What’s smarter than SMART?

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Does anyone make New Year’s resolutions anymore? 

I actually looked it up, and it turns out the older you are, the more likely the answer is: Resolutions are a waste; they never work! 

The much more mature approach is to set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goals, break them into quarterly milestones, track your metrics, and execute with discipline. 

But in 2026, I’m thinking that’s not going to be enough either. 

Reading the 2026 Tea Leaves

I’m not a fortune teller, but you don’t have to be one to see the patterns from the last few years extending into 2026. The specific crises may vary, but certain challenges have become structural features of leadership.

They show up as three core tensions that impact you, your team, and your organization:

1. Performance vs. renewal:

   • You're pushing through chronic overload while knowing burnout degrades the judgment you need most

   • Your team operates in constant "go mode": Back-to-back meetings, firefighting, no space for the learning that prevents bigger fires

   • Your business treats people as an exhaustible resource rather than designing for sustainable performance

2. Speed vs. depth: 

   • You're making knee-jerk calls on critical decisions rather than taking time to think deeply, then dealing with rework when misalignment surfaces

   • Your organization prides itself on agility but quietly accumulates technical, process, and cultural debt because "we don't have time" for root-cause analysis

3. Control vs. trust: 

   • You're caught in anxiety-fueled overreach, needing to be in every decision, especially as hybrid work reduces visibility

   • Your systems prioritize surveillance over transparency, with rigid policies that undermine the engagement you're trying to create

These tensions, exacerbated by whatever curveballs 2026 throws, require more than basic goal-setting.

SMART Goals Could Be Smarter 

Goals tell you what to achieve and when. They're essential for execution. But goals can't tell you how to show up when the tensions I mentioned above are pulling you in different directions.

Intentions tell you something more fundamental: "Who am I becoming? How do I want to show up in this moment?" They're present-focused; you can practice immediately, not just when you hit some future milestone.

Without this deeper anchoring, you risk hitting targets that don't matter or achieving everything you thought you wanted, only to realize you've been optimizing for someone else's definition of success.

A well-developed intention becomes a filter for decisions under pressure, provides resilience when circumstances change, and creates coherence when everything else feels chaotic.

My Intention for 2026

Reflecting on the past year, I had to face the realization that my instinctive pursuit of perfection, cycling endlessly on reversible decisions, feels like a justifiable display of competence when, really, it’s more about control. 

In 2026, I intend to cultivate a practice of meeting the moment, strengthening my trust in my capacity to handle what arises rather than exhausting myself by trying to perfectly anticipate it.

•  Allowing for the 80% solution 

• Choosing presence in the moment over perfecting the script in my head

• Letting go of the outcome and focusing my energy on the process

“Present over perfect” is my easy-to-recall touchstone for this intention. For me, it’s more challenging than trying to get everything “just so,” but I believe it's where the most meaningful impact (and joy) lives.

Your Turn!

If you did last month's reflection work, you are already on track. Keep going! 

• Block 30 minutes this week.

• Download the Reflections & Intentions Guide and work through the visualization exercise: What does the future version of you know that current you is still learning?

• Then set your intention. Write it somewhere you'll actually see it.

Extra credit: Share your intention with someone! There's something powerful about declaring it to another human. (May I nominate myself? Hit reply and let me know what you came up with!) 

When your intention is clear, set your goals. You'll find they're more sustainable when they're grounded in who you're becoming, not just what you're chasing.

A Final Note: 

Living your intention won’t be easy. Not if you’ve settled on something deep and meaningful. The world will try to pull you back into reactive/automatic mode immediately. Your job is to protect what you just clarified. And to remember: That feeling of being stretched, challenged, or overwhelmed is not inadequacy:

It’s evidence that you’re building new leadership muscles.

You've got this!

Keep reading, keep leading,

Jess.

P.S. I’m so grateful to have you as a reader. Here’s to your leadership success in the year ahead and beyond!

Thank you for subscribing!

For more, follow me on LinkedIn 

jessyuen.com

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