Do you think everyone makes resolutions or goals for the new year? As it turns out, only half of us do. And of those people, 22 percent of them quit after the first week, which is when I am writing this post.
I loved the video below from New York Times bestselling author, entrepreneur, and podcast host Lewis Howes. His suggestions for how you make goals – and stick to them – are tactical and practical.
His five steps to achieve more in 2026 are:
- Get clear on your why
- Make your goals specific and measurable
- Break them into micro actions
- Build accountability
- Celebrate progress
I know these may seem like things you’ve heard before, but Howes includes many personal stories and examples in the video, and there are several mic-drop moments. One of them was, “Progress is not built on motivation. Progress is built on momentum.”
Yes! I often remind myself and my clients that small steps over time lead to big results every time. One way to set yourself up for failure is to make a big goal over a long time frame without thinking through how your will break that down into small things (micro actions) that you can easily accomplish.
Making goals specific and measurable is something we can forget to do with personal goals. Saying we want to lose weight or feel better isn’t a good goal. You don’t know what you would need to do to say you accomplished it, and you probably don’t have a clear why either.
Your “why” is why it matters to you and what you will gain emotionally, physically, financially, or spiritually when you achieve your goal. You need a goal that has emotion attached to it so that when things get hard and you don’t feel like working toward your goal, you have this future positive vision to help you push through.
You want to make goals with soul. Stay away from things you think you should do that don’t have a compelling why for you.
Accountability is also something you might want to build in. Just writing it down makes you 43 percent more likely to accomplish your goal because you are now accountable to yourself, but as additional support, you might want to find an accountability buddy, hire a coach or trainer, or join a mastermind group. Get whatever support you think you’ll need to accomplish your goal.
I cheered when Howes said that we need to celebrate all the small wins along the way to achieving our goal. This was the last step of the five he suggests, but from coaching entrepreneurs and leaders for 15 years, I have noticed this is something many hard-driving professionals don’t do.
While it can feel silly or like a waste of time, not stopping and acknowledging accomplishments over time can lead to a loss of work satisfaction and burnout. Grinding it out makes life feel like a grind. Celebrate the small things.
Actually, let’s celebrate everything because it makes life way more fun.
Also, this short from Daniel Pink has great suggestions you might want to try to keep you on track.
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
