Happy New Year and all the best for 2026!

Whether you were celebrating at home, quietly on a mountain top or like me somewhere on the move, the beginning of a new year motivates us to think about what is really important to us and what we wish to achieve. The fact that the number of resignations rises in January is an indication of big decisions being made during the festive season. However, in most cases smaller projects emerge as surveys confirm that around 60% of Swiss people make New Year's resolutions. However, sticking to them and putting them into practice is often difficult once one is back in everyday routine.

The success rate of New Year's resolutions is less than 20%, and more than half of the people give up on their plans as early as January.

To achieve a personal goal – whether at the start of the year or as part of a coaching – it takes several steps to reach success. In short: It starts with an appealing and motivating goal, continues with clarity about the first concrete steps that can be easily integrated into everyday life, and ends with a reward-oriented monitoring system to maintain the perseverance needed to build a new habit. In detail, the steps to implement your New Year’s resolution are as follows.

In eight steps to more success in reaching your goals

1) Be clear about your goal

To know what one wishes to avoid does not create the desired reorientation, but rather a gap that is usually filled with the behaviour one wishes to avoid. That is why it is so important to formulate one’s goal in a positive and smart way with the individual letters standing for specific, measurable, attractive, realistic and time-phased. One should be able to visualise, feel and touch the target state. What are you doing specifically? How and when? Who and what do you need to do this? How does it feel? Such a concretisation does not only happen with one’s head, but also with one’s heart and gut, as feelings guide us more than our minds in everyday life.

2) Weigh up the pros and cons

A formulated a goal needs to be checked for its effects: What are the advantages of achieving the goal? What are the possible disadvantages? How can such disadvantages be reduced or avoided? Is the overall balance right and, if not, what could be an alternative goal? Only if achieving the goal creates something positive and of sufficient importance will there be motivation to implement it.

3) Develop an implementation plan

Achieving great things or forming a new habit takes time and many small steps. It is therefore important to consider what is specifically needed to achieve the goal and whether there is an easier way towards it. As an inner film you experience the new future, observe yourself during the implementation, examine alternatives, feel the success of implementation and thereby gain clarity about the next steps.

4) Check the impact of implementation on the environment

Even if a goal is beneficial to oneself and its implementation seems feasible, there is another step to consider: we are part of a system and our actions have an impact on the environment. If a goal has a negative impact on the people around us, they will discourage us from implementing it, or we ourselves will stop implementing it as soon as negative side effects become apparent. How would my best friends react? What do my colleagues think about my goal? What is the opinion of my family, my parents? If my dog or cat could talk, what would they say? Questions like these help us to anticipate the reaction of those around us and adjust our goal if necessary.

5) Identify potential implementation difficulties

Even if the implementation is well planned, there will be surprises and obstacles. Identifying such difficulties in advance and developing countermeasures prepares for everyday life. What would have to happen for you to give up on your goal? Who or what could challenge your implementation plan? What could be the most unpleasant difficulty? Analysing these situations in advance gives you even more confidence that you will achieve your goal.

6) Keep the goal in mind

Implementation happens when one aligns ones behaviour with ones goals. How do you remember your goal? How do you keep it visible? When and how do you need a reminder? Possible strategies include visible trainers when you come home or a Post-it note with a smiley face insde the fridge. Whatever helps to keep the goal and, above all, the associated added value in mind creates energy for implementation.

7) Persevere and celebrate your first successes

The more often you do something, the more it becomes a habit and thus an automatic action that no longer requires focus. Depending on the study, 21 to 66 days are cited as the required time frame. Since initial successes can be subtle and almost invisible, it helps to install a careful monitoring system. What has already changed? What has worked? What effects are becoming apparent? Celebrating milestones and being forgiving of setbacks helps to fuel motivation and stay on track.

8) Celebrate achieving your goal and reflect on how you got there

Reaching the goal often feels less spectacular than one expects. Nevertheless, it is important to acknowledge this moment and reflect on what was helpful and what was not when working towards one’s goal. Furthermore, it is recommended to feel the sense of achievement as it creates motivation to define a new goal and get going again. Successful people report that the feeling of happiness they experience when they achieve a goal gives them the perseverance to stick with it when they encounter difficult situations.

Find goals worth the effort

The eight steps show that achieving a goal takes effort, which is why a hastily formulated New Year's resolution that is only half-heartedly desired rarely comes to fruition. This makes it even more important to choose a goal with care. The following ideas can help you formulate exactly such goals for yourself.