I have a confession to make.

For as long as I can remember, I have had a habit of reflecting on every year that passed by. In the last week of December, I’d pick up a pen and notepad, revisit the goals I had written 365 days ago, and check on the progress I had made.

But now I’ve realized that over the last few Decembers, I slowly slipped away from that habit.

And it got me thinking because I am usually not the person who would give up on a good habit so easily.

But I did.

A few nights ago, while I was writing in my journal, I asked myself, “Why did I slip away from my annual reflections?”

My mind wanted to give a dozen excuses, but I bent it towards the truth. And although it was uncomfortable, it was necessary to face it.

I didn’t like the pangs of guilt that hit me when I saw all my incomplete goals. I didn’t like myself when I achieved only a few successes, but a lot of failures. And the worst part is, I wasn’t even letting myself come to terms with this feeling.

Instead, I drowned it away in the excitement of setting new goals and vision boards for the year to come. That felt amazing! Hope was finally coming back in my life!

But that plan had one tiny problem—it wasn’t sustainable.

The leaves on my tree were drying and rotting, but instead of sorting out the soil, I was spray painting the leaves green and pretending everything was fine.

You can easily figure out where that led me a year down the line.

More guilt. More regret. More green spray painting.

So, I stopped caring for the plant altogether. Now, instead of pretending everything was fine, I pretended the plant didn’t exist at all.

That’s the moment I stopped my yearly reflections.

But this December, I am learning from my mistakes.

And with less than 48 hours left in 2025, I thought, let’s share this with you as well, so you can learn from my experience and save yourself from a few Decembers of confusion and guilt.

Goals Won’t Work:

This, right here, has been my biggest realization.

The biggest mistake that I was making (and you could be making, too) is that I was setting goals for the next year.

I know, this might sound counterintuitive because all this time, we have been taught to only set goals, but stick with me for a while. It will start making sense.

When I set those goals, I felt motivated.

But when the push came to shove, my actions were lackluster. Yes, I was doing things. But to achieve results on the scale I wanted, I wasn’t doing enough.

That scale of action felt overwhelming because I wasn’t used to it.

I had all these results that I wanted, but I hadn’t evolved into the kind of person who could easily achieve them.

And that’s why goal setting didn’t work.

You can have all the goals in the world. You can dream of all the things you want to achieve. You can make all kinds of plans on paper.

But if you don’t build yourself into the kind of person who could do all of that, all those goals and plans are as good as yesterday’s newspaper in the trash.

Hard to accept, I know.

But that has been happening all these years, hasn’t it?

You set the goals. You don’t achieve them. You make the resolutions. They’re forgotten by February. And every single year, the cycle repeats.

What if I told you that, in 2026, you could break it? Not by setting more goals, but by setting no goals at all!

The Kind of Goal that Works…

…is the goal that makes you a better person.

I have thought a lot about the areas of my life where I am struggling and feeling inconsistent. And in each one of those, I found that I have beliefs that I am not the person who can succeed.

This year, I worked more on my health and lost 20 kilograms, but over the last few months, I plateaued. I became lazy, and my results stopped.

But I knew everything I had to do. So why did I struggle?

The answer, as I found out over the past few days, is that I just didn’t see myself as a fit and athletic person.

I had a goal of getting good at tennis and building abs (I still do), but I didn’t have the identity or the vision of who I would have to be to achieve that goal.

In 2026, I am prioritizing that growth as a person.

I am not putting a timeline for when I achieve the material results. That would just trigger desperation.

Instead, I am building new identities. I asked myself, “Who would I like to be in 2026? What would make my younger self proud? What kind of man would I want to become?”

And I am prioritizing those answers. How? Very simply, by choosing daily actions that align with those new identities.

Now that I have started believing I am a fit and athletic person, I have achieved more consistency in working out and exercising over the past few weeks than I had during the entirety of 2025. Even if I wanted to, I am not missing my workouts because they’ve just become a part of who I am.

And tell me, if I enter 2026 with this kind of consistency and belief, won’t result I want will naturally come my way? There’s no longer any need to be desperate or worried for it.

That’s how I have done my reflection this year. Instead of spray painting the leaves green, I have chosen to work on the roots. And I can already see that magic working out!

Are you joining me in this magic too? Because if you are, I can tell you, 2026 will be the best year of your life because you would have become your best and that’s what counts the most! 🙂