Why We’re Not Making New Year’s Resolutions This Year
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Pathlabs Marketing |
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January 22, 2026 |
Every January starts the same.
We commit to more exercise. We commit to having less screen time and more reading time. We tell ourselves this is the year habits stick and progress compounds.
The intention is real, and the motivation is high.
Then February hits.
Going to the gym is replaced with going to the grocery store, we catch up on work instead of reading, and our resolutions are shelved for next year. The intention was right. The system behind it wasn’t designed to survive real life.
Media strategies break in the same way.
At the start of the year, execution plans look strong. Budgets are approved. Channel mixes are balanced. Then execution begins.
A platform changes delivery mid-flight, and creative needs accelerate faster than expected. Clients ask new questions that weren’t part of the original plan, and AI tools that promised clarity create confusion.
The strategy wasn’t flawed. The follow-through needs to be adapted to real life.
The Gap We See Every Day
At Pathlabs, we see this gap between intention and execution every day. Not because independent agencies lack expertise, but because redesigning execution systems on the fly requires more time and resources than many teams can spare.
Through our Media Execution Partnership (MEP), we support agencies at the exact moment when plans meet reality and have to adapt without breaking.
That vantage point gives us a clear view of where things tend to slip.
Why We’re Launching the New Year’s Resolutions Series
We’ve earned the title of media execution experts because we have run over 140,000 campaigns. In fact, bridging intention to action that delivers real, measurable business outcomes is why we open our doors every day.
That’s why we’re committing to creating a practical, curiosity-led series focused on execution, not predictions alone.
What This Series Is and Isn’t
The New Year’s Resolutions Series is a 12-month Pathlabs thought leadership initiative designed to explore the real execution questions independent agencies are asking, using our Media Execution Partnership model as the lens for learning, testing, and sharing what actually works.
This is not a trend forecast. It’s a monthly deep dive into the mechanics of execution under real-world pressure.
How the Series Works
Each month in 2026, we’ll publish one deep dive centered on a single execution question agencies are actively facing.
Every post will explore why that question tends to surface at that point in the year, the real-world patterns we see across campaigns and workflows, and practical ideas agencies can pressure-test immediately. Each topic is intentionally aligned with agency seasonality, planning cycles, and moments when execution strain is highest.
Starting With January: Planning for Change
Over the course of the year, we’ll dig into questions such as how to design media plans that anticipate change rather than fight it, where AI actually saves time in execution and where it quietly creates drag, and much more.
We’ll kick off the series later this month with our January resolution: Design Media Plans That Expect Change.
January is when plans look their best and when rigidity quietly sets in. This first post will explore why locked media plans fail in modern environments and how agencies can build planning guardrails that allow budgets, channels, and tactics to shift without chaos. It’s a foundational execution question and one that sets the tone for everything that follows.
Follow Along in 2026
If you’re an independent agency navigating shifting platforms, rising creative demands, evolving measurement, and constant pressure to deliver certainty, we hope these monthly posts feel like a steady companion throughout the year.
Resolutions don’t fail because they’re wrong. They fail because they aren’t built to last. In 2026, we’re focusing on execution that does.
