How to Make the Most of 2026

Three principles and one technique to turn resolution into reality

Author

Ollie Lovell
January 29, 2026

What was your New Year’s resolution last year?

For most of us, the answer is, ‘I can’t remember.’ This is often for one of two reasons, one good, one not so:

  • Good: Whatever you aimed to change has now become an unconscious habit and you complete it without thinking

  • Not so good: Last year’s resolution lasted till about this time (end-ish of Jan), then faded into oblivion.

As it’s currently the end of Jan, that time when our resolutions often begin to fade away, I thought I’d send out a little ‘resolution reminder’. Here are a few strategies that might help to nudge the ambitious but overloaded back on track.

My approach to making the most of 2026 is built on three principles, each of which I’ve tried to put into practice through one unified strategy.

Principle 1: Balance process goals and outcome goals. This is something I wrote about back in 2024, and which Peps put a good article out about earlier this year.

Principle 2: Leverage implementation intentions and action triggers. I first blogged about this back in 2018 and again in a slightly different guise in 2023.

Principle 3: Do fewer things better. This is something I’ve been working towards since the start of last year. It’s an attempt to counteract my penchant for novelty and tendency to spread myself too thin.

I won’t go into further detail about any of the above, other than to detail how they fit into the below strategy. But I would encourage you to explore all three principles more deeply if these concepts are new. So, here’s how I’m combining them in 2026.

I have three main things I want to achieve this year, which are:

  • Do a modest workout every day

  • Start getting ready for bed at 9:30pm every night (lights out at 10:30pm)

  • Say my mantra every day

These may seem very simple, but I’ve found over time that sleep, exercise, and diet are the three main drivers of my productivity. I feel like I built some good diet habits in 2025, but I wasn’t as good with sleep or exercise.

However, the mantra (goal 3) is what I really want to talk about today. Here’s how a Mantra can leverage each of the three principles above and why I feel it’s the lynchpin for this year.

Balance process and outcome goals: About ¾ of the statements in my mantra are a recipe for something I do each day. I actually only have one outcome goal for the whole year, and it’s more of a bucket list item. Over the years I’ve moved more and more towards focussing on what I do each day, and letting the outcomes take care of themselves as a result. A mantra is a way to continually focus me on my process goals.

Leverage implementation intentions and action triggers: Almost every line of my mantra follows this format: ‘Situation – action – reason’. Here’s an example:

  • ‘When spending time with [Daughter], I commit 100%, because great fathers dive into the world of their children.’

I’ve found this formula extremely powerful and, because I’ve now memorised my mantra, these lines pop into my mind, in the moment, as a real-time reminder of how I want to live my life. It’s just crazy how huge this simple structure has been. In short, a mantra can neatly encapsulate both implementation intentions and action triggers, each and every sentence.

Do fewer things better: I first started with the mantra idea last year. I had the per-line formula right (situation – action – reason), but not the overall structure. Last year, my mantra contained 24 lines and, being wordy and long, I never committed it to memory. As a result, it wasn’t ‘in me’, and it never got to the point where those lines would naturally spring to mind as I was going about my daily business. This year, my mantra contains 8 core lines which represent how I want to show up in the most important areas of my life.

And that’s it!

It’s the end of Jan and saying my mantra each day feels like it’s becoming a habit. It’s in long-term memory and moving towards automation. Most excitingly, I can already see the benefit, and I feel it influencing me multiple times each day.

Let me know if you come up with (and memorise) a mantra. The memorisation is really where the rubber hits the road. Whichever route you take, good luck for the year ahead!

Announcements and Opportunities

International Classroom Management/Behaviour Management Workshops

I’m delighted to share that my co-author of the Classroom Management Handbook (which has become my highest rated book on Amazon), Dr Mark Dowley, is doing a 2026 World Tour! Mark will be delivering the classroom managemennnt workshop which we co-designed, and has the capacity to potentially add a few more locations.

Mark is a fantastic presenter and facilitator and has refined this high-impact presentation over multiple iterations. If you’re looking for an opportunity to motivate and educate your staff to bette behaviour management, this is a phenomenal opportunity.

Contact Mark via the classroommanagementhandbook.com website

Dates so far:

  • 2nd Feb – 23rd Feb (Johannesburg/Cape Town)

  • 7- 26th April (Dubai & Shanghai)

  • 1st – 15th June (Amsterdam and Barcelona)

  • 16th June -10th July (UK)

  • 15th August - 20th Sept (UK)

  • 20 Oct – 20th Nov (USA/Canada)

If you can’t make one of these workshops in person, our online course on classroom management is an excellent option too and has been enormously popular. With 500 people signing on to take their classroom management to the next level, Mark and I have received countless emails expressing how much this course has helped them to improve the behaviour in their classrooms.

Upcoming Instructional Coaching Trainings with Steplab

If you’re interested in world-class instructional coaching and PD, or you’ve heard about Steplab and you’d like to find out more. The following trainings are an excellent opportunity to do so:

Upcoming Explicit Mathematics Program Trainings

The Explicit Mathematics Program is absolutely taking off. Orders for the 2026 school year have more than doubled compared to 2025 and we have more schools than ever using and loving the program.

See some initial growth data and videos of classroom practice through our 2025 EMP Awards video here.

If you’re an EMP school and want to up your game, or just a school interested in the program, these upcoming trainings would be a great fit: