How I'm Planning My Best Year Yet (2026 Planning Guide) | 321

Welcome to one of my favorite episodes of the year! In this planning workshop-style episode, I walk you through the exact system I’m using to create my best year yet. We’re not talking about vague resolutions or goals that fizzle out—we’re creating a clear, doable plan for 2026 that’s built to last.

This step-by-step framework will help you dream big, pick your North Star goal, break it into quarterly focuses, and set up the systems that keep you accountable and energized all year long. Whether you’re planning a big launch, growing your revenue, or carving out more balance in your life, this process will help you get there—with ease and intention.

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Welcome back to Making Good, the podcast here to help you do better marketing so you can make a bigger impact. I'm your host, Lauren Tilden, and this is episode 321, my Friends. I am so, so, so excited about today's episode. This is one of my favorite episodes that I do each year because we get to really take a step back and dream up our dream year. I have a way of future planning that I have refined and perfected over the years, and I am so excited to walk you through this process so you can do it too. Today we are talking about setting yourself up for your best year ever. Not by making a bunch of wishful resolutions only to abandon them days into the new year, but by creating a real actionable plan that you'll actually follow through on. We are going to dream big and get practical about exactly how to make those big dreams happen. As this episode comes out, we are in that magical time between Christmas and New Year's where everything feels full of possibility. If you're like me, you might be feeling a mix of reflection on 2025 and starting to get excited about what's ahead in 2026. Now, for the most recent episode on the podcast, the one before this, we did our year interview together. So if you haven't listened to that episode yet, I would really encourage you to start there. Your year interview will help you get a sense of what went well in 2025, what there is to learn, and how you can take your lessons learned into 2026. So that was on episode three 20. The episode right before this@makinggoodpodcast.com slash 3 2 0, but today is all about looking forward. We are going to create a plan for your best year yet that is designed to actually get done, one that excites you and sets you up for real success. Because here's the thing, I am all for big dreams and ambitious goals, but I'm way more about the consistent actions that turn those dreams into reality. And so that is what we're gonna map out together in this episode. But first, let me tell you about something that will change the game for you when it comes to making plans for the year ahead. Real data. I have been using Xero for my bookkeeping since day one of my business way back in 2017. And one thing I love about it is how easy it makes it to review my year and understand what actually happened in my business. When it comes time to set goals for the new year. Having access to clear accurate data about your business is so valuable. Xero gives you a realtime view of your business finances. You can pull reports that show you your revenue trends, expenses, cash flow patterns. So whether you're reflecting on the past year or planning for the one ahead, you have the information you need to make smart decisions and make the plans that will set you up for big results in 2026. Xero is accounting software built for small business owners like you and me. And it helps us to understand our numbers without the overwhelm, instead of guessing at what's possible, we can set goals based on what your business has actually done and where you want to take it next. I've recommended Xero for years. Way before they reached out to sponsor this podcast for a reason. It's a simple, powerful tool that gives you the financial clarity that makes planning so much more effective. Check out makinggoodpodcast.com/xero. That's XERO to learn more. The offer at the time of making this video is 90% off for six months using that link. Again, it's making good podcast.com/ XERO huge thanks to zero for supporting this podcast. Now let's dive into creating your plan for 2026. I'm gonna walk you through a framework that I've used myself and with many other small business owners in making good happen. It is designed to help you create a plan that is both motivating, energizing, and most importantly, that actually gets done. I also want to say this isn't a listen while you're doing the dishes kind of episode, although you are welcome to do that for your first time through. View this episode more as a workshop or a planning session. Our chance to really dig in and create something meaningful for your business. So here's what I recommend. If you're listening for the first time while multitasking, that's fine, that's perfect. Get a sense of the framework and process, but then schedule a time, maybe later today or this week to really go back and do this work. When you're ready to dive in, here is how to set yourself up for success First, find a quiet spot where you're not gonna be interrupted. Grab your favorite notebook or a fresh Google doc. Make yourself a cozy beverage. Maybe even light a candle if you're feeling it, and have your calendar handy because we're gonna be using it. The goal is to create an environment here for this work that feels good and helps you think big and dream freely, while also getting practical about making those dreams happen so throughout the episode, I'm gonna let you know when it's a good time to pause and do the exercises. You can take as much time as you need. That is the beauty of a podcast. You can always press pause and then you can play when you're ready to move on. So, if you are ready to create your 2026 plan, let's jump in. Step one is to dream big. If you already did the year interview with me in episode 320, you've already done something really powerful. You've gotten clear on what worked in 2025, what didn't, and most importantly, what you want more and less of going forward. That reflection is gold when it comes to planning our next chapter, and if you haven't done it yet, I would really encourage you to pause here. Go listen to episode three 21st. It'll make everything we do today so much more meaningful. Okay, so that first step of creating