The New Year’s momentum has passed, and perhaps you’ve already forgotten about your goals. I find it helps to turn my weekly review of my goals into a ritual of sorts. Goals aren’t set in stone – they’re directional, and I update them as the year progresses.
I put everything I have into a Notion page, then review it every Sunday after my journaling session. But this year, I plan to take my system further with AI.
I’ve used AI before goal setting coachTo describe my dream day And tell me something i didn’t know about myself – Everyone achieved different levels of success. i like to experiment aye Mostly when I give it my own content and ideas, rather than expecting it to “think” for me. This is a slippery slope for society.
I decided to go with chatgpt For this one, simply because it probably knows the most about me.
as a reminderDo not enter any sensitive information into ChatGPT. OpenAI is releasing ads soon on its chatbot, so the product will be offered soon after your most intimate conversation. you can use cloudAs Anthropic has just announced that it will remain ad-free.
Either way, proceed with caution.
Get AI to play devil’s advocate on your targets
All my goals for the new year were on one page, so it was easy to copy and paste them into ChatGPT. For the first prompt, I wanted to set the scene and my expectations for the work.
Here’s what I wrote: “These are my 2026 goals. I want you to help me see my blind spots, so I can accomplish as much of these as possible. If I only achieve my three biggest goals, I will define it as a successful year. Where could I be missing? What do I need to focus on throughout the year? Be practical and not a people pleaser. Ask me questions before making any assumptions.”
Chatgpt said the biggest risk is piling up identity-level goals in a year which would be physically and emotionally unsustainable.
This identified some of my assumptions, such as:
- Making plans such that pregnancy can be predicted.
- Assuming that my work capacity will remain stable throughout the year.
- Having social goals that conflict with the pregnancy.
It gave me a focus for each quarter, which felt right. I have some big goals for the first half of the year, like getting pregnant, visiting my family in Australia, and launching a new website and a digital product. If I get pregnant in the first trimester I need to take a few months off in November or December for maternity leave, having already carried a lot of burden throughout the year.
ChatGPT said I needed to pay attention to my nervous system, pay attention to decision fatigue, and recognize the difference between maintenance and growth.
Making peace with 2026 being a season of maintenance is a powerful insight. The AI chatbot suggested reducing cognitive load by following similar workout days, similar content format, similar networking structure and similar travel rules.
It also asked follow-up questions, such as:
- If I get pregnant in Q1 or Q2 what goal would I want to soften (should weight loss, career visibility or revenue growth be left as goals).
- What does “financially stable” mean to me emotionally, what career outcome will make 2026 a win for me.
- How many hours per week can I realistically work without resentment?
- Which social commitments do I find nourishing rather than performative?
Once I answered those questions, ChatGPT said it would be able to realign my goals and give me a more realistic plan for the year.
I also responded to this to provide more context on what’s been working so far in the five weeks of the year:
Again, ChatGPT told me I was underestimating the cash crunch during pregnancy. This is valid. It also highlighted that I have a lot of “soft yeses” – I have a lot of little things I’m still aiming for.
Here’s what it suggested:
It says that career success this year should be defined not by growth, but by retention. It was also noted that my weight and fitness goals should have a pregnancy section and that my planned trip to Australia would be more disruptive than I thought.
It was getting to the point over and over again that my plan for the year would be “death by a thousand quiet overextensions.”
I replied with my full non-negotiable terms for a successful year.
This helped me see loan repayment It’s more important than spending money on conferences and self-care. If I am handling client work for a two month break I have to be careful about timing my travel to Australia.
This gave me some operating rules for protecting my non-negotiables:
- Cash buffers have trumped enthusiasm this year.
- Front-load tasks months in advance. Work with every customer.
- closure Is Result of my new website and product.
- Maintenance beats development.
Decision on using AI as a goal-setting partner
I wouldn’t say that ChatGPT revealed a major problem with my goals, but it helped me rethink priorities and clarify what’s really important.
This will be the year of birth, so stability is the measure of my success, not growth.
It also felt like I was allowed to focus only on my seven non-negotiables instead of my huge list of desires. I’ll take that as a win.
For fun, I opened up Nano Banana to turn my non-negotiable items into a nice little image that I can put as my image. iPhone Wallpaper.
I also used my future baby shower design ai event invitation.
Dear.
(Disclosure: CNET’s parent company Ziff Davis filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in the training and operation of its AI systems.)
