For most of my life, I was aggressively goal- and outcome-obsessed. Become a billionaire, lose X kg, learn Japanese in 2 months. I have a graveyard of goals I’ve missed.

Meanwhile in my companies, I found goals extremely motivating. We hit numbers, celebrated wins. Yet - I couldn’t get the same momentum personally.

Over time I realised, optimising my personal life the same way I optimised companies was making me brittle and unhappy.

Goals and outcomes are excellent tools for organisations. I’ve come to believe they are far less reliable tools for a human life.

So I built something else.

P.S this is the final edition of Ajay’s Quest for the year so Happy New Years and hope you all have a great 2026. Try the exercise below for the upcoming year. I’m about to dig into it again this year.

The problem with personal goal-setting

Goals assume a stable world, a stable self, and a clean relationship between effort and outcome.

I’ll give you an example. One could work 60 hours a week on a startup and you could just fail. Absolutely nothing to show for it besides the ‘learnings’.

Beyond this: Life changes. Energy fluctuates. Motivation disappears right when you need it most. When those assumptions break, goals quietly turn into guilt.

You either “fall behind” or you rewrite the goal and pretend it never mattered.Even when you do hit them, the satisfaction is often brief and oddly hollow.

I eventually realised I no longer believed three things:

• That hitting personal goals reliably leads to a good life

• That outcomes are a good proxy for alignment

• That motivation is something you can sustainably depend on

The alternative: optimise for defaults

Instead of optimising for outcomes, I now optimise for defaults.

I ask a simpler question: “If nothing exponential happens, is my life still pointed in the right direction?”

The answer isn’t determined by ambition. It’s determined by what runs automatically.

This process replaces:

• goals with priorities

• motivation with systems

Priorities, not goals

Priorities are not things to achieve. They are the small number of things I deliberately organise my life around.

A real priority:

• Is not meant to be completed

• Remains valid even as circumstances change

• Earns protected time and alters tradeoffs

If something is a priority, it shows up in how my weeks are designed. If it doesn’t change my calendar, it’s not a priority.

I limit this list to 3–5. Anything more than that means nothing is truly protected.

Systems, not willpower

Once priorities are clear, they get translated into systems. A system defines what happens by default on an average week. It doesn’t rely on motivation, discipline, or ideal conditions.

A good system:

• Runs even during low-energy or busy periods

• Has a clear minimum viable version

• Can be redesigned or removed when it stops working

Systems exist to reduce thinking, not add more. If the system runs, the priority is being honored.

What success looks like now in my life

Success, for me, is no longer about maximising achievement. It’s about designing a life that:

• Still works when things break

• Aligns time with what actually matters

• Improves defaults rather than peak moments

If the systems run, the year works. Even if outcomes surprise me.

That’s the standard.

🎁 My gift to you

I’ve been doing annual reviews for over 10 years. This is the review system I’ve settled on after all that time, and I’m genuinely far happier for it.

Normally, I do this privately in a notebook. This year, I turned it into a printable PDF you can write on and reuse every year.

One of my readers recently replied with:
“Ajay, I don’t know what you’re selling but I’d definitely be buying.”
(That made my week btw!)

To be clear, I’m not selling anything here. Aside from occasionally plugging Superpower so I can hit my growth targets at my day job 🥺, this is just something I wanted to gift to you.

If you do use it, I’d genuinely love your feedback. Hearing how other people adapt or break this system would honestly make my 2026.

Until 2026. Happy New Year!! 🥳

Ajay

🧠 Ajay’s Resource Bank

A few tools and collections I’ve built (or obsessively curated) over the years:

• 100+ Mental Models
  Mental shortcuts and thinking tools I’ve refined over the past decade. These have evolved as I’ve gained experience — pruned, updated, and battle-tested.

• 100+ Questions
  If you want better answers, ask better questions. These are the ones I keep returning to — for strategy, reflection, and unlocking stuck conversations.

• Startup OS
  A lightweight operating system I built for running startups. I’m currently adapting it for growth teams as I scale Superpower — thinking about publishing it soon.

• Remote Games & Activities
  Fun team-building exercises and games (many made in Canva) that actually work. Good for offsites, Zoom fatigue, or breaking the ice with distributed teams.

✅ Ajay’s “would recommend” List

These are tools and services I use personally and professionally — and recommend without hesitation:

• Athyna – Offshore Hiring Done Right
  I personally have worked with assistants overseas and built offshore teams. Most people get this wrong by assuming you have to go the lowest cost for automated work. Try hiring high quality, strategic people for a fraction of the cost instead.

• Superpower – It starts with a 100+ lab tests
  I joined Superpower as Head of Growth, but I originally came on to fix my health. In return, I got a full diagnostic panel, a tailored action plan, and ongoing support that finally gave me clarity after years of flying blind.