Designing 2026 With Intention, Beyond The Illusion Of Good Resolutions

I can say that there are few moments during the year that I enjoy as much as Christmas or, more broadly, the holiday season that for me begins in November with Thanksgiving. Of course, as the years go by, I can no longer indulge in sweets and food the way I once did, so instead I reach for a good book. It’s time I deliberately set aside for deep work: planning the year ahead, reflecting on what worked and what didn’t, and then applying those lessons to my goals for the coming year.

Without a doubt, 2025 will be remembered as a pivotal year for artificial intelligence, global markets, geopolitics, and the way we think about work across nearly every sector. And I know you’re already more prepared than most, because you’ve read what I’ve written this year, from DeepSeek to Sovereign AI to how to design an AI strategy for your life and your business. But with so many things happening in the world and in our own lives, it isn’t always easy to decide what to focus on for 2026. That’s why I want to share how I develop my goals and resolutions, and how they help me filter out the noise that so often distracts us.

When I review my goals from the previous year, I like to revisit where I got things wrong around this same time. What did I overestimate? What did I underestimate? And why did I make those errors in judgment? It’s worth remembering that mistakes in estimation aren’t a bad thing. On the contrary, they’re the fuel that helps us understand where we can improve our reasoning relative to what we want to achieve year after year. The most dangerous mistake, in my opinion, is underestimation: when we fail to understand what we’re actually capable of. Don’t worry, we’ll come back to this and to how to avoid placing limits on yourself without even realizing it.

Wanting Isn’t a Strategy

When someone new joins the family, I always encourage their partners to prepare them for the holidays, because sooner or later they’ll be asked the big question: What are your New Year’s resolutions? And what did you learn from the year that’s ending? I do this because I like to ask people to write down their goals and explain why they believe they’re achievable. What leads them to think this is the best option? What data, trends, or signals can they use to support that choice?

While this might sound a bit intense for the holidays, after the first round people end up loving it, because it gives them a framework that makes their goals more attainable, trackable, and understandable. It also helps ensure that no one underestimates their potential over long periods of time. I encourage people to think about the most extreme positive scenarios for their lives and then work backward: what could they achieve in the next 365 days that would move them closer to that scenario, even if it requires significant effort? The idea isn’t to encourage the easy path, the status quo, or short-term thinking. In the end, we’re not here to live within limits, but to push them. So what are the steps to doing so?

Think Big, Then Bigger

Take a moment and consider what the best version of yourself might look like in 10, 20, or even 50 years. If what you’re imagining seems reasonable, go further and look for the “unreasonable” version of yourself, the one that feels almost impossible. Reflect on that version and write it down. Now ask yourself: what qualities, capabilities, accomplishments, and benchmarks would that version of you need in order to become real? Don’t get discouraged if this feels overwhelming. In fact, if you feel a little intimidated, that’s a good sign. It means you imagined something truly big for yourself.

This small exercise helps strip away distractions and highlight what’s actually worth focusing on. Put more concretely, if you were thinking about learning a new language, it may now be clearer which one best fits your future professional plans. If you were considering a career change, it becomes easier to evaluate whether that move takes you closer to or further away from the version of yourself you just defined. Good resolutions reinforce one another and help build a cohesive version of who you are, without being pulled off course by whatever happens to be popular at the moment.

Not long ago, I read a quote attributed to Snoopy, the Peanuts character, that neatly captures what’s worth remembering at this time of year. It went something like, “You live every day; you only die once.” It’s a useful way to rethink the YOLO mindset (You Only Live Once) that permeates our society and often prioritizes short-term goals over long-term happiness. Thinking this way also changes what we choose to read and where we decide to invest our time. This year, for example, and in case you’re curious about what book is keeping me from overindulging this season, I’m reading Monetary Economics and Policy: A Foundation for Modern Currency Systems, by Pierpaolo Benigno, a fitting choice for a year that calls for thinking more carefully about what we’re building.

I’ll leave you with this: during the holidays, you can give yourself a meaningful gift. Invest in yourself and in the next 365 opportunities ahead of you to turn that written vision of who you could become into reality.

Originally published in Spanish for Fast Company Mexico:
https://fastcompany.mx/2025/12/25/2026-propositos-disena-intencion/