Today was New Year’s Day—the beginning of 2026.

It’s traditional to make all kinds of plans for the new year—lose weight, exercise more, stop smoking, start a new hobby, tackle a new business project, etc.

But what tends to happen to most of us is we start out with a bang—only to lose momentum a few days (or at most weeks) into the new year. We then find ourselves falling into bad habits, or abandoning new ones that require too much effort to sustain at the level to which we jumped out of the gate on day one.

We then find ourselves with a near-replay of previous years, which didn’t get us where we wanted to be then, and won’t do so now.

So how do we really affect change at the start of a new year?

Here’s an exercise I do with my clients:

Imagine we are sitting down on Jan 1, 2027 to celebrate what was a fantastic year.

• What would we be celebrating?
• Looking at where we are today, what would we have to change to get to that goal? What would we need to start doing, and what would we need to stop doing to get there?
• What obstacles should we expect to face, and what tactics could we put in place now to overcome them?
• Who could we count on to hold us accountable for sticking with our program so we reach this goal?
• What checkpoints should we set up to measure how we’re doing to meet that goal?
• How will we handle midcourse corrections if things get off course?

This exercise will work for either personal or business goals. But you’re more likely to be successful if you choose one single goal that is worth celebrating at the end of the year and do the work to ensure you’re on the right track.

So rather than just flipping the page on the calendar this year, do something that will make *this*new year real. Then get ready to celebrate success in 12 months—the clock is ticking!

Let us help your business rise to the top.

linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com