This week is going to be a bit longer newsletter than usual. But it's because I really want you to reach your goals!
So let me start by telling you something I see every single year.
December hits. Founders get inspired. And that is awesome.
They sit down, map out ambitious goals for the new year (Love ambitious goals), maybe even create a fancy Notion board or OKR document.
January arrives with energy. Everyone's motivated. The team is aligned. This is going to be the year. Yayyyyy!
Then February comes.
And somewhere between board meetings and the fifteenth "urgent" customer request, those beautiful 2026 goals quietly fade into the background. Nobody officially abandons them. They just... stop being a priority.
Sound familiar?
Research shows that approximately 80% of New Year's resolutions fail by mid-February. And from what I've seen working with startups, founder goals aren't much different.
But here's what's interesting: The founders who actually hit their annual targets aren't necessarily smarter or more disciplined. They've just built better systems for staying on track.
The Real Problem Isn't Your Goals
Most founders I talk to don't have a goal problem. They have an execution problem.
You don't need "more motivation" for 2026.
You need a repeatable planning system that doesn't collapse the second Q1 gets messy.
Because the cost of winging it is always the same:
- You chase random opportunities
- You miss your real targets
- You end up "busy"… and weirdly disappointed
The uncomfortable truth I've learned watching founders for years: If it's not on your calendar, it's not real.
The Founder Planning Trap
Most founders do one of these:
- They plan too late ("I'll think about it after this sprint")
- They plan too big ("We'll do 12 initiatives this year")
- They plan too vague ("Grow, scale, hire, raise…")
- They plan too emotionally ("This year felt heavy… but I don't know why")
I hear versions of this way too often:
- "We didn't track anything… but I think we grew."
- "We set goals… then the quarter happened to us."
- "We were off-track in May and just… lowered the goal."
- "I did way too much… and I'm not sure why I keep doing that."
The pattern is brutal: they confuse activity with direction.
And without numbers + reflection, your plan becomes a vibe.
You know you need to focus on sales instead of building features nobody asked for. You know you should be having more customer conversations. You know the hire you've been putting off is hurting your growth.
But knowing and doing are very different things.
The GPS Method
So what actually works? I recently came across a framework that I think every founder should use when setting goals. It's called GPS, and it stands for:
- Goal (where you want to be)
- Plan (what you need to do to get there)
- System (how you'll make sure you actually stick to the plan)
Here's what I've noticed: Most founders nail the Goal. Some create a decent Plan. Almost none build an actual System.
And that's exactly why February becomes the graveyard of good intentions.
Let me break down each component and how to apply it to your 2026 goals.
Pressure-Test Your Goals
First, let's make sure your goals are actually set up for success. Ask yourself three questions:
Is it specific enough?
"Grow revenue" isn't a goal. "Hit €500K ARR by December 2026" is.
"Get more customers" isn't a goal. "Acquire 50 paying enterprise customers at €10K ACV" is.
The trick is being specific. Always attach a number to your goal. Make it something you can actually track and work toward. Vague goals produce vague results. Makes sense - right?
And most importantly - will it move the needle towards your vision?
Do you actually care about it?
This one's uncomfortable but important. A lot of founders set goals because they feel like they should. Because investors expect it. Because it sounds impressive. Because other startups are doing it.
But goals chosen from obligation tend to fail. You need to genuinely care about hitting this target - not because someone else wants you to, but because it matters to you and your business.
Use your own benchmark. Always.
This is non-negotiable:
When you decide on your metrics, always use your own baseline. Look at your last 6 months. That's your starting point.
Never set targets based on competitors or "industry averages."
Because that creates one guaranteed outcome: You'll spend the year behind, trying to catch up.
What are your anti-goals?
This is something most people skip entirely. Anti-goals are the things you want to avoid on the route to achieving your main goal.
For example, your goal might be "Hit €1M ARR." But your anti-goals might include "without working every weekend," "without burning out my engineering team," or "without raising a round with an investor we don't want on our cap-table."
These constraints aren't limitations. They're guardrails that keep you from winning the battle but losing the war.
Build a Real Plan
Once your goal is solid, you need a plan. And not a 47-page strategy document - I'm talking about identifying the 3-5 major moves that will actually get you there.
Let's say your goal is €500K ARR by end of 2026. Your major moves might be:
- Close 10 enterprise deals at €30K+ ACV
- Reduce monthly churn from 8% to 4%
- Launch a self-serve tier for the SMB market
- Hire two senior salespeople by Q2
- Ship the integration that three prospects are waiting on
Now here's the important part. Once you have your plan, run it through two reality checks:
The theory test: If you followed this plan perfectly, would it actually get you to your goal? Be honest. Assign a percentage. If it's below 80%, your plan has holes.
The practice test: What are the realistic chances you'll actually follow this plan? Again, be honest. If that number is below 80%, you need to simplify or adjust.
I've seen founders with plans that look great on paper but require working 80-hour weeks for 12 months straight. In theory, sure, that might work. In practice? That plan is dead on arrival.
The Crystal Ball Exercise
Here's something that takes two minutes but can save your entire year.
Imagine it's December 2026. You didn't hit your goal. What went wrong?
Write down the top three reasons.
Maybe it's "We didn't hire fast enough and I stayed bottlenecked on sales."
Maybe it's "We kept getting distracted by feature requests instead of focusing on acquisition."
Maybe it's "Our burn rate caught up with us in Q3 and we had to make cuts."
Now flip it around: What's your plan to prevent each of those failure modes?
This is called mental contrasting, and there's solid research behind it from psychologist Gabriele Oettingen. By anticipating obstacles before you hit them, you're way more likely to navigate around them. (personally I call them risk elimination - my friends and family calls it control freak 🤣)
Build Your System
Okay, here's where most founders completely drop the ball. You have a goal. You have a plan. But you have no system for making sure you actually execute.
The system answers one question: How will I make sure I stick to the plan?
There are three components:
Tracking
A meta-analysis covering 138 studies and nearly 20,000 participants found that people who monitor their progress toward goals are significantly more likely to achieve them. What gets measured gets managed.
For your startup, this might mean weekly KPI reviews, monthly board updates, or quarterly OKR check-ins. It doesn't need to be fancy. A simple Google Sheet you actually look at beats an elaborate dashboard you ignore.
Reminders
A study from Dominican University found that people who write down their goals are 42% more likely to achieve them. But writing them down once in December isn't enough. You need to keep them visible.
Put your quarterly targets at the top of every team meeting agenda. Make them your desktop wallpaper. Create a Slack channel for goal updates. Block 30 minutes weekly in your calendar just to review progress.
The point is simple: your brain will forget. Build reminders so it can't.
Put them up on the wall and make everyone involved.
Accountability
Most of us are terrible at holding ourselves accountable to ourselves. We need external pressure.
This could be regular co-founder check-ins, monthly advisor calls, a founder peer group, or even just committing to send monthly updates to your investors (they'll appreciate it, by the way).
The format matters less than the consistency. You need someone asking "Did you do the thing you said you'd do?" on a regular basis.
The Quarterly Rhythm
One more thing that makes a huge difference: Don't wait until December to find out if you're on track.
Set calendar reminders right now for end of Q1, Q2, and Q3. At each checkpoint, ask:
- What worked this quarter?
- What didn't?
- Am I on pace for my annual goal?
- What needs to change?
And here's something important: Don't use these check-ins as an excuse to lower your goals the moment things get hard.
If you wanted €500K and you're at €150K in June, don't just change the goal to €300K. Ask what you can do differently. You might be surprised what's possible when you have real urgency and a clear gap to close. And include the team. Ask them what they need in order for you to reach the goal of €500K. You might get surprised how great ideas they might have and the energy and commitment it will generate among them.
That said, sometimes goals do need adjusting. Just make sure you're adjusting based on new information, not just because it's uncomfortable to be behind.
The Bottom Line
Your 2026 goals are probably fine. The problem isn't ambition - it's infrastructure.
The GPS method isn't complicated. It's just deliberate:
- Get specific about what you want and why
- Create a realistic plan and identify what could derail it
- Build systems for tracking, reminders, and accountability
Your goals don't achieve themselves. Your systems achieve your goals.
So here's my challenge for you: Take 30 minutes next week. Pull up your 2026 goals and run them through the GPS framework. I suspect you'll find at least one gap worth fixing.
Because the founders who hit their targets aren't superhuman. They've just figured out that hoping isn't a strategy.
Don't let February win this year. You got this!💪
That's all for today.
If you found this helpful, feel free to share it with a founder who's still running on hope instead of systems.
See you next week. 🚀