
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Here’s to a new year filled with new possibilities.

Cheers,

The Motives Met Team