How to Achieve Your Goals That Actually Stick in 2026

Another year, another list of goals that’ll be forgotten by February.

Let me guess — you’ve been here before.

Here’s the thing — most people don’t fail at their goals because they lack willpower or motivation. 

They fail because they’re using a broken system. 

You can’t build a life you love with scattered attention, depleted energy, and no real framework to follow.

I’ve worked with thousands of people who were exhausted from trying everything.

They’d set ambitious goals, dive in full of hope, and then watch everything fall apart within weeks. The problem wasn’t them. 

It was that no one taught them how to achieve your goals in a way that actually works with real life — bills, deadlines, kids, pets, stress, and all.

In this article, you’ll learn why traditional goal-setting fails, what actually works instead, and how to create a personal development plan that doesn’t rely on willpower alone. 

We’ll cover the Life Garden framework — a proven system I developed after years as a Taoist monk and functional medicine doctor — that helps you prioritize what matters and build sustainable momentum.

If you’re tired of starting over every January, keep reading. There’s a better way, and it’s simpler than you think.

Key Takeaways

• Most goals fail because they lack a structured framework and ignore energy management.
• Sustainable achievement requires balancing your health, relationships, career, and dreams simultaneously.
• The 100-day Gong system provides accountability and measurable progress without overwhelm.
• Setting goals without resolutions means building daily practices, not making grand declarations.
• Your attention is your most valuable resource — learning to direct it changes everything
• A life planning framework helps you “water the right plants” instead of spreading yourself thin.
• Real transformation happens when you address the whole system, not just isolated goals.

Why New Year Resolutions Fail (And What to Do Instead)

Let’s start with the uncomfortable truth: resolutions don’t work. 

Research from the University of Scranton published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology found that only 8% of people actually achieve their New Year’s resolutions.¹ 

But here’s what’s interesting — it’s not because people are lazy or uncommitted.

Resolutions fail because they’re outcome-focused wishes without a system.

“I want to lose 30 pounds” isn’t a plan. 

“I want to start a business” isn’t actionable. 

These are destinations with no roadmap.

When I came down from the monasteries and tried to make ancient practices work in modern life, I had to figure this out fast. 

I had bills to pay, a medical practice to run, and the same 24 hours everyone else has. 

What I discovered is that how to set goals and achieve them comes down to three things most people miss:

First, you need a framework. 

Not just a to-do list or a vision board — an actual system that shows you where to put your energy each day. 

Think of your life like a garden. 

You can’t water every plant equally when you’re running on empty. 

You need to know which plants are priorities and which can wait.

Second, you need to manage energy, not just time. 

Carleen, one of my students, put it perfectly: 

“This program is helping me grow physically, emotionally, and spiritually in ways I never thought I was capable of.” 

She didn’t just get more disciplined — she got more energy to actually do the work.

Third, you need accountability built into the system. 

Rick lost 22 pounds and told me he feels more alert and thinks clearer now. 

That didn’t happen because he white-knuckled through a diet. 

It happened because he had a goal setting framework that kept him honest and on track.

This is what I call setting goals without resolutions — building a sustainable practice instead of making grand declarations that fade by Valentine’s Day.

The Life Garden Framework for Actually Achieving Your Goals

So what does work? 

A holistic personal development plan that addresses your whole life, not just one area.

I call it the Life Garden system, and it’s built on a simple premise: 

Your life has different “plants” that all need attention — your health, your relationships, your career, your dreams. 

When you ignore one area to focus on another, everything suffers. 

When you try to do everything at once, you burn out.

The framework teaches you how to prioritize life goals by understanding your energy economics. 

Where are you hemorrhaging energy? 

Where are you wasting time? 

And most importantly — where should you be focusing to create actual momentum?

Here’s how it works in practice:

Map Your Current Reality

Most people skip this step and wonder why nothing changes. 

You can’t get somewhere if you don’t know where you are. 

Ben lost 40 pounds and improved his relationship with his wife — but first, he had to get honest about where his energy was actually going each day.

Take stock of your health, your relationships, your work, and your financial situation. 

Not to judge yourself, but to see clearly. 

Personal growth and health goals work together — you can’t excel at your career if you’re exhausted and inflamed.

Identify Your Energy Leaks

This is where most goal-setting advice falls flat. 

You’re told to add more habits, more disciplines, more to-dos. But if you’re already running on fumes, adding more just breaks you faster.

Instead, find where you’re losing energy. 

Is it toxic relationships? 

