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Make 2026 the Best Year of Your Life (Evidence-Based)

2025-12-19 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 21:41 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Goals, purpose and life design · mode: Explanation and tutorial · tags: Evidence-based framing, Lesson from a book, His own products discussed, Family, His medical past, AI, Sponsor segment present

Ali explains his GPS method (goal, plan, system) for achieving any goal: a specific goal with intrinsic reasons and anti-goals; a plan of three to five major moves, checked for whether it works in theory and in practice and stress-tested with his crystal ball method; and a system of tracking, reminders and accountability.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Introduction: the GPS method and who Ali is

00:01:02 — The theory: every goal is a series of actions

  • ★★★ The theory behind Ali's GPS method is that every goal is a series of actions: if you are not reaching a goal, you either do not know the right things to do or know them and are not doing them. — 00:01:02 · GPS: goal, plan, system
  • ★★ Ali uses the GPS method both to achieve goals and as a diagnostic tool: running a goal you are struggling with through it shows exactly why you are struggling. — 00:02:09 · GPS: goal, plan, system

00:02:38 — Goal: what, why and anti-goals, with Ali's visceral fat goal

  • ★★ Ali's GPS method stands for goal, plan and system, each with three things to consider; he says it takes less than 10 minutes per goal. — 00:02:38 · GPS: goal, plan, system
  • ★★★ The first mistake in setting a goal, Ali says, is not being specific or concrete: goals like "stop procrastinating" or "start a YouTube channel" need to say what you actually mean, because a specific goal is much easier to work towards than a vague one. — 00:03:42 · GPS: goal, plan, system
  • ★★ Starting a business for financial freedom is too vague a goal, Ali says: a business making $100,000, $500,000 or $1 million a year needs a very different path from one you can sell for $300 million. — 00:03:42 · work optional, lifestyle business
  • ★★★ The second goal-setting mistake, Ali says, is choosing goals out of a sense of "should" or obligation: a goal is much easier to achieve with compelling reasons why you care, ideally intrinsic rather than only extrinsic. — 00:04:31 · identified motivation
  • ★★ Ali says the evidence is clear that people who pursue goals for extrinsic reasons such as fame, money or status are less likely to reach them and less likely to enjoy the process. — 00:05:01
  • ★★ The third part of the goal is anti-goals, what you want to avoid on the way: for a $100,000-a-year lifestyle business built for time freedom, Ali suggests anti-goals such as no weekend work and no more than 40 hours a week. — 00:05:30 · lifestyle business, time freedom, Lifestyle Business Academy
  • ★★ Putting a number on a goal whenever you can, Ali says, is a hack for making it more specific and quantifiable. — 00:06:06
  • ★★★ One of Ali's health goals is to reduce his visceral fat levels by 50%. — 00:06:06
  • ★★ Ali's reason for the visceral fat goal is that he recently became a father and wants to avoid a heart attack; by his account he has a family history of heart disease and, though he does not look fat, DEXA scans show a lot of visceral fat in his abdomen. — 00:06:35
  • ★★ Ali's anti-goal for reducing his visceral fat is that the process must not eat into time with his wife and daughter, so he does not want to go running in the evenings, which is family time. — 00:07:05 · Izzy Sealey

00:07:34 — Sponsor read: ManyChat

00:08:52 — Plan: goals versus systems, three to five major moves, is the plan realistic, the crystal ball method

  • ★★ Ali says James Clear's Atomic Habits popularised the systems camp, whose takeaway is that systems matter more than goals; Clear's example, as Ali recalls it, is that every Olympic 100-metre sprinter wants gold and the winner has the best system. (hedged) — 00:08:52 · James Clear, Atomic Habits
  • ★★★ Against the systems camp, Ali says the goal defines what you actually do and which system you follow: winning gold in the 100 metres, in swimming, getting a girlfriend or starting a business each need a different system. — 00:09:41
  • ★★ Of the manifestation and law-of-attraction camp, which cares only about clarity on the goal, Ali gives the classic criticism: you can aim to become a millionaire, but without a plan and a system it will not happen. — 00:10:10
  • ★★★ Ali thinks both the goals camp and the systems camp have merit, and the plan is the bridge between them: the goal is the destination, the system is putting one foot in front of the other, and the plan is the roadmap. — 00:10:10 · GPS: goal, plan, system
  • ★★★ For the plan, Ali advises asking what three to five major moves will get you to your goal. — 00:10:40 · GPS: goal, plan, system
  • ★★ Ali's example plan to halve his visceral fat has five major moves: 10,000 steps a day, 150 grams of protein a day, under 2,200 calories a day, three sessions of Zone 2 cardio a week, and three sessions of weight training with progressive overload to avoid losing muscle. (hypothetical) — 00:10:40
  • ★★★ Ali advises checking whether a plan is realistic in two ways, each with a percentage: in theory, would it reach the goal if followed 100%, and in practice, how likely are you to actually follow it. — 00:11:09 · GPS: goal, plan, system
  • ★★ Many people are good at setting goals but pick plans that would not get them there even in theory, Ali says; with ChatGPT, Claude and other AI tools it is not hard to come up with a plan that reaches the goal. — 00:11:58 · ChatGPT, Claude
  • ★★ Ali's team has trained a free AI model on the GPS method, the GPS coach, which asks you a series of questions to coach you through the goal, plan and system for your own goals. — 00:12:40 · GPS: goal, plan, system
  • ★★ A plan to reach $10,000 a month in passive income by posting on Instagram once a week, pitching brands for six months, would not work, Ali says: once a week is not enough to get anywhere. — 00:12:58 · passive income, Instagram
  • ★★ Ali says brand deals are not really passive income, so for that goal you would rather create your own digital product, and depending on your niche LinkedIn, YouTube or TikTok might suit better than Instagram. — 00:13:09 · passive income, Instagram
  • ★★ If either of the plan's two percentages is under 80, Ali's threshold, he takes it as a sign to rethink the plan; running five hours a day would cut visceral fat in theory, but he is unlikely to do it. — 00:13:45
  • ★★★ The last part of the plan is Ali's crystal ball method, based on psychologist Gabriele Oettingen's WOOP research: imagine you did not reach the goal or follow the plan, name the top three reasons why, and plan how to address those obstacles. — 00:13:45
  • ★★ From past attempts, Ali's likely obstacles to cutting visceral fat are eating over 2,200 calories, losing muscle by missing 150 grams of protein, and missing 10,000 steps a day. (hedged) — 00:14:56
  • ★★ To overcome those obstacles Ali plans to track calories and protein in MyFitnessPal, and to get 10,000 steps a day even when busy by walking on the walking treadmill he keeps off camera during Zoom calls, tracking the count on his Apple Watch. — 00:15:26 · Apple Watch

