Episode Overview

Title: The Anti Resolution Reset for 2026
Host: Leila Hormozi
Air Date: January 13, 2026
Main Theme:
Leila shares her journey through abandoning traditional New Year’s resolutions in favor of an “anti-resolution” approach. Rather than the usual culture of adding more goals, commitments, and systems, she advocates for strategic elimination—removing activities and obligations that drain energy and focus. Drawing from her challenging 2025 and personal experiences (including health setbacks), Leila outlines practical steps to help entrepreneurs, leaders, and ambitious individuals reclaim their time, energy, and joy by building margin into their lives and businesses.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Overwhelm of New Year’s Resolutions

• [00:01] Leila observes the internet’s flood of “new year, new goals” advice and highlights how much of it is repetitive and unhelpful. She sets out to offer something different—real lived experience.
• She recounts how, last January, she stared at her calendar and realized: “There was nowhere to fit them into.”

  “I was miserable because of the volume, not because of the work.” (Leila, 03:15)

2. The Limits of Addition — Productivity as a Prison

• [06:40] For high achievers, the temptation is always to add—more goals, more projects, more commitments.

• Each new “yes” subtracts future energy and creates new constraints, leading to a “productivity prison.”

  “It's not hard for me to do more stuff… But at some point, you have to wake up and ask yourself, why am I doing this?” (Leila, 07:30)

• Leila’s coach pushed her to itemize everything she did; it filled seven pages and made her realize she operated at “100% capacity and have zero buffer.”

  “You operate at 100% capacity and have zero buffer. So if a problem occurs…it seems so obvious because, like, of course that's the truth.” (Leila paraphrasing her coach, 11:50)

3. The Cultural Lie of “Addition = Growth”

• [14:30] January is culturally set up to encourage constant addition—workouts, hustles, networking, side projects.

• The uncomfortable truth: Most people don’t need more, they need to cut back.

• Memorable self-written insight read aloud:

  “Most people already have too much on their plates…You don’t need more goals. You need to eliminate the weight and the things that are keeping you from executing on what already matters and what matters most.” (Leila, reading her 2025 notes, 15:00)

• She challenges the belief that “if something isn’t hard, it’s not worth doing.”

  “When everything is hard, nothing is sustainable. When everything requires effort, you have no energy left for the things that actually matter. I’m not disciplined, I am exhausted and calling it dedication.” (Leila quoting her 2025 notes, 17:20)

4. The Hidden Costs of Constant Addition

• [21:10] She describes how the “addition mindset” led her to poor health, constant caffeine use, and time wasted on other people’s problems.
• Massive over-scheduling forced her into a personal health crisis, which catalyzed this reset.

5. The Power of Elimination—How Leila Reset for 2026

Practical Steps:

1. Cut Caffeine

   • [26:30] She stopped using caffeine, realizing it enabled her to overcommit and ignore her true capacity.

   • “If I drink caffeine, I typically commit to more than I probably should... If I have to caffeinate just to keep up, I’m out of sync.” (Leila, 27:05)

2. Replace Goals with Decisions

   • “Goals keep options open. Decisions close loops.”
   • Leila moved from “wanting better boundaries” to deciding on which boundaries were non-negotiable.

3. Eliminate Energy Drains

   • She ruthlessly cut activities that no longer served her, including:
     • Emotional venting sessions masquerading as work meetings.
     • Obligatory friendships (“Would I want to spend 80 hours with this person?”).
     • Overly punishing fitness routines (no more two-hour workouts).

   • “I am no longer available for venting sessions disguised as one-on-ones. If you don’t want a solution, I am not your person.” (Leila, 35:55)

   • “When it comes to friends, I am no longer available for people that I don’t want to spend 80 hours with.” (Leila, 38:47)

4. Protect Margin & Self-Respect

   • Elimination isn’t about sacrifice; it’s reclaiming what you’d unknowingly lost.

   • “When you eliminate things, standards don't motivate you to do more. They just protect you from doing what doesn't matter.” (Leila, 53:10)

6. The Impact of Elimination

• Cutting low-value commitments and systems freed up creative and emotional bandwidth; hard things became easier, work became more enjoyable, and real priorities received focus.

  “If your year requires you to have more discipline, you probably just designed it wrong.” (Leila, 48:10)

• Willpower is finite (even for the highly disciplined); saving it for what matters is a form of self-respect and performance optimization.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Addition vs. Subtraction:

  “The entire culture is designed to make you add… But here's the truth. Most people already have too much on their plates.” (15:00)

• On True Discipline:

  “When everything is hard, nothing is sustainable… I’m not disciplined, I am exhausted and calling it dedication.” (17:20)

• On Eliminating Caffeine:

  “Caffeine was enabling me. When I stopped, I felt lighter—and I stopped overcommitting out of borrowed energy.” (27:50)

• On Energy Management:

  “Every person that you let into your calendar is going to take time from other people or from you and time that you actually want for yourself.” (32:08)

• On Eliminating Relationships:

  “I am no longer available for people that I don’t want to spend 80 hours with…” (38:47)

• On Willpower:

  “When you cut the things that drain you, you don’t need so much willpower to show up for the things that matter. You just do them.” (49:11)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:01 — Introduction & skepticism about clichés in New Year advice
• 03:15 — The moment of realizing “productivity prison”
• 11:50 — Coach’s insight: 100% capacity, zero buffer
• 15:00 — Why New Year’s “addition” fails
• 17:20 — “I am not disciplined, I am exhausted and calling it dedication.”
• 21:10 — How over-committing affects health and performance
• 26:30 — Cutting caffeine: first elimination experiment
• 35:55 — Elimination of energy-draining meetings and venting
• 38:47 — New friendship litmus test (“Would I spend 80 hours with them?”)
• 48:10 — The trap of designing your year around “more discipline”
• 53:10 — Elimination isn’t sacrifice—it’s reclaiming what you’ve lost
• 55:20-end — Actionable takeaways and Leila’s challenge to listeners

Actionable Takeaways

• Audit your current commitments before adding new goals.
• Before pursuing any new goal, deliberately eliminate something (activity, relationship, routine) to make space.
• Replace “goals” with specific, irreversible decisions.
• Ruthlessly filter your obligations—relationships, routines, meetings.
• Protect margin and reclaim your time—your standards defend your energy, rather than motivate you to do more.
• If your year demands not just discipline but more discipline, revisit your design.

Closing Tone & Message

Leila’s tone throughout is direct, pragmatic, and at times humorous and self-deprecating. She dismantles hustle culture myths and preaches the value of subtraction as a path to sustainable success and happiness—not just as an entrepreneur, but as a human being.

“I don’t think most people listening to this need more ambition. I think you need more margin in your life—and to eliminate the things that don’t bring you joy, don’t bring you happiness, don’t get you closer to your goals and just aren’t serving you.” (57:10)

She leaves listeners with a challenge: before you add, eliminate—and then see how much better your year can be.