Inflammatory foods? 

Doom-scrolling at night instead of sleeping? 

Digital distractions that fracture your attention?

Pamela shared with me: 

“I had just broken from a long-term relationship and wanted to sew myself back together. The framework provided me with the tools and inspiration to gather my strength back and reclaim my dignity and happiness.”

She didn’t need more motivation. 

She needed to plug the leaks first, then rebuild from a place of strength.

Create Your 100-Day Gong

Here’s where the Life Garden framework gets practical. 

Instead of vague annual goals, you create a Gong — a focused 100-day commitment with clear, measurable objectives.

The Gong system comes from ancient Taoist practice, refined over decades of coaching everyone from Fortune 100 executives to exhausted parents. 

It works because 100 days is long enough to create real change but short enough to maintain focus. 

You’re not committing to an entire year of perfection — you’re committing to 100 days of showing up.

You pick 3-5 actionable goals for personal growth across different life areas, break them into daily practices, and track your progress. 

The beauty of this approach is that you’re building momentum in multiple areas simultaneously without spreading yourself thin. 

When you improve your sleep, your work gets better. 

When you strengthen your relationships, your health improves. 

Everything’s connected.

This is how to create a life plan that actually respects the reality of your daily life while moving you toward the future you want.

Water the Right Plants Daily

Once you have your Gong set up, the daily work becomes clear. 

You’re not guessing what to prioritize — you know which plants need water today.

Maybe that means 20 minutes of Qi Gong before work. 

Maybe it’s saying no to that extra project so you can be present at dinner. 

Maybe it’s finally meal-prepping on Sundays so you stop eating garbage all week.

Ana told me: 

“I’m finding a more meaningful purpose to my life. I’m healthier. I’m happier. I have more energy and clarity. Dr. Shojai makes it simple enough so anyone can do it.”

Simple doesn’t mean easy, but it means clear. 

And clarity is what most people are missing when they set goals.

Why This Works When Everything Else Failed

The difference between this approach and typical goal-setting is that it addresses the whole system. 

You’re not just trying to force behavior change through willpower — you’re actually creating the conditions for success.

Studies on goal achievement show that people who write down their goals and create specific implementation plans are significantly more likely to achieve them.² 

But even that’s not enough if you’re depleted, distracted, and disconnected from what actually matters to you.

The Life Garden framework combines ancient wisdom with modern neuroscience. 

It teaches you how to restore life force energy when you’re running on empty, how to manage your attention in a world designed to steal it, and how to build sustainable practices that compound over time.

Donna summed it up well: 

“I used to struggle with motivation and sticking to my goals. The framework gave me the tools I needed to fix that. It’s been so valuable.”

The tools work because they’re based on how energy and attention actually function, not on idealized versions of productivity that ignore your humanity.

If your health goals keep failing, it’s often because you need self-mastery confidence — the inner knowing that you can follow through because you’ve built that muscle.

Getting Started: Your First 100 Days

Look, I get it. 

You’ve probably read a hundred articles about goal-setting. You’ve tried different systems. You’ve started strong and fizzled out.

But here’s what I know after decades of this work: when you have the right framework, everything changes for the better. 

Not overnight, but steadily. Not through force, but through alignment.

The Life Garden course walks you through the entire process — from mapping your current reality to creating your first 100-day Gong to building the daily practices that actually stick.

It’s 12 modules that cover everything from energy economics to consciousness practices to specific techniques from Tai Chi, Qi Gong, and meditation that you can actually integrate into a modern life.

You can explore the complete framework and start building your Life Garden here. 

And if you want to test-drive it first, you can try The Urban Monk Academy free for 2 weeks. 

The Academy gives you access to the Life Garden course plus our community of thousands of people doing this work together, weekly live calls, and the entire library of courses on gut health, sleep, stress management, meditation, consciousness practice, and more.

Because here’s the truth: you can read about personal development goals examples all day, but until you have a structured personal development plan with accountability built in, not much changes.

This year doesn’t have to be another year of starting over. 

You can build momentum that actually lasts. You can create a life that energizes you instead of depleting you.

The framework is here. The community is waiting. Your Life Garden is ready to be planted.

What are you going to choose?

Sources

1. Auld Lang Syne: Success Predictors, Change Processes, and Self-Reported Outcomes of New Year’s Resolvers and Nonresolvers. Journal of Clinical Psychology.
2. New Directions in Goal-Setting Theory. Current Directions in Psychological Science. 2006.