00:16:22 — System: tracking, reminders and accountability

  • ★★ The system answers how you will stick to the plan, the daily and weekly actions, Ali says, because of the execution gap: we intend to do the thing and then do not do it. — 00:16:22 · GPS: goal, plan, system
  • ★★★ Ali cites a meta-analysis of 138 studies with nearly 20,000 participants which found that people who monitored their progress towards a goal were far more likely to achieve it than those who did not. — 00:16:51
  • ★★ Ali's classic weight-loss example: stepping on scales once a day makes you likely to lose weight, because awareness of the number leads to small decisions. — 00:16:51
  • ★★★ The first part of a system is tracking: Ali advises asking how you can track your progress towards whatever goal or plan you follow. — 00:17:29
  • ★★ Since getting a Whoop band, Ali says, his sleep has improved just from seeing his sleep score every day: a low score nudges him to an earlier night and the right room temperature. — 00:17:29
  • ★★ Writing Feel-Good Productivity, Ali made the most progress when he tracked how many words he wrote each day in a Google Sheet. — 00:17:59 · Feel-Good Productivity (book), Google Sheets
  • ★★ At Cambridge medical school, Ali's best exam results came when he tracked the syllabus in a Google Sheet, colour-coding each topic red, yellow or green by how confident he felt. — 00:17:59 · University of Cambridge, Google Sheets
  • ★ People who go to the gym and get jacked tend to track their workouts, Ali says, and marathon trainees who track their runs and heart-rate zones are far more likely to manage the marathon. — 00:17:59
  • ★★★ Ali cites a study from Dominican University, from 2017 as he recalls, which found that people who simply write down their goals are 42% more likely to achieve them. (hedged) — 00:18:28
  • ★★ The second part of a system is reminders, Ali says, because the brain forgets: we set New Year's goals and within a week or two have forgotten what they were. — 00:18:57
  • ★★★ To remind yourself of a goal Ali suggests a daily journal or a weekly review, but his favourite is blocking time in the calendar, such as three weekly runs set to repeat for three or six months, so every look at the calendar is a reminder. — 00:18:57 · time-blocking, weekly review
  • ★ Ali gets a daily reminder to do 10 minutes of stretching from Momentum, the habit tracker with accountability squads that his team built. — 00:19:44
  • ★★ Ali keeps a vision board as his desktop wallpaper, which reminds him of some of his goals every time he uses his computer. — 00:19:44
  • ★★★ The third part of a system is accountability: most people struggle to hold themselves accountable, Ali says, so an accountability squad or buddy is enormously helpful. — 00:19:44
  • ★★ Accountability is a key part of Ali's Lifestyle Business Academy: the team checks in every week, students fill in a weekly Google Sheet scorecard of hours worked, content posted and discovery calls, and those falling behind get a message. — 00:20:13 · Lifestyle Business Academy, Google Sheets

00:21:15 — Sign-off and pointer to the next video

In the description and comments

  • ★ To a viewer who proposed crystal-ball obstacles such as too many social events or sugary drinks, Ali replies that this could work too, but those are not the obstacles he is likely to face. — creator comment
  • ★★ Ali Abdaal (channel): In a comment of 25 December 2025 the channel announces that Superfocus, its new productivity app for people with more ambition than time, has just launched. — creator comment · Superfocus · also in: If you’re ambitious but lazy, watch this

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: GPS: goal, plan, system

Also: People: Ali Abdaal's daughter · Gabriele Oettingen · Izzy Sealey · James Clear

Projects: Lifestyle Business Academy

Works: Atomic Habits · Feel-Good Productivity (book)

Organizations: Dominican University · Instagram · Sparkle Studios · University of Cambridge

Concepts: 10,000 steps a day · accountability buddy · anti-goal · cardiovascular disease · crystal ball method · DEXA scan · execution gap · extrinsic motivation · identified motivation · law of attraction · manifestation · passive income · progressive overload · systems vs goals · time freedom · time-blocking · visceral fat · vision board · weekly review · WOOP · work optional · Zone 2 cardio

Products: Apple Watch · ChatGPT · Claude · Google Sheets · ManyChat · Momentum · MyFitnessPal · Whoop

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