How to Build Better Habits in 2026
If you’re here reading this - it means you survived quitter’s day. Sure, maybe you haven’t perfectly followed through on all of your New Year’s resolutions, but you’re still trying and still committed to bettering yourself - which is what it’s all about. Not perfection, but improvement.
The New Year offers a wonderful starting point and I encourage everyone to make New Year’s resolutions despite the statistics on how many people actually follow through on them. But resolutions without a disciplined plan are nearly impossible to follow through on. Your motivation will only get you so far.
Do I wake up at 5:20 a.m. every day motivated to read my bible? I wish I was that kind of Christian. What I want is to mindlessly scroll my phone while I drink my coffee.
Do I want to break out the yoga mat at 6:00 a.m. and stretch for 15 minutes? Not a chance. Boring. My ADHD would rather do anything else.
Do you think I’m motivated every day to hit the gym at 6:30 a.m.? As if. I spent years half-assing it and going 2-3 times a week whenever the motivation struck and it got me nowhere. But when I committed to doing 75 Hard last year and decided I owed myself more than being a slave to my motivations - it changed everything.
I wish I could say that going from two workouts a day to just one a day made it easy and now I’m always excited to go. But that would be a lie. Although my 2026 resolutions are easier than 75 Hard, they still suck and I still don’t feel an ounce of motivation most days.
My whole body is sore more often than not. By the time one muscle group recovers it’s time to work it out again.
My legs never recover.
But here we are. It’s 2026 and I’m tired of mediocrity. I’ve committed to building good habits in 2026 and I’m not going to let myself or my family down.
Are you ready to do the same?
Because I can promise you this - when you quit waiting for motivation and commit to disciplining yourself physically, mentally, and spiritually, you won’t regret it. The wins you rack up in one area of your life will spill over into everything you do and fundamentally change you.
I can say this confidently because I spent most of my life as a loser. Lazy, unmotivated, fat, depressed, anxious, a slave to my sins and failures. If I can overcome the pitiful man I used to be, then by the strength of God’s Holy Spirit - so can you.
God will transform your spirit - but not against your will. You have to show Him you truly want it by putting in the work and sanctifying yourself.
You Are Worth Fighting For.
Building good habits isn’t easy, but it is simple. You just do the things you say you’re going to do. Not that complicated right? But super hard. Because even those of us who hate the idea of letting our friends or family down often don’t mind letting ourselves down. If you suffer from self esteem issues the way I did then you probably don’t think you’re worth the effort. Why not give up when the only person I’m disappointing is me? That guy doesn’t deserve the effort anyways.
But you do deserve it. Not because of anything you’ve done but because God said you’re worth it.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” —John 3:16.
God loves you. He sees something in you worth redeeming. So trust His judgement and believe you’re worth fighting for.
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” — 2 Corinthians 5:21.
We are counted as righteous in the eyes of God through the sacrifice and redemptive blood of Jesus Christ. So throw out the negative self-talk, stop telling yourself that you don’t matter, and fight for yourself the way you would fight for your most precious loved one.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” —Romans 12:2
Building good habits as an adult is very different from teaching a child what they should or shouldn’t do. We teach a kid to brush their teeth “because I said so.” It’s a lot harder to convince yourself to do the right thing when there’s no one to hold yourself accountable to and when we already know the reason why we’re supposed be doing good things but we just haven’t cared enough to follow through. Bettering yourself isn’t just a matter of doing better - it’s a spiritual journey of transformation.
Ask the Lord daily to renew your mind, to help you discern His will, and guide you in the path of perfection. I don’t mean perfection as an adjective. I’m not telling you to be perfect. Perfection here is an action verb. You have to constantly work at perfecting yourself. You’ll never attain perfection this side of heaven and God doesn’t expect you to. But you should always be working to perfect yourself.
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” — 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.
Not only should you work on building better habits in 2026 for your own sake - do it for the Lord! Once you have accepted Christ as your Savior, your body is His temple, His Spirit lives in you. So honor your body with good habits that it may become a worthy dwelling place.
Good Habits to Build in 2026
I’m sure you came here with a specific habit in mind. Or a habit to break even. That’s good! It’s good to start with a few good things that you can actually focus on versus overextending yourself and burning out by trying to fully optimize every moment of your life.
Maybe the habits you’re wanting to create are still fairly abstract - like “go to the gym more” or “get in shape.” That’s what most people come into the new year with. But there are many good habits to build outside of the physical. Everything we have is a gift from God. Our body, our mind, our spirit, our money, our time, our family. We should actively be working to better ourselves in all of them.
Again - don’t try to totally transform yourself into the perfect efficiency machine overnight. But try and pick at least one goal in each category to implement this year. If you get to March or April and you feel you need to step it up a notch further, you can always do that. You don’t have to wait till 2027 to take on another challenge!
Here are several good habits you should work on building 2026.
Good Physical Health Habits
Quit drinking alcohol.
Quit drinking soda.
Drink a gallon of water per day.
Go to the gym 4-5 days per week.
Go for two runs per week.
Good Financial Habits
Start budgeting.
Cut up the credit cards.
Start a debt snowball.
Start investing.
Start meal prepping at home instead of eating out constantly.
Good Mental Health Habits
Talk to a therapist once a month.
Get 15 minutes of sunlight per day with no phone.
Read at least a chapter of self-improvement literature per week.
Read for fun. Fiction, no self-help. At least a chapter per week.
