2026 New Year Resolution
Dear Homebody in Progress,
I started writing this post back in January but of course it wouldn’t be very me if I just finished it and posted it right away. No, I had to come back around to this writing in the middle of February after letting my thoughts sit for a while.
When I first started writing about what my resolution would be I thought about all the usual goals people, including myself, typically set.
Will my goal this year be to lose weight or go to the gym every day? I tried that in 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, and you get the point, it didn’t happen. Plus, I cancelled my gym membership so there goes that second part.
I guess what I’m trying to say in a roundabout way is that I’ve never been good at New Year’s resolutions. I’ve been amazing at making them, but less amazing at completing them. I usually start out really motivated and then a few weeks into the year, sometimes a few days, I’m back to where I started. I mean, can you blame me? That gym is packed with other New Year hopefuls and I’m the nice one for giving them one less piece of equipment to fight over.
But in all seriousness, what really happens is just… life. You become so busy one day with sleep training, meal prepping and cleaning up the place that any personal goals go right out the window. I’m not making excuses, it’s no one’s fault, but life keeps life-ing and I try to keep up with it.
For a month now I’ve been able to think about what my true goals are, and spoiler alert, it’s not losing weight. Sure, some of my simpler goals are drinking more water, eating more protein and cutting back sugar, which naturally can lead to weight loss but I’m thinking of something bigger than me. How can I, a humble homebody, create something that lasts?
My resolution this year is simple: to just get my thoughts out there. To write more, even in small chunks, even when I’m busy and life is life-ing. Maybe someone reading will see themselves in my words and feel a little less alone. Maybe someday my daughter will stumble across these posts and find a pep talk waiting for her, long after I can give her one in person. Maybe it will do both. Or maybe it will just exist, proof that I tried, and that’s enough for me.
Talking about my goals, though, is the easy part. The hard part comes when I actually try to write something down. How do I mitigate life getting in the way again, and how do I stop ignoring my personal goals? That’s when I remembered a line from Atomic Habits by James Clear, if you haven’t read it, you should. In it, he states, “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” And that made a lot of sense to me. I don’t just ignore my goals because I’m unmotivated; it just happens because my environment and routines don’t make it easy for me to follow through.
So what this means for me is that I’ll need to make small changes that actually fit into my life, instead of waiting for perfect conditions that will likely never come. For my writing, that means carving out real space and time, even with a precious little toddler in the house. Some actions I’m taking include creating a little play space in my daughter’s room where she can explore safely while I write, placing my laptop near the recliner where I sometimes sit to breastfeed and allow her to continue napping (I can write instead of doom scrolling), and keeping a journal handy so I can shorthand my daily thoughts with pen and paper until I can sort them into posts on my computer later.
Maybe this feels like DUH actions, but these small systems, like making water easy to grab, moving the chocolate bars to the creepy basement, and creating space for writing are what can make progress possible for me. This year, progress means getting my thoughts out there, even in small doses, and letting them exist beyond the bubble that is my daily life.
So that’s it. No dramatic life revelations and no big promises. Just a few small changes, a little stubbornness, and simply getting some words down. Maybe someone will read them, and maybe they won’t. Regardless, cheers to 2026: small systems, small wins, and actually doing what I said I was going to do.
Sincerely,
