How to Set Career Goals That Actually Fire You Up in 2026

Episode 12: In this episode, learn how to set career goals that actually light you up and motivate you to take bold action in 2026.

I’ll walk you through:

• Why it’s important to set goals for yourself
• How to reframe goals so they inspire and energise you
• A step-by-step process to create career goals that align with the life you want that you’ll be excited to chase this year

🎧 Listen now to create the focus and direction to be intentional about the career and life you want in the year ahead.

In this week’s episode, I am also inviting you to join me live for a brand new masterclass for 2026 on Monday 12th January at 7pm. In  ‘From Stuck to Sure: Making Confident Career Change Decisions in 2026’  I’ll be sharing how you can figure out what to do next in your career. What will make decisions not only feel easier but be in alignment with how you really want to be living and working in the future. You are going to find it so valuable and I’ll be doing a live Q&A where you can ask me any questions that you have about the process. To sign up for your free place just click here: danastevens.com/decide2026

Connect with Dana:

Website: https://www.danastevens.com/workwithme
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dana_stevens_coach/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danastevens1/
Free Coaching Consultation: https://calendly.com/danastevens/initial-coaching-chat

If this episode resonated, follow The Career Change Studio and share it with someone who’s feeling stuck in their career.

And if you’re ready to design a working life that truly fits your needs and lifestyle, book a free clarity call at https://calendly.com/danastevens/initial-coaching-chat

Special thanks to @Lou_Greenaway_Music for the piano composition and performance.

Transcript

Hello, happy new year - it’s 2026 - and I don’t know about you but I am excited about this year. I just feel like there’s a good energy to the year already. So as I’ve already started mapping out my goals for this year I thought I would share a simple goal setting process with you and also try and encourage you to set fun, exciting and inspiring goals so that you are really fired up by them this year! More on that in a moment.

One of the reasons I'm already feeling inspired is that I’m going to be launching something new in my business and I can’t wait for you to hear all about it as I know it is going to be so valuable. And it’s actually happening because of one of the goals I set for myself last year! So I know how powerful and helpful goal setting can be. And it’s going to enable me to help and coach even more people in 2026 to change their career so they can change their lives and be much happier and fulfilled. How could I not be excited about that.

Now I will explain more in next week’s podcast about what’s new and I would tell you about it now but I actually want to launch it first just after my new masterclass on Monday. So if you join me live for my masterclass on Monday 12th January 2026 - you’ll be the first to hear about it! If you’re listening to this in the release week you can click the link in the show notes to join me for the class called ‘From Stuck to Sure: How to Make Confident Career Decisions in 2026’. It is going to be focused on how YOU can make decisions, how you can decide what to do next and feel good about that decision. I know that making decisions feels so hard and lots of people ask me ‘how do I know what the right thing is to do’ - that's what I’m going to be sharing next week.

You can sign up using the link in my show notes or go to my website danastevens.com/decide2026 <Spell it out>

If you’re listening to this at a later date, then you can find out in the next episode what is new and if you like the sound of that masterclass but you missed it keep an eye on my instagram to find out about upcoming masterclasses @dana_stevens _coach

So let’s talk about GOAL SETTING.

I know some people LOVE setting goals and other people find it a bit intimidating - however you feel about it today I’m going to share a simple process that you will find helpful and enjoyable because goal setting can feel fun. 

Before we jump into the year ahead, I would encourage you to spend some time thinking about the past year. In last week’s episode of the podcast I gave you a framework you can use to assess your career in 2025 and it really can be useful to look back to help you think about what you want and need to move forwards. So feel free to go back and listen to that.

I’m going to talk about goals in general before jumping into a suggested process you can use for setting career goals in 2026.

WHY GOALS ARE IMPORTANT

Let’s start with why its even worth setting goals - why are they so important? 

Well at its most basic level - setting a goal gives you some direction. By taking time to identify what is important to you it gives your brain a focus. And when you have a focus our brain can then get to work and we can start thinking about how we can achieve something and ideally set things up to give us the best chance of achieving our goals.

But I don’t want you to set goals just because you think you SHOULD. If it feels like something you MUST do it’s hard to feel excited. Instead I’d like to offer that goals can feel fun because you want them to feel like something YOU really WANT.

