Why 2026 Doesn’t Need New Year’s Resolutions – Just Intention!

It’s 5th January 2026. Have you noticed that the gym is busy, planners are pristine, and resolutions are ambitious? Yet, if we’re honest, most of them won’t survive the month. Not because people lack motivation or discipline, but it’s because New Year’s resolutions are often built on a flimsy idea of change. They’re reactive, short-term, and usually disconnected from how life actually works once January gets going.

This is exactly why Lead with Intention sits at the heart of my SELF Framework. It works perfectly when dispelling those New Year Resolution Myths!

Not because intention sounds nice, but because without it, even the best plans quietly collapse.

The problem with resolutions

Resolutions tend to focus on what you want to do:

• Go to the gym more
• Work less
• Be more present
• Grow the business
• Finally get some balance

The issue is that they rarely address why, how, or what you’ll protect when pressure returns.

By mid-January, work ramps up and emails stack. Decisions multiply, energy dips, and old habits step back in. This happens not because you’re weak but because you never redesigned the system you’re operating inside. Good intentions don’t survive bad environments.

What does leading with intention actually mean for leaders in 2026?

Leading with intention is different. It’s not about hype, vision boards, or picking a word for the year and hoping it does the heavy lifting. Intention is a practical decision about how you will show up, even when things get messy.

It asks better questions:

• What actually matters this year?
• What am I saying yes to by default that no longer serves me?
• Where do I need to be more deliberate, not busier?
• What am I protecting, not just pursuing?

When we as leaders don’t answer these questions early, the year answers them for them. Usually through stress, overload, or burnout.

Why leaders struggle with intention

Leaders are particularly good at reacting:

• They respond to urgency
  They carry responsibility
  They absorb pressure so others don’t have to

Over time, this creates a pattern where the diary fills itself, priorities are inherited rather than chosen, and the year becomes something you survive rather than shape.

From the outside it looks like momentum. From the inside it often feels like autopilot.

Leading with intention is how you step out of that cycle.

Intention creates a filter

When you lead with intention, decisions get easier. Not because life gets simpler, but because you have a reference point. A filter.

You start asking:

• Does this align with how I want to lead this year?
• Is this worth my energy, not just my time?
• What’s the cost of saying yes here?

This is where Selfish Leadership shows up properly.

Leading with intention means choosing yourself on purpose, not because you don’t care about others, but because sustainable leadership starts with self-preservation. When leaders don’t set their own rules, they inherit everyone else’s, and that’s when performance, clarity, and wellbeing quietly erode.

This is why intention isn’t a soft concept. It’s a strategic one.

Clear intention reduces decision fatigue.
It sharpens focus.
It creates boundaries without guilt.

And crucially, it allows you to lead others without losing yourself in the process.

The SELF Framework: Lead with Intention

Lead with Intention is the anchor of the SELF Framework. It’s the moment a leader stops drifting and starts deciding.

• Intention means designing your year instead of reacting to it
• It means setting boundaries before burnout sets them for you
• It means making choices based on sustainability, not pressure or expectation.

In Selfish Leadership, intention isn’t optional. It’s the difference between leading deliberately and slowly disappearing into the role.

2026 doesn’t need a new you

One of the biggest myths of January is that you need reinventing… and you don’t.

You need clarity. You need permission to stop chasing every improvement trend and instead choose what this year is actually about for you.

• For some leaders, intention might mean slowing down to speed up.
• For others, it might mean being braver with boundaries.
• For many, it’s about reclaiming time, energy, and headspace before the year takes it anyway.

None of that fits neatly into a resolution. All of it sits squarely inside intention.

Lead first, then plan

If 2026 is going to be different, it won’t be because of a habit you try to force for 21 days.

It’ll be because you decided, early on, how you want to lead yourself before leading everyone else.

That’s why Lead with Intention comes before growth, performance, or optimisation in the SELF Framework.

Because when leaders lead themselves intentionally, everything else becomes more sustainable.

And in 2026, the most effective leaders won’t be the busiest or the loudest, they’ll be the ones selfish enough to lead themselves with intention first.

Looking to start leading 2026 with more intention?

Check out the mentoring support available or get in touch for a 121 chat via the contact page.