How to achieve your goals in 2026... for real

HNY!

Below, I’ll share a list of questions to help you make your 2026 goals wildly achievable.

As a bonus, I’ll put a goal I achieved in 2025 under the same microscope. It was the most meaningful goal I have achieved since selling my company in 2016.

We’ll use the trusty SMART framework with two small modifications:

• Achievable/Attainable is replaced with Actionable

• We will add Y for 'You' at the end - SMARTY!

Grab your goal and let's get started:

Specific

• Is my goal a dollar amount or an abstract number when I’m not really motivated by money or a random milestone? Could I use a different metric that I’m more excited about, and as a bonus, anchors to an emotion? > Coach Claff - instead of $xxxx, could it be “pay my rent from my side hustle” or instead of losing xx kg, could it be “weigh xx kg… so that I feel proud of my appearance.”

Measurable

• How will I know if I’m on or off track? What system will be in place to track my progress?

• What would a stretch version of the goal look like? Can I commit to that?

Actionable

• Do I understand the specific actions to achieve the goal? Can I plot them out on a timeline?

• What guardrails do I have in place when inevitable delays and roadblocks arise?

• What is my backup plan if it’s waaay more difficult than I first expected? What “break in case of emergency” activities will I complete to get back on track?

Relevant

• Do I really care about what achieving the goal gets me? > Coach Claff - it’s truly remarkable how often goals are committed to out of duty or expectation, rather than linking to a purpose or an emotional anchor.

• Is this goal a copy-paste from 2025? What, in concrete detail, is going to be different this time around? 

• What is the cost of not achieving my goal? How painful would it be for me not to achieve it? How can I make non-completion even more high-stakes?

Time-bound

• Am I sandbagging? Could I compress the timeline by half? What would need to change?

• Do I have time carved out every day/week in my calendar to achieve the goal?

• What am I willing to give up in service of achieving the goal? Social events? Family time? Scrolling on IG or Tiktok?

You

• How will I celebrate achieving my goal?

• Who will I tell about my goal?

• Am I surrounded by people who will support me, like positive friends or a community of like-minded people?

• Have I hired someone who has achieved this goal? This might be a mentor, coach, advisor or expert. If not, why not?

Try the questions on for size and see how you go.

Ideally, by the end of the exercise you will have clearer definition and more connection to your goals.

Now, for the bonus.

During COVID, I fell in love with a song called Silence by Kidnap.

It captured the emotion of an ‘uncertain time’ while also being cathartic and inspiring. I listened to it on repeat for hours.

After leaving Canva in 2022, I decided to create my own “Silence”. I enrolled in and completed an intensive music training program at Liveschool over four months. 

I attained beginner-level expertise in the Ableton Live Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). I kept chipping away, watching tutorials and listening to as much music as I could. My musician friend William Derederenalagi challenged me to follow through and finish what I started.

After three years (!?) of Will nudging me, there was a shift.

I got so frustrated with being out of integrity - I was talking the talk, but choosing not to walk the walk.

As soon as I felt the shift, synchronistically, Steven Weston, a Grammy-winning producer posted a story on Instagram. He was offering mentoring. I booked the next available call, fanboyed out for about five minutes and then told him my goals.

We constructed a plan and got to work.

Six gruelling weeks later, I achieved my goal.

I published my first song. 

Let’s run my goal through the SMARTY framework:

Specific

• Is my goal a random dollar amount / an abstract number when I’m not even really motivated by money or a random milestone? Could I use a different metric that I’m more excited about, and as a bonus, anchors to an emotion? The goal was very clearly defined: “I will have a full-length melodic house song mixed, mastered, and uploaded to Spotify before the end of the year.”

Measurable

• How will I know if I’m on or off track? What system will be in place to track my progress? I had a specific breakdown of what stage we would be at the end of every week, which I asked Steven to put together for me. It’s natural to let a creative project take as long as it takes, but I needed structure and a deadline, as my perfectionism was thinly veiled procrastination.

• What would a stretch version of the goal look like? Can I commit to that? The stretch version of my goal was to launch with a music video accompanying the song, which I am super proud of. I commissioned Jason from Drone Shark to film a one-shot from Bondi to Bronte, which was the original inspiration of the open water concept.

Actionable

• Do I understand the specific actions to achieve the goal? Can I plot them out on a timeline? 100% clear.

• What guardrails do I have in place when inevitable delays and roadblocks arise? The ultimate unlock was having a hands-on weekly session with a Grammy-winning mentor who could help me work through anything I got stuck on. The backup was having my mate Will in my corner.

• What is my backup plan if it’s waaay more difficult than I first expected? What “break in case of emergency” activities will I complete to get back on track? I cleared my calendar to do things the “hard way”, which meant I spent hours upon hours editing and tinkering with tiny and nuanced details that frankly, no-one is likely to hear.

Relevant

• Do I really care about what achieving the goal gets me? Yes - this goal has haunted me since 2022, so I put just about everything else on hold to achieve it. I needed to rebuild my self-trust and see it all the way through, no matter what.

• Is this goal a copy-paste from 2025? What, in concrete detail, is going to be different this time around? Not applicable.

• What is the cost of not achieving my goal? I felt out of integrity and I wanted that feeling to go away. I'm sure Will was tired of asking me about it, too.

• How painful would it be for me not to achieve it? Extremely painful - the haunting would continue.

• How can I make non-completion even more high-stakes? I told every one of my friends that I would publish a song before the New Year so that they would ask me about it. I hired one of my favourite musicians to mentor me, which meant I needed to play half-baked ideas to my musical hero (cringe!) I shared early versions with friends, even though it was nowhere near ready.

Time-bound

• Am I sandbagging? Could I compress the timeline by half? What would need to change? No, six weeks was as aggressive as I could be.

• Do I have time carved out every day/week in my calendar to achieve the goal? Yes.

• What am I willing to give up in service of achieving the goal? Social events? Family time? Scrolling on IG or Tiktok? I put everything else behind this, including my health. It was a conscious trade-off and Uber Eats became a daily ritual.

You

• How will I celebrate achieving my goal? Sharing and listening to the song with family and friends. The first listening party was with my #1 fan and sister, Kate. Then on Christmas, Will played it to a small group of friends.

• Who will I tell about my goal? I told anyone who would listen. I also blogged every 4-5 or five days about my experience at roo.fm - reading back on these posts, I was a bit delirious at times.

• Am I surrounded by people who will support me, like positive friends or a community of like-minded people? Yes - special shout-outs to my sister Kate, my guy Will, Nacho Miranda for being a constant source of positivity and Eva Sheluhina for vocals.

• Have I hired someone who has achieved this goal? This might be a mentor, coach, advisor or expert. If not, why not? Yes - I hired the best person I possibly could to help me get across the line.

So, before you burn a couple of weeks in 2026 with an ambiguous goal, try the above questions on for size.

If you need help achieving your business goals in 2026, reply!

I'd be honoured to help.

PS - My second song 'chasing presence' will be ready on March 31st.