What Matters Most in 2026: A Panoply of Prompts
Grab a cup of cocoa, a pen and paper, warm socks, a cozy blanket and situate yourself in front of a roaring fire with holiday jazz music playing in the background. Now close your eyes for a moment. Take a deep breath in. Exhale. It’s time to imagine 2026.
What do you want 2026 to look like? What do you want to do? Who do you want to see? Where do you want to go? Let’s begin by reflecting on 2025:
Begin by reflecting on 2025….
What worked?
What didn’t work?
What sort of worked—and needs a few tweaks?
What something you want to continue doing?
What is something you want to stop doing?
What is something you want to start doing?
Now, let’s get out our 2026 calendar and get to work:
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🫙 Put the big rocks in first
I remember being taught a long time ago the idea of putting the big rocks in first. Meaning, add the most important things before there is no room for them. I imagine for many of us, the most important thing to make time for is our health. Which honestly is not very fun, but here is a guide to make it easier:
Health
🩺 Schedule Doctors’ Appointments:
What appointments do you need to make? Mammogram? Colonoscopy? Dermatologist? Doctors’ appointments are hard to come by (and often annoying to schedule). The more open your calendar is the better. My suggestion: start scheduling doctors’ appointments and then plug in everything else around them.
🛀 Make time for Self Care:
If you look at my google calendar, self care is in yellow. I make sure there is yellow in my calendar each week. You may want to assign a color as well to make prioritizing self care more obvious. For me, self care involves movement (e.g., walks, yoga, lifting weights), massage, baths, reading and rest. Reserve vacation days now so you can be sure to take time off work throughout the year.
🤗 Reflect on Relationships
Who do you want to see more of?
How do you want to spend time with your family and friends?
Reach out to people to start to book time together in your calendar
For more ideas on how to build your village, read my blog Establish Connection.
🧺 Stuff we have to do but don’t account for:
Do you schedule the annoying, time consuming, invisible work on your calendar? Things like groceries, laundry, cooking, carpools… These activities take time and attention. Give yourself the gift of booking them in your calendar so you can more adequately assess your availability.
🧑🍳 Hobbies
How can you make time for your hobbies this year? Can you schedule time each week or each month? Does your hobby involve other people who can be accountability buddies?
Not sure what hobby you want to pursue? Here are some blogs I wrote that may help:
🌈 Activism/Volunteerism
Is this your year to get more active in politics or your community? I wrote this blog, Imperfect Activism about my own activism story. Check out Everyday Activism to learn more about how you can become more involved in 2026.
💼 Career Goals
Is this year the year for a promotion? For a career pivot? For a job search? Schedule time on your calendar to move forward in whatever way makes sense for you. Sometimes we need to make the decision that this is the year for change. Take a moment to consider your career goals.
Thinking about pivoting in your career? Read my series on Career Pivots
Are you looking for a job in the new year? Start working on Linkedin. Here is my LinkedIn training program to help you better utilize this helpful job search platform.
Want to stay in your job and get ahead? Here is an article with tips for this: Job Hugging: 8 Tips to Get Promoted
🤩 What are you looking forward to?
Having something to look forward to is essential. It doesn’t have to be big, it just has to delight you. Below is a blog I wrote about what I am excited for. Maybe it will give you some ideas….
😰 What are you nervous about?
I have a lot of air travel this coming year with a very, very long flight in June. I personally don’t love to fly. I am working on my flying fears by taking a course and participating in a fear of flying facebook group. I don’t want to let a fear get in the way of my larger goals, which involve visiting family and friends and exploring new places. How is fear getting in the way of your goals and plans? How can you face those fears in a way that works for you?
🌟 What new things do you want to try?
Trying new things keeps us growing and learning no matter what our age. Being new at something keeps us humble and curious. Here is a blog I wrote about trying new things: Make Your Own Uncool: The Sincerity of Trying Hard and another one What Will People Think? Who Cares? Keep trying new things no matter how silly or frustrated you feel being a beginner.
Now… take a look at your calendar. How is 2026 looking? Keep updating your calendar as necessary and keep a bird’s eye view. Getting ahead of your calendar allows you to run the show rather than the other way around. Wishing you a fabulous New Year!
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I want to say thank you for reading my newsletter every other week. I am so grateful for this community. I look forward to sharing 2026 with you! I would love to hear from you. Let me know how can my newsletter support you in 2026.
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