That’s your starting point - goals are about what YOU want. I know it sounds obvious but so many people set goals based on what they think they SHOULD want and they end up setting goals that really echo societal pressure or a cultural norm or what their friends or family value rather than what is really important to them. A case in point is the annual race to be super healthy or give up alcohol in January… Don't get me wrong, both of those things are great if that is what YOU really want. But this is what I want you to stop and ask yourself. What do you really want to focus on in 2026? Start with how you want to feel. If your main aim for 2026 is to feel healthier then those goals might be great. But maybe you want to feel more connected this year or more confident or more adventurous - then following along and setting goals around health because that's the predominant cultural or marketing narrative might not actually be right for you.

So if you had to pick one emotion, one feeling - one word to help you sum up how you want to feel differently this year - what would it be? 

Now I want you to not just think about how you want to feel in your career - we will get to that but think about how you want to feel in your LIFE as a whole. This is important.

Think about that for a moment. It might come easily for you or you might need more time to come up with one. And that’s fine… Just know that you can take your time. 

And then think about what that really means for you - you can write it down if you want to. Because the reality is that feeling JOYFUL or RICHER or CHALLENGED or whatever your word is will mean different things to different people and if you can think about what that means for your life in the next year.

The more you can connect with how you want to be feeling next year it’s going to help you set more detailed goals. We want to shift from some vague thoughts to getting specific about what we want.

This is the point of setting goals - because if we don’t get INTENTIONAL about what we want we tend to just get carried along by the current, thrown around by whatever storms are happening in our lives, pushed along by the strengths of other peoples desires. You end up being REACTIVE and you will feel so much better if you feel like you are being PROACTIVE - doing things for yourself that you want and need.

And going back to what I said about feeling excited - if you can create goals that really feel good to you and you can see how they might help you then you will WANT to take action to help you achieve your goals - then you can ENJOY THE JOURNEY towards your goal as well as achieving the goal.

Because that really is such a part of it - its not just about achieving the goal itself - it’s about WHO we become as we try to achieve the goal and what we EXPERIENCE and ENJOY On the JOURNEY along the way. 

HOW TO SET CAREER GOALS

Let’s talk about how to set your Career Goals. Now the first thing I’m going to suggest might feel counterintuitive but what we’re going to do is set goals for our life as a whole - we’re going to focus on all different areas of our life FIRST before we set our career goals. WHY? Well if you know anything about the way I work with clients I take them through my proven process which is called the Life-First Career Method ® and this is all about  how important it is to think holistically about the life you want to be creating - what is really important to you now at this age and stage of your life. And then think about how you want work to fit into this wider picture. For so many of us, we start our careers putting work first and then trying to fit life in around the edges and there typically comes a point when this no longer works - maybe because your life has changed - maybe you have kids now, or parents to care for, or you need to prioritise your physical health or mental health or you just no longer want your work to be taking up so much space in your life. So to create a Life-First Career we want to be creating Life-first career goals.

We’re going to set our career goals at the end. And instead we’re going to start with health - because this is the main foundation for you to be able to be happy, fulfilled and doing well in your career.

You can just think about this or write this down - Starting with your physical health or mental health or both if they work in one bucket. I want you to think about  - what is working with your health, what do you want to change and then pick 1 thing, 1 goal as your marker for change.

So what is working, what do you want to change and then pick one thing that you are going to focus on as a marker for change in 2026. You may have lots of things you want to change and that’s fine but just pick one thing to focus on.

Now you’re going to do this in other areas of your life as well. Next up Relationships - these can be with friends or family or a partner - but thinking about relationships - what is working, what do you want to change and what is 1 marker of change

After relationships I want you to think about your personal life - however you define that  - time that you are not working - what is already working, what do you want to change and is there 1 thing that you really want to focus on for the next year. So for personal life you could think about hobbies or joyful moments or experiences

Now for me - because I’m obsessed with travelling and am only ever really happy if I have some travel plans mapped out even if they are a year away I like to set very specific goals around travel - that might be going away on a family holiday or a weekend away or whatever for me its about new adventures and it makes me happy knowing that is factored in my life (I am actually so serious about my travel goals that I have a 5 year plan mapped out) but I know that might not be your thing, so if there is something else super specific that you want to focus on you can create a category for it  - for you it might be learning or personal development or house renovations or whatever. Then you just need to  go through the same three questions  - what's working? What do you want to change and what is the 1 thing you want to focus on for next year?

Then let’s talk about your finances - think about your money, savings, debts, investments - what is working at the moment, what do you want to change and what is the 1 thing you want to focus on for next year.

NOW we have looked at lots of other areas of your life. It's time to use that as your foundation  - a lens through which you can really think about your career goals.

