Resolutions are prayers for the weak. If you want the life you dream of, stop wishing and start wounding your excuses.
Listen: New Year’s resolutions are ceremonial optimism.
They sound nice between cider and regret. They never survive January because they’re built on hope, not violence.
If you want 2026 to be different, you don’t need another list — you need a plan that’s ugly, legal, and ruthless enough to crush your better excuses.
I’ll think like a philosopher (what’s true), a disruptive thinker (what’s possible), a lawyer (how to make it enforceable), and a soldier (how to commit under fire).
Here’s a scary, brutally honest blueprint: short, actionable, and designed to force you into becoming the person your future self thanks, or curses, depending on how well you do it.
1) Stop resolving. Start contracting. (The lawyer’s trick)
Write one enforceable contract: you vs. you. Sign it. Make the penalties real.
Example: If your dream is to write a book, the contract says: “By June 1, deliver a 40,000-word draft. If I fail, I will donate $2,000 to an organization I despise and post a public apology video admitting I chickened out.”
Put the money in escrow with a friend or a service. Lawyers call this “commitment device.”
Soldiers call it honor.
Philosophers call it integrity.
Why it works: Hope is negotiable. Money and shame are not.
Action today: Open a doc. Draft your contract. Email it to three witnesses and deposit the penalty somewhere you can’t touch it.
2) Kill options. Embrace constraints. (The strategist)
Ambition dies under a million choices. The human brain loves choice because it’s lazy. Limit your battlefield.
Example: Instead of “get fit,” commit to “be able to run 10K by May without stopping.” That’s a single measurable mission. No gym sliders. No fad diets. One objective.
Why it works: Constraints force focus. Focus breeds skill. Skill compounds into results.
Action today: Choose one goal. Strip everything else from it until what’s left is a single test you can measure on a date.
3) Build a ruthless routine and defend it. (The soldier’s discipline)
Dreams are executed in the small moments you keep. The soldier trains the same muscle every day until it becomes instinct.
Example: If you want to launch a business, schedule 90 minutes at 5:30 AM for product work. Protect that block like a patrol. No meetings. No scrolling. If you miss it twice in a row, you punish yourself per the contract.
Why it works: Momentum isn’t mystical. It’s daily repetition.
Action today: Pick your daily front-line 90 minutes. Add it to your calendar now. Tell one person you are accountable to and ask them to text you at the start time.
4) Trade authenticity for feedback, not for comfort. (The philosopher’s medicine)
Most people filter reality through fear. The market, the reader, the investor—none owe you comfort. They owe you truth.
Example: Show a brutal MVP. Post the raw chapter, the prototype, the ad. If feedback is negative, iterate fast. If it’s silence, change the hook. If it’s praise, validate and scale.
Why it works: The truth is a scalpel. It hurts. It’s cleaner than your delusions.
Action today: Ship one small, imperfect version of what you want to make and ask for specific feedback in one sentence: “What would make you pay for this?”
5) Use “deadlines with teeth.” (The lawyer + soldier combo)
Soft deadlines become suggestions. Teeth turn them into orders.
Example: Arrange a public event tied to your deadline. Book a speaking slot, a demo stand, or tell a thousand people on social media you’ll reveal the result. Public exposure makes failure costly.
Why it works: Public cost transforms whimsical goals into obligations.
Action today: Announce your deadline publicly — on LinkedIn, to 10 friends, or in a newsletter. Set the reveal date and add the penalty clause if you miss it.
6) Outsource your weaknesses and weaponize your strengths. (The disruptive move)
You’re not going to be great at everything. That’s fine. Be surgical.
Example: If you’re vision-first but execution-poor, trade equity for a partner who executes. If you’re cash-poor but network-rich, pre-sell to fund the work.
Why it works: Resources are leverage. Leverage wins faster than talent.
Action today: Make a short list of three people who can do what you cannot. Message them with one clear ask: a 30-minute call to explore collaboration.
7) Measure the one metric that matters. (The philosopher’s anchor)
Vanity metrics soothe the ego. The one metric tells the truth.
Example: For writers: words done. For founders: paying customers. For athletes: performance on the test. Not followers. Not “effort.”
Why it works: Truth scales. Fluff doesn’t.
Action today: Define your one metric and create a tracker. Update it nightly.
Final, brutal truth: You will be tempted to feel moral about effort. Don’t.
Effort without results is a moral placebo. Results require brutality toward your own comfort and honesty toward the world.
If you want 2026 to be the year dreams stop being fantasies and start being outcomes, practice three things: contract, constraint, and routine. Everything else is noise.
Call to Action — A Soldier’s Order
Right now, stop reading and do one thing: create your contract.
Put a date, a measurable deliverable, and a penalty you hate.
Type it, sign it, and send it to someone who will not lie to you.
Come back here and paste the first line of your contract in a reply. I’ll respond with one brutal, actionable tweak that makes it stronger.
Do it.
Or keep making resolutions that expire on January 3rd.
The choice is yours—and the world doesn’t care which you pick.
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