Setting personal goals (or new year resolutions)

How I use SPIRE to make my resolutions meaningful and sustainable.

I spent 2 hours today (January 1, 2026) talking to my best friend about New Year resolutions.

It started as a casual conversation, “So, what are your goals this year?”
Which quickly turned into a deep dive into how to set goals, stay on track, measure them, what goals to set… yada yada yada.

We’re both engineering managers, so naturally, we went a little too deep down that rabbit hole. But then I shared that my personal goal-setting is very different from my professional one.

My personal goals are less rigid. For the last 8 years, I have stopped setting very specific goals and chasing metrics. I’ve been using a framework called SPIRE which helps me improve my life across multiple dimensions.

How It All Started

The screenshot below is my goals page from 2017, written in Notion. As you can see, I had already moved away from overly numerical goals.

Before 2017, my goals were extremely micro and specific:

• Lose 5 kgs
• Read 20 pages a day

I’m sure it sounds familiar. That’s the classic SMART approach - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound.

It seems like a good idea in theory, but in practice, it felt exhausting. It ended up being more about chasing numbers than enjoying the process.

So I switched things up.

Macro Goals

I started focusing on higher-level macro goals across various categories or dimensions (see 2017 screenshot):

PHYSICAL
• Health and fitness
• Develop a new hobby

Then, under each macro goal, I listed a few micro goals. Example, “run 5k in summer.” But it was there to set some guidance, not as a strict rule or target.

And man, the difference was night and day.

Macro goals made reflection healthier. If I didn’t read for a few weeks but managed to finish a book in one weekend, I was still aligned with my goal. That counted as progress which felt motivating.

If I missed workouts for a month but generally stayed active (say playing outdoor sports during summer), I was considering that as a win.

In short, I felt less guilt and more enjoyment. It really helped me focus on overall growth.

Enter SPIRE

In 2023, I watched this video by Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar where he introduced SPIRE. It’s a framework for a healthier, happier, and more balanced life.

It’s an acronym for five key dimensions of life:

• Spiritual – Finding purpose and meaning in life, work, and at home
• Physical – Caring for your body and energy
• Intellectual – Learning, curiosity, and new experiences
• Relational – Building constructive relationships with yourself and others
• Emotional – Feeling deeply, building resilience, and cultivating positivity

SPIRE mapped almost perfectly to how I’d been thinking about personal goal-setting: a multi-dimensional approach rather than a one-track focus.

It also gave me structure and language to refine my goals across all areas of life. Now, every goal I set fits somewhere in SPIRE, keeping my resolutions balanced and meaningful.

Here’s a working draft of my 2026 goals using SPIRE:

What makes this process enjoyable is that I don’t obsessively track metrics. Instead, every couple of months, I reflect and write it down.

• What “note-worthy” things did I do?

• What did I focus on (whether planned or unplanned)?

Often, I’ve started doing things I didn’t even plan. Example, writing on LinkedIn and Substack. I don’t feel limited anymore by the goals I set at the beginning of the year. If new ideas or opportunities come later, I’m open. They could then become part of the next year’s goals. 🎉

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⚠️ I wanted to include a screenshot of my reflections, but they were too personal. But if you want the template for the goal setting doc or go deeper into the reflections part, just leave a comment.

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Key Takeaways

For personal goals, the popular SMART framework doesn’t really work. It feels rigid and turns you into a metric chasing machine. It’s exhausting and not fun.

Think holistically. The SPIRE model ensures you focus on all the dimensions of life, like family and wellbeing not just your career or hobbies.

Reflection is way better than goal tracking. List down any note worthy things you did, or didn’t get the chance to do, and the feelings associated. Over time, this builds a sense of accomplishment, motivation, and awareness.

The beauty of macro goals and SPIRE is that they are flexible. You can adjust what you focus on each year or shift priorities depending on life circumstances.

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