Steal My 10 Word New Year's Resolution

My 10 Word New Years Resolution for 2026

Think smaller Learn more Create more Consume less Share more

The SMART Goal trap

Historically, I have been a huge fan of SMART goals and I’ve always been a fan of New Year’s Resolutions. In the past I’ve read books, done pushups, done language learning, tried new cocktails, travel to more places, or attempted to write more – that one almost never sticks. I’ve succeeded and failed at various goals through the years always treating them seriously.

In 2025, I had 7 goals, two of which were SMART Goals. I failed one of the SMART goals to read 24 books and it’s all I could focus on when I have accomplished so many cool things.

2025 goals

• Own my own music
• Maintain Alaska Status (if it feels worthwhile)
• Read 24 books
• Post more photos
• Post more Azure Content
• Support Queer owned and POC owned small businesses
• Write more

This year, I’m shedding smart goals and trying to simplify my New Years Resolutions and make it easier on my brain if something goes wrong. I want to feel accomplished at the end of 2026 even if I don’t fully complete everything about every goal. Trying is good enough and not having a specified success measure will help – I hope.

Think Smaller

Listening to this excellent podcast, I am inspired to think smaller. Douglas Rushkoff speaks about AI, the internet, and our lack of connection due to high passive consumption of material. Something really clicked in my brain when he spoke about sharing with a smaller community and lit a fire under me for my 2026 goals.

I can often get trapped in the fantasy of a project or idea. For example, this year I started 3D printing as a hobby. I spent quite a long time thinking about what I would print and how I would print it. I got distracted by YouTube videos of how to optimize 3D prints for mass production and imagined creating and selling designs of 3D printed items.

After listening to this podcast, I thought about what I really wanted out of 3D printing. I wanted to design some organizational tools as well as some fun characters to print. I set a SMART goal of creating 10 designs in a CAD software and then allowed myself to buy the 3D printer.

Thinking of these small practical steps got me into 3D printing and allowed me to make some truly bad prints in order to learn and get into the hobby. I have not sold one 3D printed item, nor do I plan to. I plan to continue to use 3D printing to organize my house and create small, fun things for my friends and family.

Learn more

When I was in the process of creating SMART goals for 2026, many of them had to do with learning. I have purchased tickets to Japan and wanted to learn some basic Japanese in order to be able to get around. I want to learn more about my job in order to improve my performance. I want to improve my writing skills by learning how to write better.

I simplified and de-SMARTed my goal to learn more. I think it would be impossible for me to not learn more, so the bar is on the floor, but I am so excited to be able to learn so much and grow in my life, knowledge, empathy, and career.

Create More

I always want to write or take more photos or cook new dishes or make YouTube videos or draw. I think creativity is one of the coolest things about being human, but often I am unmotivated to create or get sucked in by watching passive consumption activities.

This year I want to spend more time creating whether that means blogging or editing photos or cooking a cool dish. I want to have as many options as possible and do whatever I feel most inspired to do on the day or in the moment and not judge myself if I don’t blog for a few months or if I only post photos online in bursts.

Consume Less

I often feel trapped consuming content rather than creating. My hope is to trade some of my consumption time for creation time. While I don’t feel that consuming others’ content is bad, I do feel like I often get sucked into a trap of edutainment videos. I feel productive when I watch entertaining videos tangential to my job or related to my hobbies. I feel like I’m learning something, so it’s not a passive activity, however it is sometimes keeping me from creating more.

It can be hard to trade one activity for another, but keeping this goal in mind through the year will help me do less consumption and do more creation.

Share more

I have thousands of photos that I’ve taken that live on my hard drive. I have blog ideas and articles that sit in my Obsidian database. I have 3D design files that could be useful to others, but I have so much trouble sharing them.

I haven’t posted any images to instagram in several months. I have trouble remembering to update my website or edit photos so I can get them on my site.

This year, I’m trying to suppress my fear of failure or low view counts and share my work. I may write blog articles. I may share photos to Instagram. I may create zines and hand them out to friends or random strangers.

This year, I will share more of the work that I create regardless of how many or few people see it and whether I perceive it as finished or not. “Done is better than perfect”

Create your own 10 word goal

If you relate to my SMART goal burnout, I challenge you to create your own 10 word goal for this year. I’m excited to do this fun experiment. Share your goal with me in the comments, because I’m always curious what motivates others.