It’s becoming a tradition to share my thoughts on New Year’s resolutions every year (you can see previous posts here, here, here, and here). So, I thought I’d share my current opinion on the subject.
I Still Think Traditional New Year’s Resolutions Don’t Work
The problem lies in the word “traditional.” When setting New Year’s resolutions, people typically focus on a specific activity: run every day, wake up early, don’t eat after 6 PM, stop eating sugar, go on a diet—and stick with it for the rest of the year.
In short, the traditional formula is:
Do/Don’t [insert daily activity] for the rest of the year.
This approach couldn’t be further from the Agile philosophy. There’s no feedback loop built into it. We assume that at Point A of our journey toward a goal, we already know what, when, and how we need to act to achieve it. That’s the problem. I explained it using a simple cookie example here. This flawed approach is why many people abandon their New Year’s resolutions by the third week of January.
A Humbler Approach to Achieving Big Goals
I suggest taking a humbler approach to achieving goals. Instead of assuming we know everything ahead of time, we should take it one step at a time and pause to reflect after every few steps. Is what we’re doing bringing us closer to the goal? What can be improved to make the journey better?
I like to compare this process to a researcher running experiments in her lab. She approaches each experiment with an open mind, ready to learn new things. With every iteration, her experiments improve, and eventually, she runs the final experiment that leads to a scientific breakthrough.
In the same way, we can treat each sprint as an experiment. The first sprint toward a big goal might feel like a messy failure on all fronts, but it provides valuable lessons to shape the second sprint. The second sprint teaches us even more about how to navigate our unique circumstances—workload, energy levels, family commitments, etc. By the third sprint, the process feels natural, custom-made for our lives. Achieving a goal becomes intuitive and aligned with everything else in our lives.
Lessons from Startups: Assume You Know Nothing
One of the main lessons I learned from working in startups—both successful and unsuccessful—is this: you have no idea what the market wants. Experience, research, and gut feelings don’t matter until you release your product into the world and see how the market reacts. That’s why startups aim to “ship” as early as possible, to gather real-world feedback and adjust accordingly. They don’t want to spend years building something nobody wants.
The same principle applies to achieving personal goals. Assume you know nothing about how to achieve them. Become a humble student. Keep your mind open and ready to learn. Once you learn all you need to learn, your goal will be achieved.
The Urge to Set New Year’s Resolutions
I get it—the urge to set New Year’s resolutions is strong this time of year. Every YouTuber is making videos about their goals. The temptation to drastically change your life overnight peaks as January 1 approaches.
During these moments, ask yourself: How did setting New Year’s resolutions work for me in the past? You’ve probably tried it numerous times.
Has it ever worked? If it hasn’t worked before, why would it work now?
If you want to see the results you’ve never seen before, you should do things you’ve never done before.
To clarify, this isn’t a call to hustle at the expense of everything else. It’s a call to adopt a different method for achieving a desired outcome. Don’t repeat what hasn’t worked in the past, hoping for a different outcome. Going keto for the tenth time isn’t going to work.
What You Can Do Instead
If traditional New Year’s resolutions are a recipe for failure, what’s the alternative?
Try something that has worked for others across multiple industries. Agile and Scrum have worked in tech, auto, banking, and other industries. I’ve used the same principles for over a decade to achieve my own goals—and they’ve worked.
I would like to invite you to become a Member of The Focus Room—a place where we’ll do Agile sprints together. We’ll establish a glorious rhythm of consistent effort (3 weeks of work, 1 week of rest) throughout the year. This method has been my personal productivity system for the past 10+ years, and now I’m excited to share it with you.
Imagine having this level of consistency next year:
But I already know everything from your blog/channel/course…
Sure, but are you actually doing it?
The Focus Room is designed to create an environment where you’ll actually do the things you want to do. Knowing something doesn’t change your life—doing something with that knowledge does.
Choose the right system and the outcome will take care of itself
There are a lot of motivational gurus out there that can sell you hard on the hustle culture. This can spark motivation to take the first steps toward your goals. But one thing that I’ve learned over the years is that if you want to show up consistently for your goals, you want to do the opposite—design your system assuming that you’ll be cranky, tired, lazy, and uninspired. And the Focus Room was designed with this assumption in mind.
And for that you need:
- A proven system of goal achievement
- A rhythm of working and resting so you can do it for years to come
- Constant mindset finetuning
- External accountability for the times when you don’t feel like it
- A supportive environment of like-minded people
- Daily check-ins on your goals
What’s Inside the Focus Room?
We follow a proven Agile-inspired goal-setting system:
- Backlog Setup: Organize your priorities and clarify what truly matters.
- Fixed Sprint Schedule: We all follow the same sprint schedule, eliminating analysis paralysis.
- Life Sprint Planning: We plan our 3-week sprints together during the sprint planning process.
- Daily Standups: Stay accountable with quick daily check-ins in a small group of 4.
- 2 Live Deep Work Sessions Per Week: Carve out dedicated time for focused progress.
- Live Sprint Retrospectives: Reflect, learn, and improve after each sprint.
- Cool Off Weeks: Recharge and reset before diving into the next sprint.
- Exclusive, unpublished content: Get fresh ideas and tools to help you get into the right mindset to stick with your goals.
- Daily Message: A daily focus realignment on the things that matter most. A daily reminder and a little boost of motivation from me to stick with your sprint goals.
When you join as a Founding Member, you’ll get:
- Direct access to me via private messages for questions or struggles
- My detailed reviews of your sprint goals and definitions of done
- Regular check-ins from me giving you an opportunity to ask questions
- Feedback on your sprint retrospectives and tailored advice for future sprints
