For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a goals girl.
I love a resolution. I love a list. I love a fresh start.
And I also usually miss a few goals every year — which is completely fine. All progress counts. Goals roll forward. Goals change. Time marches on and so do we.
But this year was different.
For the first time ever, I completely blacked out my goal board. Every square. No leftovers. I actually accomplished all of them.
Before you assume I suddenly became a perfectly disciplined, hyper-motivated person… I didn’t. What changed wasn’t me.
It was the system.
In this post, I’m breaking down exactly how this worked, why it worked, and how you can use the same approach going into 2026 without burning yourself out or tying your worth to productivity.
🎥 Watch the Video Version
If you’d rather watch than read, here’s the full video where I walk through my goals, the Bingo board system, and what actually made the difference this year.
Why Most Goals Fail (and It’s Not a You Problem)
Goal setting is weirdly hard.
Most of us don’t fail because we’re lazy or incapable. We fail because life happens and we forget what we even said we wanted.
We set goals once — inspired by the clean white page of a new year — maybe write them down somewhere… and then they disappear into a notes app graveyard or a dusty journal.
Another big issue is how rigid many goals are. Daily or weekly “never miss” goals sound good in theory, but real life doesn’t cooperate. One missed day or week suddenly feels like failure, and once that happens, it’s very easy to quit altogether.
Then December rolls around and we feel guilty for not “doing enough,” even though if you did anything toward your goals, you probably made real progress — it just never got acknowledged.
That guilt spiral is why people quit.
So instead of trying to be more motivated or chase perfection, I focused on designing a system that would:
- Keep my goals visible
- Allow flexibility
- Reward progress
- and include things I would enjoy & look forward to!
The System That Finally Worked: Goal Bingo
Instead of a traditional vision board or resolutions list, I used a digital Goal Bingo board.
Here’s why it works so well for me:
- It lives on my phone lock screen, so I see it constantly
- It’s digital, so it’s customizable and editable
- And most importantly, Bingo changes the psychology
You don’t have to hit everything to “win.” You only need five in a row.
Anything accomplished counts as progress.
The blackout is fun, but it’s not the point. This system rewards accumulation, not perfection.
This isn’t about motivation. It’s about design.
👉Free Goal Bingo Templates in Canva here!
By using a digital vision board you can highly customize what will go on it and the style of graphics and text, you can customize the size and edit it whenever you want.
If you set these as your phone background/ lock screen or desktop background, you’ll see these multiple times a day and hopefully they won’t become “invisible” as so many traditional vision boards and tacked-up lists tend to do.
Why This Year Worked Differently
This board worked because of how I built it.
I intentionally mixed:
- Keep my goals visible
- Allow flexibility
- Reward progress
- And include things I actually looked forward to
Some goals were exciting.
Some were deeply unglamorous.
But all of them mattered to my real life.
I also changed a couple of goals mid-year when they stopped serving me — and that’s not failure, that’s alignment. You’re allowed to change goals you no longer want.
Because my goals were always visible, they stayed top of mind without me having to rely on willpower.
A Breakdown of My 2025 Goals
💰 Money Goals
One goal was hitting a $300,000 net worth.
I ended the year at over $400,000.
Another was reaching $100,000 invested total, which I also hit.
These weren’t overnight wins. They were the result of boring, repeatable actions I’ve talked about for years. I set reasonable, forecastable minimums I knew I could hit as long as I consistently saved and invested according to my budget.
Everything beyond that was icing.
Because of that, these money goals were honestly the easiest part of my year — and this approach works at any income level. The numbers change, but the strategy doesn’t.
I also got a new job, which increased my salary and accelerated progress on those already-established goals. That required real effort — researching roles, updating my resume and portfolio, and interviewing — but it was absolutely worth it.
Staying consistent with budget and net worth tracking (and creating content around it) added another layer of visibility and accountability that kept everything moving in the same direction.
🎉 Personal Goals (Why Fun Matters)
About half of my board was made up of goals that were purely for joy — things meant to enrich my life without feeling like chores.