your 2026 plan is to dream big. This is where we get to be really expansive, where we imagine what's possible. And I have a really fun way to do this. Something called the Destination postcard exercise, which was popularized by Dan and Chip Heath's book Switch. So here's how it works. Imagine it's December 31st, 2026, the end of the year to come. You're sitting down to write a postcard to yourself to present day you. You want to paint a vivid picture of where you are, what you've accomplished, and most importantly, how it. Feels. What does your business look like? What impact are you making? How have you spent your days? What's different from where you are right now? The key here is to let yourself dream without getting caught up in the how just yet. We will get to that part soon, I promise, but for now, I want you to really let yourself envision what you want. So again, it is December 31st, 2026. You're sitting down and writing a postcard to yourself, describing where you're at at that point. If you're ready to do this exercise now, go ahead, pause the episode, find a quiet spot, grab your favorite pen and notebook, maybe even light a candle if you're feeling fancy, and give yourself 10 to 15 minutes to really sink into this vision of your 2026. Now that you have this vision of where you want to be, we're gonna make it even more concrete by breaking it down into different areas of your life and business. Because here's the thing, our businesses don't exist in isolation. They are part of full lives and the most sustainable plans. Acknowledge that. So we're gonna look at six key areas, work and business, financial goals, health and wellness, relationships and community. Personal growth and fun and adventure. So for each of these areas, I want you to think about three things. What do you want more of in 2026? What do you want less of and what's working well that you want to keep doing? Again, if you want to pause here and go through each of those areas, go for it. So for each of the following areas, work in business financial goals. Health and wellness, relationships and community, personal growth and fun and adventure. For each of those, ask yourself three questions. What do I want more of? What do I want less of and what's working well that I wanna keep doing? So go ahead and pause here to work through the areas. Remember, you don't need to have something for every category. If you don't have an answer, that's fine. Focus on what feels most important to you right now. Step two in this process is to choose your North Star goal. This is one of my favorite parts. Now your North Star goal is the one thing that if you accomplished it would make the biggest difference in moving you toward that destination postcard vision. I know what you might be thinking here. Just one goal, but I have so many things I wanna do, and trust me, I get it. But here's why this works. When we try to focus on too many things at once, we often end up accomplishing none of them. By choosing one main goal to orient ourselves around, we actually make more progress, not less. Now, this doesn't mean you're not gonna be working on other things, of course you will, but we want to get hyper specific on that one primary focus goal. Your North Star goal should be specific enough that you'll know whether you've achieved it or not big enough to excite you, aligned with your destination postcard vision, and something that will create positive ripple effects in other areas. So for example, let's say your destination postcard showed you with a thriving business that gives you more time freedom. Your North Star goal might be to hit a specific revenue target that would allow you to hire help, or maybe it's to successfully launch that new product line that is more automated and requires less day-to-day involvement from you. Now, we've been talking about your North Star goal for your business, but if you would like, you can also create a North Star goal for your personal life. Take a moment now to identify your North Star goal for your business, and if you want one for your personal life too, what is that one thing that would move you closest to your destination? Postcard vision, now, before we move on, I want to address something that might be coming up for you right now. What if you're having trouble figuring out what your North Star goal should be? Or maybe you have an idea, but you're not sure if it's realistic. This is especially true when we're setting financial goals like a revenue number to hit, for example. It's important to make sure our goals are grounded in reality when we're setting financial goals, like a revenue number to hit, for example. I am all for ambitious goals, but there is a difference between ambitious and completely unrealistic and the way that you know the difference is data. So this is where having clear financial information will be absolutely essential. Before you finalize your goals for 2026, I want you to look at your numbers from 2025, and I'm talking about really look at them. What was your actual revenue in 2025? How did it break down by month or quarter? What were your biggest expenses? Are there any that you can reduce or eliminate? What were your profit margins? Are they sustainable? What patterns do you see? Are there certain months that are always stronger? Certain products or services that consistently perform well or don't? If you want to grow your revenue, what would that actually require? More customers, higher prices, more. For example, if my revenue grew 20% last year, I might set a goal to grow at another 25% this year. That's ambitious, but if my revenue actually decreased last year, setting a goal to 10 exit this year probably isn't realistic. Maybe a better goal would be to try to get back on track to my previous high, or to grow by a more modest amount, like 10%. Let's say that I notice I always have a dip in sales in July and August. Instead of ignoring that pattern, I can plan for it. Maybe I set a goal to build up a cash reserve in Q2 or to launch a summer offer that brings in revenue during those slower months. The point is, your financial data tells you a story about your business, and when you actually listen to that story, you can make so much smarter decisions about where to go next. So before you move on to really breaking down your goals into quarters, let's take some time now with your numbers. Really understand where you are right now