I’m a very goal-oriented person, which is part of the reason that I became a counsellor. I really enjoy helping people to identify their goals, make a plan and then support them to move towards them. The new year is always an exciting time for me, because so many of us are focusing on goals for the next 12 months. For a lot of us, taking a life audit and thinking about what you want to change can bring with it a lot of stress. It can highlight perceived deficits and insecurities and leave you feeling a lot of pressure to improve yourself. This year, I’d like to offer a slightly different slant on New Years Resolutions to help relieve that pressure a little.

Often, when setting goals, you might ask the question “What can I add to my life to make it better?” You might be considering whether a morning yoga practice might enhance your day. Or whether a bullet journal might finally help you to feel organised. Or if adding weekly date nights to the calendar might be a good way to deepen your bond with your partner.

But here’s the thing: although all of these things are probably very useful and positive, they all represent additions to your already-busy life. And when your calendar and mind are already bursting, adding one more thing brings a lot of pressure. You start freaking out about how you’re going to manage to fit it all in. Now, instead of being a positive new habit or something lovely to look forward to, that goal has now become an obligation that’s weighing you down.

The truth is, we’re all ridiculously busy. Most of us are trying to cram as much as possible into days that are only 24 hours long, all the while feeling inadequate about all the things we aren’t doing. We’re so focused on trying to feel like we’re doing enough, that we’ve started doing way too much and operating above capacity.

This year, I’d like to suggest a small shift that might make things a little bit simpler for you. When you’re doing your life-audit for 2026, consider this question…

“What can I let go of this year?”

Some things that you might consider jettisoning include:

• Exercise routines that feel more like punishment than fun
• Endless doomscrolling on your phone into the wee hours of the night
• Rumination and obsessive thoughts
• That hobby that you started in lockdown and persisted with out of guilt because you spent so much money on supplies.
• The clothes in your wardrobe that are no longer your style or size
• Your online impulse-shopping habit
• Answering work emails after hours
• Old conflict patterns that are hurting your relationship
• The 5 different streaming services you’re subscribed to (but rarely touch)
• Social engagements that you attend out of obligation rather than desire.
• The tendency to let your emotions take the wheel and control your decisions.

Taking a bit of time to consider the things that can be pruned from your life can relieve the pressure a bit. It allows you to see where you might be spending time, energy and money on things that aren’t adding value to your life. You can begin to see the things that are moving you further away from the person you want to be, rather than progressing towards it.

It can be challenging to let go of some of these things, because they represent parts of your identity, a person you once were or hoped to be. They might be really entrenched habits that might feel tricky to change. But when you begin to see what can be moved aside, you make way for more ease, more space and calm.

You don’t need to add something new to your world to make it “better”. Sometimes, the more constructive goal is moving away from the things that are getting in the way of you feeling like the person you hope to be.