Before You Plan 2027, Build Your Foundation
Posted by Adam Jelic on
Before You Plan 2027, Build Your Foundation
A better year doesn’t start with a better to-do list. It starts with knowing what matters, where you want to go and how you’re going to get there.
You’ve got your new MiGOALS planner or diary in front of you.
It’s tempting to flick straight to January and start filling in dates, appointments and to-do lists.
But before you do, take some time to work through the first part.
There’s a reason it comes first.
Before you can work out what you want to do, it helps to understand where you are, what matters to you and where you actually want to go.
Whether this is your first MiGOALS or you’ve been using one for years, this part matters. Because life changes. Priorities change. You change.
Think of it less as filling out a planner and more as an opportunity to recalibrate before another year gets moving.
You don’t need to figure out your entire life in one sitting. Give yourself some uninterrupted time, work through the pages in front of you and don’t overthink every answer.
Here’s how we’d approach it.
1. BUILD YOUR FOUNDATION
Allow around 30–45 minutes.
Start at the beginning and work your way through the self-awareness section of your planner.
Purpose. Values. Reflection. Focus. Habits.
The questions and exercises are already there. Your job is simply to give them the time and thought they deserve.
Be honest rather than trying to come up with the “right” answer. Some things will come easily. Others might make you stop and think.
That’s the point.
And if you’ve done this before, don’t skip it because you think you already know the answers.
Think of it as recalibrating.
The person filling out your 2027 planner has another year of experiences, wins, mistakes, lessons and changing priorities behind them.
Some things might be exactly the same. Others might have completely changed.
Clarity isn’t something you find once and keep forever. You come back to it.
That’s what this first 30–45 minutes is about.
2. CREATE A VISION THAT EXCITES YOU
Allow around 30–45 minutes.
Once you’ve spent some time looking inward, it’s time to look forward.
This is the fun part.
Work through the vision and goal-setting pages in your planner and give yourself permission to think bigger than next week’s to-do list.
What do you want from 2027 and beyond?
You don’t need another complicated goal-setting system. Follow the process in your planner, but keep one thing in mind:
Choose goals that mean something to you.
The best goals usually have some emotion behind them.
The idea of achieving them should excite you. Challenge you. Maybe even make you a little uncomfortable.
Your dreams should make you excited about the person you could become by going after them.
Not every goal has to be massive or life-changing. But if you look at all your goals and feel absolutely nothing, it’s probably worth asking whether they’re really your goals.
Choose the ones you’re prepared to work for.
Then use your planner to start turning that vision into action.
3. DON’T JUST PLAN BUSY. PLAN PROGRESS.
Now you’re ready to start using the dated pages of your planner or diary.
And this is where we want you to remember something important:
Your MiGOALS isn’t just there to remind you what you have to do. It’s there to help you make progress on the things you want to do.
There’s a difference.
A planner can quickly become a dumping ground for meetings, appointments, school pickups, emails, chores and everything else life throws at you.
All of that belongs in there.
But if that’s all that’s in there, you can have an incredibly busy and productive week without moving any closer to the goals you just spent time thinking about.
Start by adding your non-negotiables — the things that are fixed or genuinely important. Meetings, family commitments, training, appointments and anything else that needs to happen.
Then look at the time you have left and ask yourself what you can do that week to actually move forward.
It might be a workout. An hour on the business idea you keep talking about. Making the phone call you’ve been avoiding. Starting the course. Booking the trip. Having the conversation.
Some activities keep life moving.
Others move you forward.
Make room for both.
4. REFLECT. ACKNOWLEDGE. MOVE.
Planning is only one part of making progress.
You also need to stop occasionally and work out whether what you’re doing is actually working.
At MiGOALS, we like to think about this as RAM: Reflect. Acknowledge. Move.
Reflect on what happened.
Acknowledge the wins, the lessons, what worked and what didn’t.
Then move forward with a little more clarity.
You don’t need to turn reflection into another chore.
For some people, a few minutes every day works. For others, it’s weekly, monthly or quarterly.
Find the rhythm that works for you.
The important thing is that you check in, learn, adjust and keep moving rather than blindly following a plan that no longer makes sense.
Progress isn’t always about doing more.
Sometimes it’s about recognising what isn’t working and being willing to change direction.
5. HAVE SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO
There’s one last part of the MiGOALS philosophy that matters just as much as achievement.
Fulfilment.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing you’ll be happy when.
When you hit the goal. When you make more money. When you lose the weight. When you get the promotion. When you finally get there.
But life is happening while you’re chasing all of that.
That’s why we encourage you to have an LFT — something to Look Forward To — every day.
It doesn’t need to be big.
A great coffee in the morning. Dinner with your family. Working on a project you love. Nine holes after work. A walk with the dog. Watching the sunset.
Just something that makes today worth looking forward to as well.
And while you’re thinking about where you want to go, don’t forget to appreciate where you already are.
Practising gratitude isn’t about pretending everything is perfect.
It’s about occasionally shifting your attention from what you don’t have to what you do have.
Because the goal isn’t to spend your whole life chasing the next thing.
It’s to make progress, become a better version of yourself and actually enjoy the journey along the way.
NOW YOU’RE READY
Before you write your first to-do list for 2027, give yourself the time to set things up properly.
Spend 30–45 minutes building your foundation and recalibrating.
Then another 30–45 minutes thinking bigger, creating your vision and choosing the goals worth chasing.
From there, put in your non-negotiables, make space every week for activities that move you forward, reflect regularly and adjust when you need to.
And amongst all the striving, progressing and achieving, remember to have something to look forward to.
You don’t need the perfect plan for 2027.
You need clarity on where you’re going, a way to keep moving towards it and enough perspective to enjoy your life while you do.
That’s what the pages in front of you are for.
Now make them count.
MiGOALS