How to Stick to Your 2026 Goals

It's a new year and you know what that means, baby! Goal setting time!

Whether you hate 'em or you love 'em...most people are setting some kind of goal for 2026, so why not get on board?

As one of those people who gets waaaay into goal planning - like vision boards, data tracking, and guided meditations for manifestation - I know all about how to set goals AND actually stick to them.

Here's what I've realized about making goals at the beginning of a new year and how I actually make them happen.

Goal setting and new year predictions is ingrained in me. As a kid, my mom would have us write down goals and predictions on New Years Eve and we would tuck them into an old oatmeal container till the following NYE. Many of the predictions were silly and whimsical. I'm still waiting for my "Aliens come to earth" prediction to come true and I do feel like I'm getting closer each year. See? Focus and commitment are important - remember that.

But the goals we would set gave us a clear vision for what we wanted to accomplish that year. And it was satisfying to reveal the contents of the oatmeal container each year to see who had reached their goal.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter how outlandish your resolution is (*cough* contact aliens that have landed on earth *cough*) , it just matters how you set it up.

Before you even dive into structuring your goals, relish in the fact that you will have multiple "new starts" throughout the year. The opportunity to refresh isn't just for New Years Day. You'll check-in with your goals and re-strategize as needed at pivotal points throughout the year. Every Monday, every month, every season change, and at the 6 month mark.

Routine check-ins set you up for success. You can measure and assess your progress and your brain will enjoy the satisfaction of completing a bunch of little tasks and not one looming, large goal.

Tip 1 - Get Clear On Your Goal

Making broad goals does you no good. If I just wrote down that in 2026 I wanted to, "Get hot." ... Sure, that sounds awesome. I'd love to be a hotter version of myself in 2026 but what does that even mean?!

The first step to successfully reaching a goal is to get clear on it. You want to be as specific as possible when setting it. A helpful way to focus your thoughts on your goal is to consider:

• What you want

• Why you want it

• Who it’s for

• When you want to achieve it

• What micro-goals will help you get there

• Where you'll work on this goal

• How you're going to keep your motivation

Here is an example of how I would structure my goal - Get Hot.

Overall Goal: Get Hotter in 2026

Why: I want to feel confident, feel strong and healthy, and look incredible

Who benefits from this goal: Myself and anyone who has to look at me

When do I want to accomplish this: Throughout the year with peak hotness achieved by end of year

What micro-goals will help me get there: This is where it gets good and the real planning takes place. I will have a strong morning and night skincare routine, I will do my hair and makeup at least 4 days a week. I will work out 4-5x a week. I will eat healthy and drink plenty of water. I will get outdoors to get sunlight and a slight tan, or I will self-tan. I will put effort into my outfits. I will speak kindly to myself about my appearance. THOSE are the things that will add up over time to ultimately help me reach my main goal.

Where will I work on this goal: My home. The gym. The world.

How I'm going to keep my motivation: Find a photo I love of myself (or an inspo pic I admire) and realize that I have hotness potential...I just have to unlock it.

So you see, your main goal is actually made up of a bunch of tiny goals.

Tip 2 - Make a Plan

Now that you understand the structure of setting a goal, you can fine tune it in your action plan. This will tie into your check-in points as well.

Let's keep using the goal from above: Get Hot.

Using one of our micro-goals we talked about, we can define when and where we'll be completing it and set our check-in point. For example, working out 4-5x a week.

First decide what your workout days will be and what time. For me, this is Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings and Wednesday and Sunday mornings. In order to effectively track these workouts, I log them on my Apple watch and keep track of them in a planner to ensure I'm hitting all of those workouts. With the amount of calories I'm burning from each of those workouts and the muscle I'm gaining, I can safely assume that I'm on the right track to get hotter throughout the year.

In addition to weekly check-ins in my planner, I'll also plan to do quarterly before and after photos to monitor progress. Sometimes we can't as easily see our results when we look at ourselves every day. We need a more stark contrast to review.

If I have specific weight or body comp goals on top of that, I'll do a 6 month check-in to see where my progress is at too.

Tip 3 - Measure Progress

If you don't track your progress in some way, it's going to be hard to feel like you're making any monumental change - even if you are. Like I said, when you're too close to something, you can't always see the change that's occuring. You need a way to step back and view things from a wider lens.

Someone I find absolutely fascinating in their ability to track progress is Rob Dyrdek. Yeah, the skateboarding reality TV star from the early 2000s. Host of Ridiculessness. Turns out he's super into tracking his progress and even had a developer build out an app specific to him so that he could better monitor his lifestyle habits - baller.

He's actually now developed and released a time management app - TimeTackle - so you can see exactly where your time is going, and using the data collected from it, you can learn how to optimize your day for maximum productivity - a dream. Definitely worth looking into if you are hyper-focused on your goals...and love tracking things.

If you're looking for something a little more relaxed though, you can create your own habit tracker specific to your goals (and micro-goals), use the fitness tracking capabilities on your watch, or get a planner where you can check things off in a calendar format.

With that tracking habit in place, make a note of changes you're seeing in yourself along the journey. Have you lost weight? Inches off your waist? Do you have more energy? Is your skin more clear? Define what progress looks like for each goal and regularly check-in to see if you've grown in any areas.

Tip 4 - Take it Day by Day

Every day is going to be different. Don't get too in your head or beat yourself up if you're not able to stick to your plan every. single. day. Life happens.

The important part is how you recover and get back on track.

Say you skip a workout somewhere in the week. You have "off days" built in to your schedule, use them if you have to. Make up a workout on another day.

If your goal is to read a chapter of a book every night and you don't read one night...well, just read 2 chapters the next day.

Having a plan for your goals isn't about being rigid and perfect - it's about setting yourself up for success in a way that's still flexible. We're all just out here trying to do our best.

Tip 5 - Have a Reward

Everyone loves a lil treat.

Having a reward in place for when you reach a goal gives your brain something to look forward to and helps to reinforce positive habits. Gold stars don't stop when you finish school. And now, you're a grown up with grown up money and you can reward yourself with pretty much anything you want which is cool.

It doesn't have to be extravagant or expensive either. It just needs to work for you.

For me, I know I love a good doom scrolling session. At the end of the day, if I completed everything I wanted to do and I feel good about the work I put in that day, I give myself 30 minutes to mindlessly scroll on TikTok.

Find what rewards work for you and incorporate them into your goal settting strategy. These rewards could also differ depending on your check-ins. Maybe on a daily level, you reward yourself with something small to keep the momentum going. After a few months of dedication to your goal, maybe you reward yourself with something bigger.

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What it all boils down to is consistency and good planning.

Very few have the ability to stay motivated and successful at reaching their goals without a clear plan...but EVERYONE has the ability to succeed through strategic planning.

Use this as a guide to get yourself on track in 2026.

BONUS TIP: If you really want to go above and beyond to lock in your goals this year, create a vision board that includes everything you want to see happen this year. Post it in a place you'll see often like the lock screen on your phone or background on your computer. AND for even more goal manifestation magic, listen to a guided meditation on manifesting your dreams either right when you wake up or before you go to sleep - or both. Those are the times your mind is most relaxed and receptive to ideas.