because that's the foundation for setting goals that will actually move your business forward. Okay? So with that, take some time now to set your North Star goal for your business, personal life if you want. And then we will move on to breaking it down further. So step three, bring it, break it down into quarters. This is where things get really practical and actionable because having a big vision for 2026 is great, but the magic happens when we break it down into chunks that we can actually tackle. Here's something I've learned from working with hundreds of small business owners. Trying to focus on a huge annual goal for 365 days straight is a recipe for overwhelm, and our brains just don't work that way. But what does work is breaking that big goal down into 90 day chunks. Here's why quarterly planning is so powerful. A quarter is long enough to accomplish something meaningful, but short enough to stay focused and motivated. You can see the finish line from the start, and if something isn't working, you can adjust course pretty quickly. So here's how we're gonna do this. We are going to take that big North Star goal that you just identified, and we're gonna break it down into four quarters. But, and this is important, we're gonna do it in a way that feels manageable and energizing, not overwhelming. I'm gonna share a framework that I love, and this is gonna sound familiar for each quarter, you're going to choose just two main focuses. You're gonna choose one business and work goal and one personal life goal per quarter. That's it. Just two things. Again, I know what some of you're thinking, just two things, but I have so much that I wanna do and trust me on this. It's for the best. When we try to focus on too many things at once, we usually end up making minimal progress, but when we really dial in our focus, that's where the magic happens. So let's look at an example. Let's say your North Star goal was to hit a hundred thousand dollars in revenue in 2026, and your personal goal is to run your first half marathon in October. Your quarterly focuses might look something like. Q1 business, launch a new product line with a $25,000 revenue goal. Personal. Build a baseline running fitness routine, running three times a week. Building up to a 5K distance q2 business goal. Build your wholesale program, signing 10 new accounts. Your personal goal, increase your running distance, reaching the 10 k distance. Q3 business. Create your Autumn collection with a $30,000 launch goal, personal half marathon training, part one where you'll follow a specific training plan leading up to a 15 K distance Q4 business holiday sales strategy with a $35,000 Q4 goal and personal complete half marathon and recovery plan. Do you see how each quarter builds on the last. And notice how each focus is specific and measurable. We're gonna know exactly whether we hit those goals or not. Now, here's where a lot of people go wrong with quarterly planning. They try to plan out all the details for the entire year. Right now, don't do that. Instead, we're going to map out the general focus for each quarter through the end of the year. And then we're just gonna get super specific about quarter one. This leaves us room to adjust the other quarters based on what we learned and how things go. So if you're ready to do this exercise, pause the episode now and map out your quarterly focuses for 2026. Remember, one business focus and one personal focus per quarter. Don't worry about getting it perfect. You can always adjust as you go, but put a stake in the ground now and you can pause to get started. Step four is to get specific about Q1. So now that we have our quarterly focuses mapped out, we're gonna zoom in on quarter one. This is where we get super specific about what needs to happen to make your Q1 focus a reality. So for each of your two Q1 focuses, your business and your personal life. I want you to break it down into the smallest possible tasks required to get you there. Assign those tasks to a specific week in the quarter, and then block out time in your calendar for those tasks. The key here is to be as specific as possible when you're breaking these down into the smallest possible tasks. Don't write down, work on new product. Instead, write down design product packaging, or order material samples, or write product descriptions. So again, the process here is to look at each of those focuses for Q1, your personal life focus and your business focus for each, break them down into every task that needs to happen, the smallest possible tasks. Assign each of those tasks to a week in Q1 and block out the time in your calendar for those tasks to happen. So take a few minutes now to break down your Q1 focus into specific actionable tests. And come back when you're finished. All right. Step five is to set up your success system. This is where the rubber meets the road. We have our big vision, we've broken it down into quarterly focuses, and now we are going to set ourselves up for actually making it happen. Because here's the truth, a plan is only as good as your system for implementing it is. I wanna share four key elements that I've seen make the biggest difference between plans that get done and plans that stay in that pretty notebook and never see the light of day again. The first thing is calendar blocking. So I know it's not the most exciting thing we'll talk about today, but I promise this is a game changer. Here's how to do it. First look at your Q1 task list. Second for each task, estimate how long it will take you, and then actually put it in your calendar. So instead of a to-do list, now you have tasks in your calendar for the amount of time that they should take you to get done. And this is the important part. You have to treat these appointments with yourself like you would treat appointments with your most important client. If you have to move it for some reason, move it. Don't just delete it. You have to make sure this stuff gets done and is treated with the respect it deserves. The second element is having some kind of success system. This is about having a simple emphasis on simple way to track your progress. So here's what you might set up for yourself. Weekly planning sessions where you plan for the week ahead. For example, maybe a Sunday evenings, then daily plans where each morning before you start work, you have a plan of what you're actually gonna do that day. And setting