A Letter to 2026

Dear 2026,

I'm not going to wish for you to be easy.

I'm not going to light a candle and manifest that you'll be "my best year yet" or pray that everything goes smoothly. That's not how life works, and honestly? Easy years are forgettable years. The years that shape us are the ones where we got uncomfortable, made hard choices, and did things that scared us a little.

So instead, I'm going to work toward making you better. Not perfect. Not easy. Not some Instagram-filtered illusion.

Better.

Stop Wishing. Start Building.

Every January, we're sold the same lie: that this year will be different because we've decided it will be. We set goals, buy planners, join gyms, and tell ourselves this is the year.

Then February hits, and we're back to our old patterns, beating ourselves up for lacking willpower or discipline or whatever other garbage we've been conditioned to believe about ourselves.

Here's what no one tells you: wishing for a better year is pointless. Building a better year is the only thing that works.

And building isn't glamorous. It's messy. It's uncomfortable. It requires you to do things you've been avoiding because they're hard, or scary, or because you might fail.

Better, Not Best

Let's talk about this "best year ever" nonsense that circulates every December.

The pressure to have your BEST year is just another form of toxic positivity dressed up as motivation. It sets you up for disappointment because life doesn't work in linear upward trajectories. Some years are about survival. Some are about small, quiet growth. Some are about falling apart so you can rebuild differently.

A better year doesn't mean everything goes right. It means:

• You make harder choices than you did last year

• You stop tolerating what you've been tolerating

• You push yourself past the edge of your comfort zone more often than you stay in it

• You fail at some things and try again anyway

• You stop performing your life for other people and start living it for yourself

Better means progress, not perfection.

Better means you're slightly braver, slightly more honest, slightly less willing to settle for comfortable misery.

Get Uncomfortable On Purpose

If you want 2026 to be different, you need to do things that make you uncomfortable.

Not reckless things. Not burn-your-life-down things. But uncomfortable things.

That conversation you've been avoiding? Have it.

That career move you keep researching but never pursuing? Take one real step toward it.

That relationship that's been draining you for years? Stop accepting the unacceptable.

That dream you keep tucking away because you're "too old" or "too late" or "too practical"? Stop using those excuses.

Comfort zones are seductive. They feel safe. But they're also where dreams go to die quietly.

Every single thing you want is on the other side of discomfort. Not massive, dramatic discomfort necessarily—sometimes it's just the discomfort of speaking up, of trying something new, of admitting what you really want instead of what you think you should want.

Who Knows? It Might Become Your Best Year Anyway

Here's the paradox: when you stop chasing "best" and start building "better," you often end up with something you never expected.

When you focus on making braver choices instead of perfect ones, you create momentum.

When you prioritise growth over comfort, you discover capabilities you didn't know you had.

When you stop performing and start living authentically, you build a life that fits you instead of one that looks good on paper.

So yeah, 2026 might end up being your best year. But not because you wished for it to be easy. Because you worked toward making it better, and that work changed you.

What Better Looks Like

A better 2026 doesn't mean:

• Everything goes according to plan

• You never feel uncertain or scared

• You achieve every goal you set

• Your life looks social media perfect

A better 2026 means:

• You take more risks than you did last year

• You stop shrinking yourself to make others comfortable

• You make decisions based on what you want, not what you think you should want

• You're more honest with yourself and others

• You spend less time performing and more time living

• You build a life that fits you instead of squeezing yourself into a life that looks acceptable

Your Assignment

Don't wish 2026 to be easy. That's a waste of a perfectly good year.

Instead, decide what "better" looks like for you specifically. Not better compared to someone else's life. Not better according to some arbitrary standard of success.

Better for you.

Then do one uncomfortable thing this month that moves you toward that version of better. Just one. Not ten. Not a complete life overhaul. One uncomfortable action that matters.

Then do it again next month. And the month after that.

That's how you build a better year. That's how you build a better life.

Not by wishing. By doing. By getting uncomfortable on purpose. By choosing growth over comfort more often than you choose comfort over growth.

2026 is going to happen whether you show up fully or not.

The question is: which version of you will meet it?

The one who played it safe and stayed comfortable? Or the one who decided that better was worth the discomfort?