Start with what has been working - this might feel tricky if you’re not currently happy in your job but it’s useful to force your brain to start here. Then when you have some thoughts on what has been working you can then focus on what you want to change in the year ahead. Then out of that list pick one key thing - what is the one marker of change you want to prioritise most this year in terms of your job.

Now that you have gone through all these different areas of your life you’ll have a much clearer picture of what you want to change and they keep things you want to focus on first in the year ahead.

It might feel overwhelming to have lots of things to focus on that’s why to start with we’re going to pick just 3 - 3 key goals for 2026. Now remember, I’m not saying these are the only goals you are going to achieve next year, they are just the 3 we are going to start with.

And once we cross one off - we can add another goal to our list from the key markers for change in each category.

When you are making your top 3 have a think about whether you want to tackle one before the others.

It can often be easier to focus on one at a time. 

Maybe you know that one needs to happen before you can focus on another, it might be that you need to do something to protect or look after your mental health before you can start working towards a promotion. Or maybe your career goal is to get a new job and you know that you need to do that first to have the time to prioritise your fitness goals.

Again I’d encourage you to look at your list of top 3 goals and ask yourself ‘Do these goals feel good to me?’ Am I excited about achieving them? Do I feel motivated when I think about getting there? If the answer is no, go back to the list and try again.

When I set my goals for the year it is often something that takes me days or even weeks. I write some versions down then sit with them for a while, see how I feel about them. Then maybe come back to them later - see if I can make them feel more fun or motivating.

Because remember that is the point - we’re creating goals to not just give us direction but to inspire us and help us enjoy the journey of the next year!

HOW TO USE YOUR GOALS

So once you’ve written down your goals - don’t just forget about them. 

The point is that if you can connect with them regularly, you can use them to help you create actions.

So what do you want to do to check in with them regularly? There is no right or wrong way of doing this - it’s about finding a rhythm that works for you. Some people like to check in with their goals at the beginning of each month, other people like to do it each quarter - so every 3 months or you could wait and check in half way through the year. Think now about how often you’d like to check in and then - how are you going to do it? Do you want to schedule a half hour or 1 hour catch up in your diary? Can you arrange with a friend to both meet up and talk about your goals and compare notes?

How can you make this fun? Remember this isn’t work - this is something you are doing FOR yourself. Can you set yourself a day in 3 months when you are going to go out to a coffee shop and review how you are doing with your goals with coffee and cake. Will it be a glass of wine in front of teh fire? Whatever it is, how can you set it up as something you will look forward to?

REVIEWING GOALS

And then when it comes to reviewing your Goals here is the most important thing - your goals are FOR you, DO NOT USE YOUR GOALS AGAINST YOURSELF.

This isn’t an opportunity to berate yourself and focus on beating yourself up - this is an opportunity to get curious. Find out what has worked if you are on the way to achieving your goals and keep doing more of that. If you’re not on track to achieve your goals - ask yourself why? What has come up? Has something changed? Do you need to try something different?

We can amend our goals at any time. We can extend the timelines or give ourselves more grace.

If you set yourself a goal of getting a new job in the next 6 months… and then it actually takes you 8 or 9 months are you going to be really annoyed? No, chances are you won’t be - you’ll be happy you did all the actions you could to make it happen. Maybe the 6 month time limit was the thing that kept you focused and motivated so that’s ok.

Maybe your goal is to get a £5k pay rise this year  -and you do everything you can to make it happen, you take lots of steps at work to prove you are worth it, have lots of constructive conversations with your boss and then you end up with a £4k pay rise. Do you need to beat yourself up about it? No, you can look at everything you’ve learnt - all the skills that you developed to get you that £4k pay rise then keep working to achieve more next year.  

Your goals are never wasted if you are always appreciating what you are learning in pursuit of your goals.

And of course, you can always change your goals at any time. If they start feeling like a burden and making you stressed or if something in your life has changed and the goal no longer feels viable - that’s OK. Remember your goals are FOR you.

No one else.

So take some time to start setting out some goals - 

Do they feel exciting? Do they feel motivating? Do you feel fired up?

…

That’s almost it for this week, I just want to remind you that if you are listening to this in real time - in January 2026 don’t forget to come along to my free masterclass online next week on Monday 12th January and I’ll be sharing how you can be more decisive so that you can make career decisions that feel right to you. You can sign up using the link in my show notes or go to my website danastevens.com/decide2026 <Spell it out>

And make sure you listen to next week’s episode when you’ll hear all about something brand new for 2026 to help you change careers.

Until then, Bye for now