Stop Setting 2026 Goals. Start Diagnosing Root Causes.

I've been there too. It's a pattern I see constantly.

You return from the holidays with notebooks full of goals. Revenue targets. Hiring plans. Marketing initiatives. Strategic priorities numbered one through twelve.

By mid-February, they're drowning.

The research backs this up. Data from Strava analysing over 800 million activities predicts most people abandon their New Year's resolutions by 19 January. You have approximately three weeks before your post-holiday clarity evaporates.

But the real problem isn't willpower.

It's that you're planning before you're auditing.

The Hidden Pattern Behind Q1 Chaos

Here's what I've noticed across every business I've worked with: the ones who win Q1 aren't the ones with the most ambitious plans.

They're the ones who stopped planning long enough to ask one diagnostic question.

That question reveals whether their 2026 goals are aligned with what actually controls their outcomes, or whether they're about to spend three months solving problems that don't exist whilst ignoring the friction points that do.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in 2024 that 65.3% of businesses shut down by their tenth year. When CB Insights researched why founders believed their businesses failed, the most frequently cited reasons were lack of market need, running out of capital, and not having the right team.

I know these excuses intimately. I closed a business at exactly the 10-year mark, and I gave every single one of them.

Wrong market timing. Insufficient capital. Change in regulations, Industry downturn.

Notice the pattern?

Every single reason points outward.

But after closing that business, I became obsessed with understanding what really causes a business to stop. And when I finally looked inward instead of outward, I found something different. The real issue sits in one of three places: the customers who control whether they adopt your offer, the employees who control whether profit actually lands in your account, or the owners who controls which direction the entire organization moves.

When any of these three groups operates in misalignment, every goal you set becomes a plan to rearrange deck chairs.

This is why most goals collapse by mid-February. When these three groups aren't aligned, no amount of planning, productivity systems, or new initiatives will work. You'll keep treating symptoms whilst the underlying misalignment continues producing the same dysfunction.

Which brings us to the question you need to ask before setting any goal.

The One Question That Changes Everything

Before you commit to any 2026 goal, ask yourself this:

Which of the three groups controlling my outcomes is this goal actually addressing?

If your goal is revenue growth, are you addressing why customers aren't adopting your offer? Or are you assuming more marketing will solve a problem that actually sits in how your offer is positioned or delivered?

If your goal is profit improvement, are you addressing why execution leaks margin? Or are you assuming tighter processes will solve a problem that actually sits in misaligned incentives or unclear accountability?

If your goal is strategic clarity, are you addressing why your direction keeps shifting? Or are you assuming better planning will solve a problem that actually sits in unresolved tension between what you want and what your business requires?

A strategic audit isn't another planning exercise. It's an objective review designed to ensure your plans remain relevant and continue creating value for your organization.

Today's problems often come from yesterday's solutions. Processes that once worked become traps when conditions change.

This is why I audit first.

Because every business I've seen stagnant or struggle was solving the wrong problem brilliantly.

What to Do Before Your Clarity Window Closes

You have about two weeks before the post-holiday clarity window closes and you're back in reactive mode.

Here's what you need to do before that happens:

1. Conduct the audit. Look at your business through the lens of the three control points: customers control revenue, employees control profit, and owners control direction. Identify which group is misaligned and where your root causes sit. You can use my C.E.O. Diagnostic Tool its an easy 15 questions audit to diagnose this systematically. https://www.shiranfaast.com/audit

2. Build the strategy. Once you know where the misalignment is, create a plan to resolve it. Download my strategic business planning templates to map out your approach https://www.shiranfaast.com/product-page/business-plan-template

3. Extract the goals. From your strategy, identify the specific goals that will measure whether it's working. You can use my business planning templates to structure this.

Notice the sequence: audit, strategy, goals.

Not: goals, then panic, then reactive problem-solving.

Use your clarity window to focus on the audit and the realignment. Because once you're back in reactive mode, you won't have the space to think this clearly.

The Real Difference Between Planning and Auditing

Planning asks: what do I want to achieve?

Auditing asks: what's actually controlling my outcomes right now?

Most business owners return from the holidays ready to plan. They want to set bigger goals, implement better strategies, and finally break through to the next level.

But if you don't audit first, you'll spend Q1 solving problems you don't have whilst ignoring the misalignment that's been producing your chaos all along.

I've built my entire methodology around one principle: people control numbers. Not the other way round.

When you get the people right the numbers follow.

But when you skip the audit and jump straight to planning, you're trying to control numbers by working harder, hiring more, and implementing systems that don't address the real friction points.

What Happens Next

You have two paths forward.

You can take your list of 2026 goals and start executing. You'll feel productive for about three weeks. Then the chaos will return, and you'll wonder why your plans aren't producing the outcomes you expected.

If you want to learn the complete framework for diagnosing which group controls which outcome in your business, my book Unstoppable Business Growth walks through the

entire methodology. You can download a free chapter that breaks down the three control points every business owner needs to audit before they plan.

Either way, don't let your post-holiday clarity evaporate into another year of solving the wrong problems brilliantly.

Audit first. Plan second. Execute third.

That's the sequence that actually works.