You've achieved your goals. You're still unhappy. Let's talk about why. Join me on Jan 1st 2026 to learn why traditional goal-setting keeps failing you and what actually works for high-achieving Muslims stuck between cultures, ambitions, and spiritual identity.
As-salaam alaykum!
It's that time of year again. Everyone's asking: "What are your goals for the new year?"
You've answered this question before. Many times. You set goals, and often achieved most of them. The degree, the promotion, the income level, the marriage, the house.
And yet here you are, scrolling through another January, still searching for something that will finally make it all feel complete.
The problem isn't that you're not achieving your goals. The problem is the goals themselves.
Here's the spiritually intelligent reframe:
Traditional goal-setting is designed to produce achievement, not transformation. It focuses on what you'll acquire, not who you'll become.
The Three Fatal Flaws
Every year it's the same old story. Set a goal. Track it. And keep hustling towards it. A few months in, life gets in the way and we give up. Here are three fatal flaws with tradition "New Year's Resolutions" or "Goal Setting"
1. Goals Focus on Outcomes, Not Transformation
Most goal-setting asks: "What do you want to have?"
The better question is: "Who do you need to become?"
Allah tells us:
"Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves." [13:11]
Notice the sequence. Internal transformation precedes external change. Not the other way around.
But we've been taught backwards. We think: "Once I achieve X, then I'll feel Y." Get the promotion, then feel confident. Make six figures, then feel secure. Get married, then feel complete.
You know from experience this doesn't work. You achieved the thing. The feeling didn't follow.
That's because goals address circumstances. Transformation addresses character. And character is where lasting change actually lives.
2. Goals Are Transactional, Not Relational
Traditional goal-setting operates on a capitalistic framework: input + effort = output + reward.
But your life isn't a transaction. Your relationship with yourself, with Allah, with your purpose: these aren't problems to optimize. They're relationships to deepen.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said:
"Actions are but by intentions, and to each what they intend." [Sahih Muslim]
The emphasis isn't on what you achieve. It's on why you're pursuing it in the first place.
When your goals are disconnected from your spiritual purpose, you're building on sand. The structure might look impressive from the outside. But you know it's unstable.
3. Goals Create Linear Thinking in a Non-Linear Life
Set goal. Create plan. Execute steps. Achieve result.
This works for projects. It fails spectacularly for life.
Because life isn't linear. Divine timing doesn't follow our timeline. Your path to purpose won't look like anyone else's roadmap.
I've watched countless Muslims torture themselves because reality didn't conform to their perfectly crafted (and imaginary) plan. The promotion came two years "late". The business grew differently than projected. The marriage happened when they'd given up trying.
They spent those years feeling like failures because they confused delay with denial, detour with defeat.
What Actually Works
If not traditional goals, then what?
Aligned intention.
Intention asks: Who is Allah calling me to become? What transformation is He inviting me into? How can my ambitions serve something beyond my ego?
From that place of clarity, actions flow naturally. Not forced. Not performed. Not frantically chased.
You're not trying to acquire peace. You're becoming a person whose presence creates it.
You're not chasing success. You're aligning with purpose and trusting that what's meant for you won't miss you.
You're not optimizing productivity. You're deepening your capacity to serve, create, and contribute in ways only you can.
This isn't semantic wordplay. This is the difference between exhausting yourself trying to reach some future version of "enough" and trusting that you're exactly where you need to be while simultaneously growing.
Here are three types of goals or success to help frame your goals:
Having: This is the most common type of goals such as getting a new title, a salary increase, etc. Having goals can be toxic where we want to achieve the goal by any means necessary.
Achieving: Achieving is a step above "having" in that while we are still pursuing some materialistic outcome, we want to achieve while remaining in integrity with our values.
Being: Being is the highest level of achievement because it is no longer about the outcome but about who we want to become. For example, we may become the type of person that speaks the truth independent of ego concerns about reactions.
The Conversation You Actually Need
On January 1st, 2026, I'm facilitating a live conversation for Muslims who've achieved their goals and discovered that achievement wasn't the answer they thought it would be.
Why Your Goals Keep Failing (And What Actually Works)
Thursday, January 1st, 2026
10am PST / 1pm EST / 6pm GMT
Investment: $20.26 | Replay access until January 7th
This isn't a workshop with templates and seven-step frameworks. It's an honest examination of why you keep ending up here: accomplished but unsatisfied, successful but searching.
You'll discover:
- Why achieving your goals hasn't given you what you thought it would
- The fundamental flaw in how most people approach "success"
- What's actually missing when external achievement feels hollow
- A different framework that integrates your faith with your ambition instead of keeping them separate
- What to do instead of setting another list of goals you'll either achieve and still feel empty, or abandon by February
This is for you if:
- You're tired of your own patterns and ready to examine why they exist
- You're culturally Muslim, professionally successful, and spiritually unsatisfied
- You want to understand the why before you commit to another what
- You're done with surface-level solutions and motivational theater
This is not for you if:
- You want a template, a workbook, or seven easy steps
- You're looking for motivation to try harder at the same approach
- You're not ready to question whether you've been chasing the wrong things
You won't leave with a goal worksheet. You'll leave with clarity on why you keep ending up here and what actually changes the pattern.
Limited to 50 participants.
The most important day of your year isn't when you achieve your goals. It's when you understand why you were pursuing them in the first place.
Let's have that conversation.
Peace and blessings,
James