We’re all tired of hearing “this will be my year”. The reason? No year is ever perfect, and some of the most transformative years of your life will be the quiet, reflective ones.

Yet, it’s the people who take the time to plan and reflect on their lives who always have something to celebrate. They live their lives with a purpose rooted in who they ultimately want to be across six key pillars: spiritual welfare, mental health, fitness goals, career, relationships and hobbies.

However, to attain our dream life, we first need to reassess how we view our own identity and resist the urge to focus purely on self optimisation. Instead, we should approach our goals with love, not perfectionism, and perceive the ‘dream’ life we aspire to build not as an end result, but rather a creative process that we can enjoy. The goal is to design a life we can’t wait to wake up to, not an endless hamster wheel of toxic productivity that never ends.

Byung Chul Han is a South Korean philosopher and cultural theorist who describes modern life as an “achievement society” full of “obedience subjects” who feel the need to constantly improve and optimise. We feel forced to become both the master and the slave, turning ourselves into projects instead of people.

“Today, we do not deem ourselves subjugated subjects, but rather projects·, always refashioning and reinventing ourselves. A sense of freedom attends passing from the state of subject to that of project. All the same, this projection amounts to a form of compulsion and constraint – indeed, to a more efficient kind of subjeçtivation and subjugation. As a project deeming itself free of external and alien limitations, the I is now subjugating itself to internal limitations and self-constraints, which are taking the form of compulsive achievement and optimization.”

Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power

In this version of becoming your dream self, you can take a nuanced, holistic perspective on your self care, marrying discipline with play, motivation with relaxation. This balanced approach will acknowledge that some days may feel more fuelling than others, but having your mind on a greater purpose will ensure long-term resilience.

Last year, we brought you our Ultimate Guide to reset and level up for the new year, and this year we’re giving you the simplest steps to take to start not only living your dream reality, but also becoming your higher self.

It’s more than just cleaning or making your mood board, it’s about building habits, challenging old mindsets and embodying the best version of yourself, which is someone who deserves to be treated with grace and empathy.

While we can take a pause in producing and optimising, what we should never stop doing is dreaming, and enjoying the process of our goals.

Last year, I used these simple steps in January to finish 2025 with

• A promotion
• Getting signed to an international modelling agency
• My first magazine cover
• ‘Princess treatment’ in my nine-year relationship
• Save up enough to buy my first property
• & more

Since the astrological new year starts in Spring, January is the perfect time to prepare for it mentally and start to softly change your habits and plant the seeds for your dreams.

If you’re ready to either start (or extend) this positive cycle towards your ideal self, it’s time to lock in and stage the only ‘comeback’ you’ll ever need.

The Six Pillars of 2026

1. Write down your growth and success from the last year

While our lives should not be reduced to achievements alone, celebrating yourself is one of the most important steps you can take to becoming your dream woman and setting up a positive mindset. To reframe this step in a way that acknowledges our inherent value and self worth, you should include some kind of spiritual or self growth achievements alongside traditional milestones. For example, write down the fact that you got a promotion, but also acknowledge your resilience in a difficult moment, how you helped a loved one or some kind of activism you did (big or small).

2. Reflect on how you moved through 2025 (re-read your journal)

If you kept a journal last year, reread your thoughts from it so you can remember the emotional, spiritual and physical journey you went on.

Whether you can do the first step or not, you can then use the following prompts to reflect on last year and start to zone into your desires for the next one.

Here are some journal prompts you can use:

Reflection Prompts (Looking Back)

• What were your 3 biggest highlights or wins this year?
• What was the most valuable lesson you learned?
• How did you grow as a person, and what new strengths did you discover?
• What challenges did you face, and how did you overcome them?
• Who or what brought you the most joy or growth?
• What habits served you well, and which ones do you want to let go of?
• What unexpected moments or surprises happened?
• What are you most grateful for from this year? 

Future-Focused Prompts (Looking Forward)

• What are your top goals or dreams for the next year?
• What new skills or experiences do you want to have?
• How will you prioritize your well-being and self-care?
• What’s one small change that could improve your life?
• Describe your “perfect” day in the new year.
• What is one fear you want to conquer next year? 

Creative & Quick Prompts

• If you could describe the year in one word or color, what would it be and why?
• Write a letter to your past self (or your future self).
• List 10 words to describe your year.
• What book, movie, or song had the biggest impact on you? 

3. Create your 2026 ‘planner’

Whether you choose a notebook or a binder, this is my most essential step for staying organised throughout the year.

Start by writing out your broader dreams for the year. Be ambitious but don’t aim unrealistically high (think reasonable next steps).

Write some inspiring quotes from your favourite novels or philosophers that resonate with you and help you romanticise your current life and the one that you’re designing.

Divide your 2026 plan into

• Career
• Personal development and hobbies
• Fitness and health
• Relationships and social life
• Productivity
• Activism/ altruism, family and the Environment

This will force you to create smaller, practical steps that align towards your dreams, while also preventing you from getting distracted or overspending on things you don’t actually want or need.

4. Create MULTIPLE mood boards

Now that you know exactly how to make a vision board for the year ahead, using last year’s Ultimate Guide to reset and level up for the new year, it’s time to dive deeper. Creating multiple mood boards for different areas of your life (such as career, fitness, hobbies, travel and more) not only inspires you to make the most of the year but also of every moment.

We’re not saying you need to go all out and make a mood board for every single detail of your life but instead choose four or five main aspects of your life to visualise in the year ahead.

5. Create a seasonal/quarterly planner to break down your goals

Just like step four, the goal of using a seasonal or quarterly planner is to help you structure your life more effectively and give you a sense of order.

By splitting your planner in sections you won’t feel as overwhelmed by your goals and you can concisely prioritise what is most important to you in the coming months. Maybe in March your priority is getting ready for a half marathon and in September your priority is simply getting a tan on the beach.

By sectioning your planner you can balance chaotic and active parts of your year with peaceful and calm parts. You can also split your bigger goals into smaller, manageable tasks.

Divide your life planner into:

• To Buy/Wish List
• To Do/Quarterly Goals
• Fitness and Health Routine/Plan
• Monthly Successes (which you fill in as you go along)
• Monthly Reflections & Memories (because your life is not a project, it’s a work of art)

6. Make your lock-in enjoyable

Success comes from consistency, not perfection. If you really hate doing something, remove the friction that prevents you from doing it. If you hate early mornings, you don’t need to wake up at 5am (most influencers lie about it anyway).

If you associate planning and vision boards with the ‘clean girl’ aesthetic, but you identify as a maximalist, you can combine whimsy with productivity and add your personal style to every aspect of the planning (from the planner itself to the pinterest posts you save).

Protect your future self by reducing friction wherever possible so that obstacles won’t hinder your everyday choices and give you decision paralysis, slowing you down in the process. This could be in the form of meal prepping, laying your outfit out the night before or writing out your plans for the next day.

Being kind to yourself

At the end of the day, you will never achieve a ‘perfect’ end point. You’re a human with a full live, not a project or some kind of AI bot.

While studies have shown that people who have clear goals make better choices for their future selves, it’s important to embrace the only constant, which is the present moment.

If you keep constantly thinking about the future, you’ll be missing out on the life you’re building, so it’s all about finding the right balance of enjoying the process, and planning ahead.