How I Prepare for a New Year

I love the last 10 days of the year. I use them for goal setting for the next year, giving me excitement for the possibilities and what can be different.  If the outgoing year was a tough or terrible one, it’s a good way to reset, and see how things can be very different.

My goals in a new year range from big to small, even as small as try a specific restaurant.  The point of these goals isn’t necessarily to accomplish all of them, or be a certain level of challenge. For me, they force fresh change and novelty into my life – so many people get caught up in a long-term routine that leads to stagnation. I don’t have rules on how hard the goals need to be, or that there has to be a certain number of them, they simply need to feel right. For example, one of my goals in 2026 is to vibe code a project. I don’t yet know what that project will be but I know I will find it along the way.

I also have a tradition – in January of the new year I have to try or do one new thing I have never done before.  It simply has to be novel to me.  For January 2025 my new thing was taking an improv class.  For this year, 2026 it will be taking a formal, creative writing class.  I am extremely excited and have started writing for fun every day in anticipation of the class.

(Post written the old fashioned way - via human. No AI used in this writing)