New Year New Goals

So - it is the start of 2026.

Why Goals?

I’ve discovered that I am a person that feels empty when I don’t have a bigger picture or goals to aim for.

So as we transition from the last year into this year, I feel this internal desire to look backwards at last year, reflect and draw upon some new direction for this year.

I want goals so that I’m not aimless. Drifting through life without any direction.

My minds eye of the topic is really sitting in the middle of an ocean in a paddle boat. Which way do we head? How hard do we paddle?

Without any clear agenda, we could just sit here forever.

I’d prefer to have a North Star. Something to orient my direction. Something to help guide me in making progress.

Something to help make decisions when two decisions seem apparently similar. It somewhat acts as a guiderail for making decisions.

Wanting Without Wanting

To complicate it somewhat - I’m keenly aware from Stoic and Buddhist teachings that desire is the source of all suffering.

I could not desire anything but then I’d be back to that image of sitting in the middle of the ocean, not paddling.

I feel empty and un-energized when I’m not working towards something. I like seeing things change as I move forward in life.

So how do I want something without wanting something? I don’t want to aim to achieve something then to be upset by not achieving it.

Focus on Effort

Borrowing from Alex Hormozi’s expression - “It would be unreasonable to expect”

It would be unreasonable to expect not achieving positive outcomes after putting a ton of effort into something.

Therefore I focus on effort and creating goals around effort (and my attention).

So I’ve shifted to making goals not on outcomes, but on the effort that I put into them.

This neuters the language around desire and want of an outcome and shifts the focus onto tangible areas that I can apply effort to.

Neville Goddard and the Past Tense

Neville Goddard - Mr. Manifestation - espouses the use of talking in past tense in the context of having already being achieved.

For example - If you wished to have a Ferrari for example -

You would write down - I have owned a red Ferrari for years.

So in the spirit of this I am writing my Goals in a past tense to imply I have done these things.

1 Year / 5 Year / Lifetime Orientation

I want to write my Goals or I guess I am calling them Orientation (like the North Star).

I’ve split them up into 1 Year, 5 Year and Lifetime.

This way I start at Lifetime and work backwards. I’m effectively identifying at the highest level what I want in the world then work backwards.

It should be an indicator to you that you are unprepared or haven’t put enough thought into things if you are unable to produce a Lifetime Orientation list off the top of your head.

In the Lifetime Orientation it is not TOO concrete. I.e. details and semantics are spared. But the intent is captured.

I check back on mine daily/weekly.