155 | Why Most Goals Fail and the 3 Things You Must Not Carry Into 2026

Research shows that nearly 85% of people do not achieve the goals they set, and fewer than 15% regularly review their goals and habits. That is not a motivation issue. It is a planning and congruency problem.

In this episode, we break down the three things you cannot carry into 2026 if you want real change, not just good intentions. A default mindset. Limited beliefs and mirror goals. And habits that quietly sabotage progress.

This conversation is the bridge between reviewing your year and creating a plan that actually works. If you are tired of repeating the same patterns and want 2026 to be different, this episode will help you identify what stops here.

In This Episode, You Will Learn

• Why most goals fail even when desire is high
 • The difference between mirror goals and aligned goals
 • How default thinking quietly determines outcomes
 • Why habits matter more than annual intentions
 • What must be released before you plan for 2026
 • How review and reflection improve follow through by up to 33 percent

Key Takeaway:

A new year does not create new results. New thinking, aligned goals, and supportive habits do.

Resources + NEXT STEPS 👇

Free Year End Review
If you have never paused to identify what worked, what drained you, and what patterns followed you all year, this is your first step. Review creates clarity and clarity fuels better decisions. https://amyramsey.com/LEADERSHIP/

Align and Activate Masterclass
Once you know what to release, the next step is alignment. This masterclass will show you how to create goals and habits that actually fit your life so you stop starting over.>> https://amyramsey.com/masterclass/

Accelerate Her 2026
For women who know they are ready to commit, implement, and move forward with structure and accountability. Enrollment is open and pricing is the lowest it has been. >>https://amyramsey.com/90days/

The Worthy Woman Summit is a transformational experience for purpose driven women who are ready to elevate their life, leadership, and impact. Join us March 19th-21st in Ridgeland, Mississippi for faith fueled teaching, practical high- performance tools, and powerful connection with women who are building lives of purpose and legacy. Grab your ticket, invite a friend, and join us in the room. Tickets available at WorthyWomanSummit.com

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Website: www.amyramsey.com
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Transcript

