So, has 2025 come to an end? I'm happy that I can say "happy new year 2026, but I wonder, how didn't I achieve most of my goals in 2025?
The new year paradox
Everybody is familiar with the "new year, new me" phrase. This phrase is very common. When the new year starts, we have a long list of goals we want to accomplish. Having goals is great, but how many of these goals really get accomplished? Most of the time, none of them get done. I realised that “new year, new me” doesn't work; it is an empty promise to myself. It feels suitable for the first two weeks. It feels like I'm going to accomplish so much this year, but at the end of the year, I realise that most, if not all, of my goals haven't been achieved. So it's not clever to wait until the new year to start working on your goals, but every day is an opportunity to begin achieving them.
Why Goals Go Unaccomplished
I realised that many goals go unaccomplished because of the lack of planning. How am I going to accomplish this goal? For years, I've wanted to learn Korean. I watch Korean dramas nearly every day, and I do understand some things after so many hours of watching. But I keep coming back every year with this same goal: I want to learn Korean, but with no plan of how. This is why my goals remain unmet year after year. At the beginning, I want to do too much with no plan for how to do it.
The Problem Isn’t Motivation, It’s Planning
There is so much that happens in a day that if you don't plan what you're going to do and how, a lot won't get done. Not because you are not unmotivated, but because you don't have a structure in your life. I liked my time in school. Why? When I was at school, it was easy to be productive because the whole year was already planned. All exam dates are already set. The only thing I needed to do was plan when to start studying. Looking not at my life, I wonder what is wrong with me. How could I be so disciplined at school, and now that I'm done with school, it looks like I'm not disciplined?
Disipline
I realised that I do more when I know when, what and how. But I realise that I am so bad at putting together a plan for all my goals of how I'm going to achieve them. I can out time, I can write the goals, but I fell short on the how. How will I accomplish this? What do I need to do daily to achieve this goal? How much time in my day can I set apart and focus on my goals? Many times I felt like I'm not disciplined, but the truth is, because I don't have a plan, my day gets filled with other stuff, like scrolling on YouTube because I'm too tired to do something that I didn't plan to do.
Goals for 2026
This year, I'm trying something different. I'm planning all my goals, with how, when, and what I'm going to do every 3 months. After 3 months, I will review my progress. Planning is definitely not easy. It is also not a perfect plan. Most of my time is at work, and after work, I only have 2 hours to work on my goals. But I know that I have time in the train going to work that I can use to achieve my goals, while choosing not to scroll endlessly on my phone. I will write about this more often this year, because I'm tired of not progressing in so many years.
Moral of the story
Every day we can start again with our goals. I'm tired of looking at the years that have gone by without progressing. This year, I want to progress. And I want to do the best I can with the time I have. By doing it every day for at least 15 minutes, I'll be farther than doing 6 hours a month. So, I hope you can join me too. This year, I don’t want perfection. I want consistency. I want to look back and know that I showed up, even if only for 15 minutes a day. What goals do you have, and how are you planning to achieve them? Tell me in the comments, let's go on this journey together.
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