Spend at least 30 minutes a week on a hobby if you don’t already have one.
Good Spiritual Habits
Read your bible daily.
Pray daily.
Practice Gratitude.
Find a church with good teaching.
Find a way to start serving others.
If you want some real life examples, here are my 2026 habits I’m working toward:
Read a chapter a day - fiction or nonfiction are both fine.
Reading the bible and praying to start each day.
Working out daily.
Three runs per week.
Decreasing screen time.
10,000 steps a day.
Two stretching periods per day - one before workout and one before bed.
Daily blogging on my travel website.
Some of those may be way too hard for you so don’t think you need to be that ambitious. I spent 75 days working out twice per day so working out daily is easy for me - you may need to start with 3-4 workouts per week. Similarly, I’m only aiming for three one-mile runs per week while other people are more comfortable running daily.
How to Stick With Building Good Habits
Okay, so you’ve picked out a few good habits you want to try and build in 2026. Now what? What makes this the year you stick with it? What stops you from quitting in two weeks more demoralized than ever?
Build a System
For years I watched fitness influencers and middle-aged men swear that you should start your day at 4:00 or 5:00 a.m. and hit the gym. Yeah right. Maybe that works for some people but that doesn’t mean it’ll work for you. As a 31-year-old father I’m finally getting used to subsisting off 6 hours of sleep at night, but up until the past year I was an 8-9 hour guy. And there’s no better way to burn out on something than to approach it begrudgingly. If you’re miserably exhausted you’re not going to stick with doing something you don’t want to do.
Every time I tried to start my day at the gym I burned out in one or two weeks. Where did I find my rhythm? About 4:00 p.m. on my way home from work. The trick was to pack my gym clothes and change at work before heading out. I would also take a pre-workout shake to get my blood pumping. When you’re already out and about, dressed for the occasion, and have some energy pumping through your veins, it’s a lot easier to commit to going to the gym. When I tried going home to change first, I would typically find myself doom-scrolling on the couch 45 minutes later, then my wife would get home, and it was way too easy to talk myself out of going altogether.
Now I do go first thing in the morning as soon as the wife leaves to take our kid to daycare. Because I work from home now and that works for me. I know I need to be clocked in by 8:00 a.m. so I have a time crunch that forces me to get up and go and power through my workout.
You have to find what works for you.
This applies to more than just fitness. You need systems that make it as easy as possible to succeed. You don’t need to be David Goggins-disciplined on day one - you need things to be as easy as possible because quitting is unbelievably easy.
If you want to commit to quitting soda - you can’t have it in the house. Sorry kids, you can buy your own soda when you get a job. Daddy’s not buying it anymore.
If you want to stop racking up credit card debt - cut up the cards. You can’t use them if you don’t have them.
If you want to get 15 minutes of sunlight per day - don’t try to squeeze it in right before sunset while you also need to cook dinner and help the kids with dinner. Do it during your lunch break. You get a lunch break - take it. Don’t waste it doom-scrolling at your desk.
If you want to get 10,000 steps a day - quit driving places you don’t need to. My gym is 1.4 miles away. That’s about a 15-20 minute walk - so if the weather’s above 50 degrees I walk there. The park is a quarter mile. So we load up the stroller and walk instead of driving. You can also break up your steps throughout the day instead of trying to get them all at once. Walking a two-block loop after breakfast, lunch, and dinner is a lot easier than walking six blocks all at once.
Is that enough examples? Find a system that works for you and sets you up for success!
Find an Accountability Partner
Whether you’re trying to build good habits or break bad habits - being accountable to someone is a huge help. Whether that’s a therapist, your spouse, your best friend, a mentor from your church, or a personal trainer, there’s somebody out there who can help you. Bonus points if they’re on the same journey. If you can find a friend to undertake the same effort with you, you’ll be able to build each other up, hold each other accountable, and inspire each other.
When I decided to do 75 Hard last year, my wife surprised me by joining me. And I don’t think I would have finished were it not for her. On the days when I struggled she was there putting in the work and proving that my excuses were garbage.
When I first started going to the gym years ago, it was to spend time with my best friends. Knowing they were there waiting on me to lift with them every night was what kept me showing up. And when our schedules no longer synced up I stopped going and got fat again. You need people alongside you!
Give Yourself a Checklist
If you’re an ultra-organized person like I am, having a checklist to work through each day will keep you from missing something. Marking off an item on your to-do list give you a boost of serotonin and encourages you to go do the next right thing. It gamifies your goals.
During 75 Hard I kept a checklist on my phone’s notes app of everything I needed to do and made sure to review it at the end of the day. But even that wasn’t enough and there were times I lay in bed at 11:00 p.m. looking at it and realized I never took my daily progress photo or hadn’t finished my reading and had to get back up and finish things.
In 2026 I decided to try out an app I came across called Habit Tracker and it has been a gamechanger! I’ve been using it for two weeks now and I absolutely love it.
No I’m not a paid advertiser - I just enjoy the product so far and haven’t run into any issues with it. This helps keep me on track with all of my goals and gives me a nice little dose of endorphins whenever I check an item off the list.
So what’s next? There’s no magic pill or secret sauce. You just have to get started, fail, and try again. Commit to doing what you said you were going to do, and when you inevitably fail, don’t wait till 2027 to start again. Start the next day! Failure is normal but it doesn’t have to define you. Nobody builds good habits on their first try. It’s a long process so start failing forward today. I believe in you - let’s go do it!