Why Most Goals Fail

Amy Ramsey 0:46

Did you know research shows 85% of people do not achieve the goals they set? Like 85% of people? That's terrible. That's terrible. How about you? How do you do with your goals? As we're sitting right smack at the tippy top end of 2025, how did you do overall? Before we even get started with this, I want to give you a resource that will a hundred percent help you move forward in 2026. Real quick, let me tell you what it is. Actually, 33%. Well, this will give you the ability to make 30% more success on your goals in 2026. This one thing. This one thing. In fact, it's a a year-in review. And I'm so passionate about um closing up the year and like moving forward. I want you to move forward that I have a free workbook that you can do this year-in review on your own. You can go to amyramsey.com slash leadership. It will be available through the end of the year. And I just recorded a podcast about this last week. So you can go to episode number 154 and listen to a more thorough in-depth. There's six areas of your life you have to review. And when you take this, I mean, think about it: 33% more success just by this review. So if 85% of people don't achieve the goals that they set, let's talk through how we can close the gap here. Because here's the thing: it is not a motivation problem. A new year, there's a fresh ambition for it, but girl, it ain't gonna create new results. Let's just keep that year. Let's just keep that very, very clear. There is no new year, new you. That's BS. I'm just gonna be a straight shooter right here and just call it what it is. But in this episode today, episode 155, we're gonna talk about the three things that you absolutely have to stop if you want 2026 to be different. Before we jump into these three things, I want to share a story that I actually shared in my newsletter, and I had several people hit reply and say, Oh my gosh, that's me. And as you're thinking about, I want you to do like a little bit of reflection right now of what is a goal that maybe you've set consistently each year, and you're not actually moving forward in this goal. And let's break down, you know, what we need. So that does we don't repeat that pattern of behavior. I had the same goal year after year after year after year. And each year it was like, I am going to learn how to manage my business accounting better. Every January, I would feel super stressed out over the accounting part of my business. In a lot of ways, I've heard a lot, I've heard entrepreneurs say this type of thing, especially in the space where I am, which is coaching. We love what we do, but gosh, when it comes to the numbers and the admin and and some of just like the basics of the business, I don't love that. And so therefore I don't prioritize it. And so each year I would say, okay, I am gonna, I'm gonna do better, I'm gonna figure this out. And every January I would spend the entire month itemizing my expenses and like having them this messy approach to it, and and it was I wasn't making progress. Let's just say that. I was making zero progress at all. And finally, finally, I had to break that pattern, but I had to do something different. I had to acknowledge, okay, wait, maybe maybe I just need a little bit of help here. So I just started making some changes. I had, I met, I met with my CPA and asked them to help me create some sort of a system that I could manage, that I could learn. What I learned in that process, it took me years to start to feel more confident in my ability to understand what to do and how to do it because it wasn't a skill set of mine. And I had to skill up, I had to level up, and it's something that I don't enjoy doing. So I had to implement structure and a system around that. So that's just an example. Gosh, when we think about health and wellness, that one is an easy one to go, bah uh, just not making forward movements. So I want you to ask yourself now what is important to you in your life, and you're actually not making progress. I want you to be for real, for real right here with yourself. Most people are not very honest with their own assessment of how they're managing themselves. In fact, I just had a client of mine, we were a one-on-one client, and we were discussing her goals for 2026. And she had this very robust approach, and she was telling me six areas and she's gonna do this, and she was going all on it, and I just could tell she was like getting lit up for it. She was really excited. And the the the awesome thing when you're working with a coach one-on-one, it you I'm here, like especially with my my clients, I'm here to champion you. Oh my gosh, yes. I mean, I could just tell she was so lit up, and I'm also here to challenge you. And and she she finally stopped them like, okay, so let's let's talk about a plan for what you're talking about doing. And then let's also talk about that same goal, one of those goals I just heard you say, that was a very clear goal that you had four months ago, and you haven't moved the needle on it. So, why do you think in 2026 you're gonna all of a sudden move the needle on that and all of these other big areas? She's like, oh my gosh, you're absolutely right. So we kind of stopped and just started with a different plan. A lot of what I'm gonna be sharing here, I'm gonna be sharing how to create a plan. This is part of what I do with clients. This is part of what I'm doing with the planner that's coming out, is how to actually have a plan that you can achieve your goals. But there are definite, there are three things that I want you to think right now that you're not going to carry with you into 2026. Can I get an amen on that? This is going to be really clear, very simple of what you're not going to carry in because this is not going to help you achieve your goals. All right. Number one, thing number one is a negative mindset. The negative thoughts that you have in your mind now, the dialogue, the reactions, the autopilot, um, that those thought processes cannot move forward with you into 2026, and you expect a different result. Let me remind you of this, of what the scripture says, that as a man thinketh, so he is. As you think about yourself, so you are. As you think about your ability, your capability to move forward on these things that you want to move forward on and progress in 2026, that is gonna be your limitation if this is if you're uh have stinking thinking going on. You're not gonna be able to, so like even uh thinking and saying things like like I used to say, I'm just terrible with money. I don't, I have no idea what to do. Um, I'm just you know, I'm just awful at this. I finally stopped some of that stinking thinking and instead was like more fruitful things like, okay, what do I need to do to actually learn how to do this? I don't know how to do it, so I need a little bit of help here. But I want you to really take an account of your negative mindsets and where are they holding you back from moving forward in your life? Okay, number two thing that you are not taking with you into 2026. I wish I could like, I've got my little pinky up, and I wish we could do a little pinky pal promise. Here's the thing limited beliefs, mirrored goals, limited beliefs and mirrored goals. You are capable of so much more than you actually think think that you can do. Mirror goals reflect the same identity and habits that you actually already have. Lots of times I'll hear people talking about their goals, and you know, I feel like there's like two ends of the totem pole here. Is no, that's the wrong thing. You should you wouldn't say totem pole. Two