daily top three priorities. This is just a suggestion. The key here is to pick a system that works for you. Some people love paper planners, other preferred digital tools. What matters is that you're gonna actually use it. But again, the idea here is to give yourself a ritual for checking in with your goals, checking in with your plans, making sure that you're staying on track. The third key element is accountability. This is the secret sauce. I promise. We are so much more likely to follow through when we know someone else is watching and paying attention. Some ways to build an accountability include getting an accountability partner, joining a membership group like making good happen, sharing your goals publicly, scheduling regular check-ins with yourself or a business friend. And finally be an imperfection. Commit to allowing this to be imperfect. Stuff comes up, your plan is gonna change. That's just gonna happen. Life happens. Projects take longer than we expect. Opportunities come up that we change our minds about. Kids get sick. You have to build in some flexibility and some compassion for yourself. Allow yourself to show up the best you can, even if that's imperfectly and it will be. Allow consistency to mean that you follow through. 80% of the time. Don't expect a hundred percent perfection. Here's the thing about goals. They're awesome and important. However, I view them more than anything, as the direction that we're heading in. So whether we meet them in a set prescribed amount of time or not is less important to me as long as we're continuing to head in that direction and showing up the best that we can. Be kind to yourself. Remember that it is better to hit 80% of your goal consistently than to give up entirely because your original plan was too rigid. Step six, keep the momentum going. We are in the home stretch. We've created the vision, broken it down into quarters, set up our system for success. But let's talk about something really important, how to keep this momentum going all year long, because let's be real, we've all had the experience of starting strong in January, and then life happens. But I've got some strategies that will help you stay excited and motivated about your plan all year long. First up, regular check-ins. I want you to think of these like little pit stops on a road trip. They're not about beating yourself up if you're off track. They're about checking your map and making sure you're still headed in the right direction. Here's what might work for you weekly setting a quick 15 minute review of your priorities. Again, put this in your calendar. Monthly, a deeper dive into your progress and quarterly doing a full review and then doing a detailed planning session for the next quarter. Again, the pro tip is to put these in your calendar now rather than just hoping that you remember to do this. Next thing is to celebrate your wins. This is something I see so many business owners skip, and honestly, I skip this too far too often, but it's so important. Our brains need wins to stay motivated. But here's the key. Don't wait for the big goals to celebrate. Celebrate the little milestone moments along the way. For example, if your goal is to launch a new product line, celebrate when you finalize the designs, or if you're training for a half marathon, celebrate when you hit a new distance pr, when you complete your first solid week of consistent action. That also is celebration worthy. Make these celebrations real and meaningful to you. Maybe it's treating yourself to your favorite coffee shop work session, or taking a half day off buying those new books you've been eyeing. Whatever would be exciting and feel like a reward to you. Third, adjust your plan without abandoning it. This is a big one. Again, things won't go perfectly according to plan, and that's okay. The goal isn't to stick to your original plan no matter what. The goal is to keep moving forward, even if the plan needs to change. If something isn't working, you have full permission to adjust your timeline, modify your approach, change your targets, or even pick a completely different goal if you realize that's what's needed. The only thing you don't have permission to do is give up entirely. And finally, my last tip is to keep your vision visible. Remember that destination postcard we created at the start, keep it or something like it. Somewhere you can see it. Put a reminder in your phone. Change your backdrop of your computer. Write your quarterly focuses, the more visible in your workspace, the more we can keep our goals and our vision top of mind, the more likely we are to take those small, consistent actions that add up to big results. So there you have it, my friends, your framework for planning, and more importantly achieving your dreams in 2026. Let's do a quick recap of what we covered. We dreamed Big with our destination postcard. We broke that vision down into quarterly focuses. We created a solid system for making it happen, and we set ourselves up to stay motivated all year long. Remember, this plan isn't set in stone. It's a living, breathing document that should grow and evolve with you and your business. The most important thing isn't sticking to the plan perfectly. It's taking consistent action toward your dreams. I would love to hear what you're planning for 2026. Share it with me over on Instagram @laurentilden. What is your North Star goal? What are you focusing on for Q1? I read every message and I truly love hearing what you're working on. And if you're thinking, Lauren, this all sounds great, but I would love some support and actually making it happen, then I've got you making it happen. My membership community is all about taking consistent action on your marketing plans. Month after month, we have accountability coworking sessions, a ton of marketing trainings, and an amazing community of other small business owners who are all working toward their goals. Together you can find all the details at makinggoodhappen.co. You can find the show notes from this episode, including all the questions and prompts that we work through makinggoodpodcast.com/321. Thank you again to zero for making this episode possible to get the financial clarity that makes planning like this more effective. Head to makinggoodpodcast.com/xero. That's XERO. Thank you for being here and for focusing on making a difference with your small business. I'll talk to you next time.