- Trying tanghulu.
- Trying more kinds of cheese.
- Starting journaling again.
- Petting 100 dogs.
- Reading 100 books.
I also had planning my wedding on there, which I enjoyed… conceptually. The marriage part will be great. The huge amount of research and decisions I had to make, less so.
Fun goals matter. If your board is all grind and no joy, you’re not going to want to look at it.
I once heard about someone whose New Year’s goal was a “pasta quest,” where they tried as many pasta shapes as possible. I love that. Expand your palate, your mind, your sense of adventure. Fun goals are essential to a well-lived life.
🔢 Why Number Goals Beat Daily Habits
A big reason these goals worked is that most of them were number-based, not rigid daily or weekly habits.
Instead of “I’ll do this every week,” I prefer goals you build toward over a year. For example:
- “Volunteer 20 hours this year”
- “Read 100 books”
- “Do 50 workouts”
This allows for real life — illness, busy seasons, low-energy weeks — while still moving forward.
Missed days don’t erase progress. This approach rewards accumulation, not perfection.
Tracking doesn’t need to be perfect either. I kept simple running lists in my journal and phone notes. For books, I used Goodreads and Kindle tracking. Some things were definitely undercounted. That’s fine.
The point isn’t perfect data. The point is direction.
🤝 Community and Identity Goals
Some goals aren’t really about the task. They’re about who you want to be.
I wanted to be someone who regularly volunteers and gives back, not just someone who says they care about community.
So I set a goal to volunteer 20 hours over the year. I ended up doing close to 40, just with the therapy dog organization I volunteer with.
Having that goal on my board turned volunteering from a “someday” idea into something I actively planned for. Over time, it stopped feeling like something I was trying to do and started feeling like something I just do.
Now I can say, very clearly, I am a person who volunteers regularly — and I have the numbers to prove it to myself. This wasn’t about ego or bragging. It was about validating a value I already held.
When you know who you are, it becomes much easier to make decisions that reinforce that identity.
🏡 Home and Health Goals
On the home and health side, I finished a large yard project, replaced old fillings, stretched near daily, and planned to make one new Little Free Library.
I ended up making three and a half.
Some of these were long, intimidating projects with a lot of pre-work. Having clear deadlines and defined opportunities forced me to work backward and actually get started.
The dental work was brutal. I avoided it for most of the year due to anxiety and cost, but momentum from other goals finally pushed me through. It was a day of absolute hell — but it’s done, and I’m so relieved it’s behind me.
Deadlines matter.
⭐ Bonus Accomplishments
There were also wins this year that weren’t originally on my board.
One of the biggest was hitting 100,000 YouTube subscribers — a goal that first made it onto my vision board back in 2020.
Some goals take longer than you want them to. That’s normal.
Looking at progress across years is incredibly validating. Like net worth tracking, the power is in the trend. When you zoom out, you can see the upward trajectory — and that long view is a big reason this year worked as well as it did.
I don’t expect every year to look like this, but I am absolutely celebrating this one.
The Big Takeaways
If you remember nothing else, remember this:
- Set goals across different parts of your life
- Make them visible
- Mix fun with responsibility
- Progress matters more than perfection
I never expect to black out the board. That’s just a bonus when it happens.
How to Make Your Own Goal Bingo Board for 2026
If you want to try this system for yourself:
- Pick 9–24 goals total
- Mix one-and-done tasks, cumulative goals, avoided tasks and fun goals
- Make it digital and set it as your phone lock screen
- Black out squares as you go
And one final rule I live by: January 1 is not a hard deadline. My goals aren’t final until the end of January. Adjust without guilt.
Your worth is not tied to how many boxes you check.
This is a tool, not a moral judgment.
👉Free Goal Bingo Templates in Canva here!
If you use this for 2026, I’d love to hear about it. Tag me, message me, or tell me what goals you’re working toward. I’m genuinely thrilled to cheer you on.
You’ve got this.
You may also like:
How to create a virtual vision board + free goals printables
Things to remember to budget for in January
How to succeed at your new year goals
