Why Your 2026 Goals Will Fail (And How To Fix Them)

I and my friend were discussing our goals and restructuring what could be. Our conversation brought me to a line of thought and I said I had to write about it. That thought was about goals, habits and rest. 2025 made me appreciate rest periods and view things in a new light.

My friend had her goals written down but I noticed they were quite numerous. It was beautiful how she broke it all down but then, I know her. To an extent, I believe I know how much she can do and how easily she gets overwhelmed. I brought this to her attention and gave pointers on what exactly she should focus on and what should go. To do this, let’s look at what goals and habits are.

Goals.
These are specified targets in your life. Maybe you hope to build or achieve something, you set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound) goals.

Goals are not meant to be draining, it shouldn’t put any pressure more than necessary when it comes to the life you want to create for yourself. If your goals aren’t SMART, chances are you would struggle with little to no results.

So before setting goals, you need to do a mental calculation of your own ability to reach them. The reason is, you don’t want to get to the point where you believe you’re a failure just because you couldn’t meet goals which were most likely out of your league at that point in time. One of the ways to this is to track your actions underneath these goals – like branches.

You have a goal and there are follow up actions on that with outlined strategies and daily tasks. If these goals mean a lot to you, you would do it...

Habits.
These are behaviours you’ve built over time. It’s most likely akin to breathing for you and not something you can negotiate.

Your habits can range in hierarchy from the least to the highest or highest to least. Chances are whatever you first think of or do the moment you open your eyes tops the priority list. For me, it’s my spiritual relationship. I’m up at 5am for prayers and bible study until almost 7am each morning.

Following that are a few good minutes of stretchy exercises and hydrating myself with lemon water. Then it’s work and the rest follows. Your habits can be improved, relearned, and unlearned if you so desire it. This is where discipline comes to play. You got to stay consistent on it despite your feelings

You may just be overwhelming yourself with habits rather than goals.
The thing about goals is that it sets your mind on course. It’s like a map that helps you get to where you’re going. But what happens when we begin to fill goal slots with habits? It becomes draining. I’ll explain.

My friend had her goals for January down, but I noticed there were things she wrote down as goals that shouldn’t even be there. Why? She already was living in some of them.

Many times, we make the mistake of using goal fillers. Not every single thing you think you want to do should be a goal. Some can just be placed on your to-do list for each day. Your to-do list may just be five items tailored to set you in motion daily towards bigger goals.

Personally, for her, I thought “working out” shouldn’t be a goal. It’s already something she’s doing. All she needs now is the discipline to make it a habit. For me, praying, studying my bible, stretching are no longer goals. They are now a major aspect of my life. They take the best part of my day. They are top of the top in the hierarchy of my daily things to do.

Now, I have recognised what habit is and so, I can channel more energy to what should be my actual goals. Things I haven’t done and might be totally new territory for me.

A person may just create a list with a plethora of all things they want to achieve. Upon closer inspection, you realise it’s nothing more than a wish list. Why? Their ‘goals’ are without legs and there are so many gaps filled with things they are already good at.

next day as the dusk falls, your mind is sharp and well rested. You see what you need to do and you’d have the energy to do it.

Constant work without rest is setting up for a crash. That crash comes with repercussions. As they say, Prevention is better than cure. So, rest. Pick any day and rest. You need it.

In conclusion, habits and goals are not the same. Don’t fill your list with habits and don’t underestimate the power of rest.