ends here. I don't know what poll it is, but it's like there's two very opposite ends. One is like overachiever, gonna set all these goals, and you might fall into that camp of especially high capacity woman, friend. That might be you. You're like, oh my gosh, you know, like I'm gonna set all these goals. That's what I used to do. I had to learn a better system, and that's exactly what I want to teach you. Or goals that aren't stretchy, goals that are just like, you know, it's like that you can probably already do that. There's something really powerful though, when you learn how to properly set a goal based on a bigger belief system, because if a goal doesn't require growth, it's not gonna create new outcomes. And I want you to think about like, what do you want the ultimate outcome to be in your life? And your limited beliefs are not going to get you there. All right, I'm just gonna like motor through this one. This is gonna be a nice short podcast for us today. Thing number three, and this one is so, so important. Are you ready for it? Is your unaligned habits? Your daily habits determine your destiny. And when your habits are out of alignment with who you are becoming and the things that you want to do or you feel called to do, they will sabotage you from moving forward. Energy draining and unfocused habits compound. I mean, none of us want to go, oh, let me see how many hours I spent on social media this year. It's like, oh, we don't want that number, right? I don't want to see how much money I spent on Amazon. I'm just saying, I'm just gonna like put that right there. It's it's too easy to shop. Um, but our unaligned habits, our bad habits are not gonna help us move forward. And I want you to start to think through in your life what are the bad habits that you have right now that need that you need to address? And what habit, maybe, do you want to start that will help you become the woman that God wants you to be, one that is filled with excellence, one that is energetic, one that is thriving and vibing. So I want you to kind of think about these three things that you're what are you gonna leave in 2025? And you will not carry this with you to 2026, a negative mindset, limited beliefs, and unaligned habits. Take a moment, like do that reflection work to make sure that you are not going to move forward with this in your life. All right, I already told you about that year in review. You can go to amiramsey.com slash leadership and grab that. Because here's the thing if you think about these things deeply, you can improve your 2026 plan by 33 poor 33%. And that's exactly what I want for you. Okay, as we're closing out this year, I I want to say that moving forward into 2026, I would love to be able to guide you as a coach, as a mentor, into the most thriving version of yourself. I have all sorts of stuff coming up. And so I want to stay connected with you. Um, I have a free Facebook group. I'm live in there, coaching in there. Uh, we I've got free masterclasses coming up. I've already told you about one of those. Align and activate masterclass. You can get registered for that in the show notes. And I also want to let you know that women are already jumping into a fresh coaching container that I have for Q1, January through the end of March. And that is called that program, it's fun, it's exciting, it's vibrant, it's new. It's called Accelerate Her. In that coaching container, I will give you the tools, the resources, the skills for you to level up. Part like we we already talked about the unaligned habits. What I want to teach you is how to skill up by leveraging the high performance habits. There's six of them. And learning those habits in a mastery level will change your life. Oh my gosh. I cannot tell you how much this has impacted my own life and how it's created this place where I'm just, I've got to get this word out. And learning these high performance habits, the science of it, will help you just learn how to learn mastery level instead of circling the same mountain, instead of the start and the stop. This is how when I learned this, this is how I got traction, like massive traction. And it's a rinse and repeat cycle, like every 90 days. Oftentimes, I think I was started talking about this earlier. The one who sets way too big, ambitious goals and doesn't really um make momentum on any of them, or the one who doesn't set stretchy enough goals. Like there's this great place in the middle. And I have a whole system that will help you move forward. And I want to provide for you the structure, but also the accountability. There is something super powerful about having accountability and someone who knows what you're doing and to support you in that, but also to help help you um stay on course. So, anyway, that 90-day accelerate her program is open. There's a special price point through the end of 2025. I love action takers. Some of you are already knowing that you need some help, you need some support, you haven't been able to achieve goals on your own, and you're already raising your hand and you're and you're ready to join. I want to encourage you, go ahead and join. The price point on this is only$597. I'm throwing this price point out because that is not much for three months of coaching. There's also payment plans available for that. But this goes up in January. The price naturally will go up on January the 1st. So if you're like, ah, I know that I need some help. Oh, Amy, I know I need some support. I I know I want to learn these high performance habits, then I want you to come join me. I want to coach you. I want to mentor you to level up. I want you to understand how to skill up and learn the very things that you need to have more and greater success in 2026 and how to do it. I'm going to teach you the exact strategies and systems. And you'll also get an early copy of my high performance planner. So this is structure, this is system, this is accountability, this is community, this is fun, this is your place. So I don't care what your goal is. If you've got business goals, I've got a lot of business women in there. You got business goals, perfect. If you want to um improve your health, perfect. If you want to launch the book, launch the podcast, launch the make more money, save more money, perfect. If you want to declutter your house, I will teach you how I've done actually every one of those things. Launch the book, launch the podcast, decluttered my house. I've lost 10 pounds, kept it off. And I want to teach you my exact system and strategy in that. And so you can go, if you're interested, you can go to amyramsey.com slash 90 days. I'll also put this in the show notes, but let's get you moving and into action for 2026 because it's a new year and it's not a new you unless you do you differently. So let's get you moving in in the capacity that honestly, that you're capable of. Yeah, you are. And let me help support that version of you to come out for um for this next year. Like it's it's a new year. There's natural ambition around a new year. It's exciting. Like I've been thinking, I'm I'm like one of these crazy people about goals. Like I obsess over them. But I've been thinking for the last month, okay, what do I want my goals to be? What does it look like? What is in alignment with where God wants me to be for this next season? So that's what I want to help you do. And I want to say thank you for being here. Um, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and all of the things. I'm so grateful for you. All right. So amyramsey.com slash 90 days, if you want to join that coaching container.