New You 2026
It's Inevitable
Hello Friends,
Happy New Year! We did it. We made it to 2026.
Well, actually, we didn’t do anything.
We just hung out until the clock and calendar did their jobs. And let me tell you, I’m glad they did—2025 was not my favorite year. You know; you were there.
Ever optimistic, I think about the slogan that you hear all the time as December becomes January: New Year, New You.
It rolls off your tongue and seems fairly innocuous—a rah-rah temptation to get a new gym membership, or become vegan, or … finish that book you’ve been wanting to finish (hint, hint, I’m still looking for one more person to work with me on my coaching program).
But when I consider that phrase, I actually see a depth to it that harkens to the Serenity Prayer: you know—help me change what I can, accept what I can’t, and know the difference…
I mean, you cannot control the New Year part. Time marches on, whether you like it or not. Yet, you have some control over the New You part. Some. Not much, actually.
There are two things to consider with reconstructing yourself at the turn of the year:
Our physical bodies are constantly changing, renewing themselves incessantly. Cells divide and die; atoms and subatomic particles slip in and out of us; we eat, we poop, we inhale and exhale. Our bodies are already in a constant state of flux. Just another thing we can’t control.
Change is not an on/off switch. You can’t just say on January 1st, I am now new, and experience an immediate rebirth (I guess unless you do a ‘shrooms trip apparently—more on that later in the year… wait, what?). That’s why we like to give ourselves a whole year.
I have talked in my newsletter plenty about how change is hard, and that’s not where I’m going with this.
My point, going back to #1 above, is that you are already a new you. As you were a new you yesterday and will be a new you tomorrow, thanks to those doggone cells that love to regenerate themselves, the air you recycle through your lungs, and the food you ingest and transform into something else (poo).
And the entropy in the universe. There is no escaping that.
Today is 1/1/2026.
And if you string all the resolutions from all the New Year’s Days in your life, no doubt you probably have made some progress. It didn’t happen overnight. And it probably didn’t happen in a year.
So, enjoy the day. Take the pressure off yourself. You did it.
Instead, think about what you want to do just today, and every new today with your new-you body.
That you can control, sort of.
Don’t get me wrong—I think resolutions are great. They are optimistic and reinforce your desire to keep evolving in life.
I’m just suggesting you can follow Oliver Burkman’s advice and treat your to-do list as a menu or a river.
Happy reading, happy writing, and happy New Year!
David