Right now, millions of people are doing the same thing.

They’re opening fresh notebooks. Downloading goal-setting templates. Writing “2026” at the top of the page with something that feels like hope.

By February, most of those pages will be forgotten.

Not because they lacked discipline. Not because they didn’t try hard enough. But because the goals were never theirs to begin with.

Here’s what most goal-setting advice gets wrong: it focuses entirely on the HOW.

How to set SMART goals. How to build systems. How to track progress. How to stay motivated when it gets hard.

All useful. None of it matters if the goals aren't actually yours.

The real question isn’t how to achieve your goals. It’s whether the goals are actually yours.

Think about the goals you’re considering for 2026.

Where did they come from?

That income target. Whose voice first told you that number meant success?

That title you’re chasing. Who taught you that title equals worth?

That version of “more” you’re pursuing. More visible. More impressive. More. When did you decide more was the point?

That house you think you need. That timeline you’re racing against. That lifestyle that looks like arrival but feels like a trap.

Most of us have been absorbing other people’s definitions of success since childhood. Culture. Parents. Colleagues. LinkedIn. The algorithm. They all handed us goals disguised as ambition.

And we’ve been climbing ever since. Disciplined. Relentless. Excellent.

Toward a summit that was never ours.

This is why goals fail.

Not because you lack willpower. Because your nervous system knows the difference between your mountain and theirs.

You can white-knuckle your way toward an inherited goal for a while. Sometimes for years. But your body keeps score. The Sunday dread. The emptiness after the win. The restlessness that won’t quiet down no matter how much you achieve. The house that should feel like home but doesn’t.

These aren’t signs of weakness. They’re signals. Your inner compass telling you: this isn’t yours.

So before you write a single goal for 2026, try something different.

Instead of asking “What do I want to achieve?” ask “What actually matters to me?”

Not what should matter. Not what used to matter. Not what would impress people if you achieved it.

What actually matters. To you. Right now.

This is harder than it sounds. We’re so trained to optimize that we forget to question what we’re optimizing for.

That's why I built a worksheet to help.

It’s called Before You Climb: Your Inner Compass. Five questions designed to excavate what actually matters to YOU before you set your next goal.

It takes about 15-20 minutes. No right answers. Just honest ones.

The goal isn’t to tell you what to pursue. It’s to help you find YOUR filter. So that when you do set goals, they’re ones worth climbing toward.

​Download the worksheet →​

Goals are good. Ambition is good. Climbing is good.

But direction matters more than speed.

You can spend another year getting better at climbing. Or you can spend twenty minutes making sure you’re climbing toward something that's actually yours.

The worksheet won’t give you all the answers. But it might help you ask better questions.

And sometimes that’s the difference between a year you survive and a year you actually want.

This week: Before you set any goals, sit with the five questions in the worksheet. Notice themes that emerge, and use that to guide your goal setting.

Next week: What “enough” actually looks like. And why most high achievers have never defined it.