Kicking off a new guest column series for Prolific North, Kathy Brooke, co-founder and coach of Be Your Own Coach, takes aim at the way we set goals for the year ahead. Over the coming weeks, she will also tackle how leaders can better set their teams up for success and why pushing beyond comfort zones is essential for real growth.
Hello 2026.
A fresh page in our own autobiography.
For many of us, we are back at our desks, one hand on the keyboard, the other still fumbling in the Celebrations tub, resentfully pushing around the leftover Bounty bars, kidding ourselves that the healthy eating starts next Monday!
Although nothing really changes between 11.59 pm on 31st December and 00.01 am on 1st January, a new year is a marked moment in time which can provide us with a pause for reflection on the previous 12 months, and the opportunity to refocus and realign in anticipation of the imminent 365 days.
Goal setting at this time of year becomes a corporate national sport, with both personal and professional desires being thrust into the limelight, and an unspoken pressure to be able to provide an inspiring and Oscar-worthy response to the question: So what are your goals this year?
Each year we create a detailed list of ‘aims’, yet for so many, these aspirations get buried in the top drawer alongside the novelty stress balls and random corporate swag, only to resurface when it is time for the annual desk tidy.
So this year, let’s approach this from a slightly different angle.
A goal can elicit action, change habits, and achieve outcomes, but none of this is sustainable without first getting clear on our identity.
Let me give you an example here:
Let’s say you decided to set a goal of ‘doing more public speaking’. Great!
But after a busy January, you haven’t found yourself able to create the opportunity or put yourself out there, and by mid-February, well that goal is put on the back burner, or as I like to call it, sent to the goal graveyard.
Not ideal.
However, if we go with identity, you might decide that you are going to be someone who is advancing their influence and exposure in their professional space. Yes, public speaking is a fantastic tool here, but you also might have several other tools and behaviours to use, such as attending networking events, taking up internal opportunities within the business, sharing your thoughts and ideas on professional platforms, engaging in discussion with like-minded industry professionals… even down to how you show up to work…
All of these elements are behaviours of someone who embodies the identity of ‘advancing their influence and exposure in their professional space’, and this provides options and multiple opportunities.
Now this doesn’t mean we don’t achieve the public speaking goal; it means public speaking is one goal in alignment with our new identity, and we are ensuring all of our behaviours are paving the way for this goal to be achieved, whilst acknowledging that we can still progress in other areas of our identity.
Personally, last year I decided that in 2026 I wanted to really double down on my writing. This meant updating my identity as a writer. For me, that identity comes with specific actions such as creating content for my websites and coaching platform, writing blogs, newsletters, articles and LinkedIn posts, and protecting time to think and write.
If I had simply set myself a goal of ‘writing a blog’, it would have been easy for that to slip when work became busy or life intervened. Anchoring myself to the identity of a writer shifted the focus from producing a single output to consistently showing up as that person. Whether it’s a longer piece, a short post or an unfinished draft, it all reinforces the identity I’m building and keeps me moving in the right direction.
This is crucial for our success as I am sure we can all agree, sometimes life can throw some curveballs, and maybe that specific singular goal is no longer attainable or relevant – and that is OK! When you are clear on your identity, you can decide how the person you want to become would respond to this challenge, how they would realign and refocus, taking the wheel with both hands and staying in the driver’s seat.
So, before you double down on your micro goals, take a moment to step back and start at the core of what these goals mean about your identity.
- What type of person do you want to become?
- What are the traits and habits that this person would display?
- How would that person show up if they took over your life right now?
Then, and only then, can we start to weave in the goals and specific desired outcomes.
And don’t forget, if you are encouraging your team to set goals this year, personal or professional, let’s start by getting curious as to the person they want to be in 2026, and then explore what this might look like in terms of their career aspirations, professional advancement and personal achievements.
Create space for them to delve into their desires and work out the specific metrics associated with that version of themselves. Then, and only then, can we invite them to express any support they might need from us or the wider business community in achieving their ambitions.
Stay tuned for next week’s column, where we are going to dig a little deeper into setting your teams up for success in 2026, supporting their progress and advocating for their accountability. But for now, thank you for reading, and Happy New Year!
