Setting Annual Goals Didn’t Work for Me. Here’s What I Am Doing Instead
Three domains of attention for 2026
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about what it shifted for you.For years, I tried setting annual goals.
Specific targets. Measurable outcomes. The things I would accomplish, complete, and achieve by December. I wrote them down. I reviewed them quarterly. I did what the productivity advice said to do.
Mostly, it did not work. Sometimes parts succeeded, but just like annual goals set for professional work, there was a lot of initial focus, and then they all fell away as real life happened.
Mind you, I do take goals seriously, yet these annual ones often fell apart.
Not because I lack discipline. Not because the goals were wrong. The framework itself did not fit how I actually live, learn, and grow. Goals assume you know where you are going. They assume the path is clear and the destination is fixed.
The most meaningful parts of my life have emerged from paying attention, not from achieving targets.
From walking with questions, not from checking boxes. From staying present to what unfolds rather than forcing outcomes. This year, I am trying something different. Instead of goals, I am working with domains of attention. Instead of destinations, I am naming the territories I want to tend.
Three Domains for 2026
After sitting with this through the quiet days between Christmas and New Year, three domains have emerged.
They are not goals. They are areas where I want to place my attention, my presence, my care. Each one has a guiding question I will carry through the year.
Here is what I am tending in 2026.
Domain 1: Walking as Spiritual Practice
My own personal, contemplative, private walking. Deeply connected to the natural world. Daily walks and personal pilgrimages. This is the foundation. Tending the well.
If I do not tend my own practice, everything else becomes performance.
I cannot guide others on paths I am not walking myself. I cannot write about presence if I am not practicing it. The well must be full before I can offer anything to others.
The guiding question I am carrying: What is the path inviting me to experience and connect?
Not what should I accomplish on the path. Not how many miles or how many pilgrimages. What is the path itself offering, and am I available to receive it?
Domain 2: Guiding Contemplative Pilgrimage
Leading and supporting people on the Camino, especially along the Le Puy path in France. Accompanying others through thresholds.
This is embodied teaching.
Walking alongside people, not ahead of them. Creating conditions for transformation without controlling the outcome. My role is to accompany, to hold space, to trust that the path itself is the teacher.
The guiding question I am carrying: How can I guide people along pilgrimage paths to discover what they most need without directing them?
This question keeps me honest. Not to have answers for everyone, but to walk beside them while they find their own.
Domain 3: Teaching and Writing
Reaching people through structured teaching and through writing as public reflection. The Rewilding the Soul EcoSpirituality certificate. This Substack. Digital offerings that extend the teaching.
The writing you are reading right now is part of this domain.
It is thinking in process, inviting you into my own learning and sense making. I do not arrive with polished conclusions. I write to discover what I know, and I share that discovery openly.
The guiding question I am carrying: What teaching and writing are most needed now?
Not what I think I should produce. Not what sounds impressive. What is actually needed by me to understand, by others to receive.
How They Flow
These three domains are not separate. They feed each other.
Domain 1 is the source. My own walking practice fills the well that everything else draws from. Domain 2 is embodied offering, walking with others on real paths, in real time. Domain 3 extends the reach, teaching and writing for people I may never walk with in person.
If I tend Domain 1, Domains 2 and 3 have something authentic to offer.
If I neglect it, the rest hollows out. The source must stay full. Everything flows from there.
An Invitation, Not a Prescription
I am sharing this not because it is the right framework for everyone.
I am sharing it because it is what I am working with, and because writing about it helps me commit to it. You might resonate with domains of attention. You might prefer a word, a question, a theme, or traditional goals. You might prefer no framework at all.
What matters is that you are the one choosing how to approach your own life.
If we do not take the time to consider our own direction, others will gladly direct it for their own purposes. The demands of work, culture, and obligation will fill whatever space we leave empty.
One Overarching Question
Beneath the three domains, I am carrying one larger question into 2026.
How do I deepen my own practice while creating pathways for others?
This holds the tension I live in. I am not just a practitioner. I am a teacher and guide. I am not just teaching. I am still learning. The question reminds me that these are not separate. My deepening is what I have to offer.
I do not know where this year will lead.
I do not have targets or metrics. I have territories to tend, questions to carry, and trust that the path will reveal what I need to know.
That feels like enough.
How are you approaching 2026? Goals, domains, questions, or something else entirely? I would love to hear what is working for you.
If you find this post of interest or helpful,
please like it and leave a comment
about what it shifted for you.
Walk With Me
If this resonates, I invite you to subscribe to Where Insight Meets Earth, my weekly reflections on contemplative walking, ecospirituality, and embodied practices for navigating what overwhelms us.
If you want to delve more deeply into this, I am launching the Rewilding the Soul EcoSpirituality Certificate at Cherry Hill Seminary in March 2026—a year-long journey exploring Earth kinship through contemplative practice. Learn more here.
In September 2026, I’m leading a contemplative walking retreat on France’s ancient Le Puy Camino, seven days of silence, movement, and practices for metabolizing what sitting cannot, in the most beautiful landscape you can imagine, on a 1,000-year-old pilgrimage path. Details here.
Hit reply anytime. I read and respond to every message.
Walking into the New Year,
~ Jeffrey
Applying oneself purposefully across domains resonates deeply—it mirrors life as a journey, and one that feels far more rewarding.
Agreed Jeffrey, the world changes way to fast to set annual goals. Better to set smaller, doable things to target that work for you.
I always laughed at the interview question after 9/11 of "where do you see yourself in 5 years." That moment showed me everything can change in a moment so no point thinking that far down the line anymore. Even a year can feel like a lot.