Resolutions, Reframed

Forget the tidy to-do list vision of a new year. We’re talking about resolutions as living commitments that change shape when life does—and why that shift can be the most honest form of progress. I share how a straightforward health focus morphed into launching a bagel business, and what that pivot taught me about courage, flexibility, and the real metrics that matter over twelve messy, meaningful months.

I unpack why resolutions are acts of optimism and how rigidity turns them brittle. Instead of grading a year by whether January’s plan stayed intact, we must  judge the journey by who we became: more capable, more resilient, more willing to take a smart risk. You’ll hear practical ways to design adaptable systems, pair outcomes with growth traits, and set feedback loops that reward movement over perfection. Make it more about rolling averages instead of streaks, weekly reviews that spotlight learning, and how to evaluate surprise opportunities against the person you want to become.

The goal isn’t to preserve a plan; it’s to protect your momentum and expand your range.

If this resonates, share it with someone mapping out their 2026 goals, subscribe for more grounded mindset and growth episodes, and leave a quick review with one pivot you’re planning to make. Your story might help someone else choose movement over perfection.

Instagram: @mikemuldoonlc
Website: www.themikemuldoonpodcast.com
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Chapters

• 0:00 Fresh Year, Fresh Perspective
• 0:36 Resolutions As Acts Of Optimism
• 1:43 When Life Redirects Your Plan
• 2:36 Growth Beyond The Script
• 4:02 Redefining Success For 2026
• 5:15 Parting Thoughts And New Year Wishes

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hey everyone, and welcome to six episode the Mike Muldoon podcast. Thanks for joining me. Getting trying to get this special episode in for the new year so we can all get set off right. Because here we are, right? 2025 is behind us, 2026 is in front of us. What does that mean? It's a new beginning, it's an opportunity for change. And what happens? Everybody starts setting their what? Their New Year's resolutions. And the thing about New Year's resolutions, right? When people set them, the thing is nobody ever goes into a new year hoping that things get worse. You never hear someone say, This year, I'd really love to be less healthy or lose all my money or end up in a job I hate. That's just not how resolutions work. New Year's resolutions, you know, are at their core in acts of optimism. They're about any sort of improvement, whether it's health, wealth, relationships, confidence, purpose. They're about looking forward. I want something better than where I am right now. And that's what's important to remember this year, because where people tend to get stuck isn't in the intention, it's in the rigidity that they sort of put upon themselves about these resolutions. And that's what we're going to talk about. Resolutions often start with something clear and familiar. Again, health, fitness, routine, discipline. Heck, mine did last year. That's exactly how it was supposed to be. Last year began with a focus on improving my health and getting stronger physically and mentally, all that usual stuff. And then life did what it does. It just got in away. That focus didn't disappear. It just evolved into something else. Almost suddenly, my attention shifted towards something completely unexpected: entrepreneurship, starting a business, taking a risk in a world I didn't fully understand, the bagel business of all things. You know, up until uh, you know, that point, my experience with bagels and coffee shops are pretty simple. Eating bagels and writing in coffee shops. That was it. But what started as uh, you know, self-improvement through health became self-improvement through courage, through uncertainty, through building something from scratch and learning as I went. See, the resolution didn't fail, it just transformed. Because the thing is, growth always doesn't look like the original plan. That's the part we don't talk about enough. We tend to judge resolutions by only by whether or not they stayed the same all year. But growth isn't linear, and improvement doesn't always follow the script we write on January 1st of the previous year. Sometimes improvement looks like taking a risk you never planned on taking, entering a world you know nothing about, stumbling, adjusting, learning, and continuing anyway, whatever it is, becoming more resilient, not just more disciplined. See, by the end of the year, you might look back and say, you know what, I didn't hit that exact uh health and fitness goal I set out to, but I did something I never done before. I grew in a way I didn't expect. And that counts. So the real question isn't about the resolution. So maybe the better question is, you know, not so much did I stick to my resolution, but maybe it's, you know, how did I arrive at the end of the year? So for you right now, it's like, what did I start in 2026? I think it would be about I was gonna do, but how do I arrive at the end of it? Do you want to arrive in the same place, physically, mentally, emotionally, doing the same things, having learned nothing new? Or do you want to arrive having tried something hard, taken a chance, learned from mistakes, improved in at least one meaningful way? Because progress doesn't require perfection, it requires movement. So if you didn't, you know, um hit your resolutions that you started in 2025, don't beat yourself up, zoom out a little bit on it. You know, if your resolution, you know, uh changed throughout the year, it didn't mean that you failed. It just might mean that, you know, you're paying attention to growing in certain or in other areas, right? You want because that's the whole thing about a resolution. It's about growth. So at the end of this year, the goal isn't to punish yourself for what doesn't happen or what didn't happen in 2025. The goal is to honestly say, I am not the same person I was that last January. And if you look back, you might realize maybe you're stronger now, maybe you're braver now, maybe you're more capable, maybe you've built something that you didn't exist before. It's all about improvement. So when you strip it all down, that's what New Year's resolutions were always meant to be about, anyway. One year, one step, one small but real improvement. All right. So as you set your 2026 resolutions, if you're somebody who does that, or you set your goals, which is great to have. And if you set them in 2025 but you didn't hit them, but still go back and look, because where did you grow? Because that's the important thing. Growth is the most important thing. And the same as in 2026, you might set something and then the world might get in the way, or a new opportunity might present itself, a new risk, something that you didn't foresee. But at the end of it, if you grow from it, that's what matters the most. So that's what I got for you. So happy new year. Here's to 2026, and next year, let's see here where we all end up. And that's all I got for you today. So I appreciate you being with me, especially the journey is a little bit more sporadic in 2026. I'll try to get even better with this. But as always, be safe. Have a great rest of your holiday weekend if you're still off. And as always, I got another beloved.