Well, here we go again. New year, new me? Such an abundance of videos and content about changing yourself. Be better. Be more productive. Be unrecognizable. Glow up. The pressure online is high. And really overwhelming.

I find myself getting lost in these videos. Why? Who doesn’t want to change? Who doesn’t want to be better? Who doesn’t want to be a totally different person? But when I think about it, the real question is, why am I so dissatisfied with myself that I want to reinvent myself? I’m still finding the answer to this one. But for 2026, I’m changing the way I view things.

The focus of this year is to enjoy my life. Enjoy what I have. Focus on things that make me smile and happy. No rigid goals or resolutions. These didn’t work for me in the past, and that won’t change. But I’m also not going rogue here. I need structure.

So here are the things I want to focus on this year:

Protect my time.

I need to treat time as currency and I need to spend it on things and activities that I enjoy. 2025 was not kind and most of the time, I felt like I didn’t have time for my hobbies. Ergo, no time for reading and writing. This year, I want to really protect my time. Actually do things that I like doing. This includes reading and learning. Block my time for them. Know when to be offline. Set boundaries. Again, time is currency. I need to be spending it on activities that I really love and truly enjoy.

Health.

I just need to workout, eat more veggies, and hydrate. I was getting better at it but I found myself falling off here and there. I found excuses. Too tired to workout. No time to cook. Not liking the tumbler I was using. Excuses. So for 2026, I refuse to look for justifications on why I cannot do these things. I have the time. I am never too tired. And I can drink from any glass or tumblers that I have. I just need to do and the motivation will follow.

Finance.

2025 was a bad year for my finances. I found that I was using shopping as a dopamine fix. I feel stressed, I shop. I feel anxious, I shop. I feel angry, I shop. I feel happy, I shop. You get it. I used to eat my feelings. I was proud that I stopped that last year. But did I really stop? No. I just substituted it for something else. So 2026 is a no-buy year. Well, I need to be mindful of where my money is going. But I know that managing my feelings better should be my main focus. And that will be managed in a healthy way – writing, moving around. Managing my feelings has never been my strong suit, so since 2026 started, I’ve been actively making conscious decisions to grab a pen and write or walk around the apartment.

Am I going to be strict with all these? No. They are guidelines. Just being mindful of what I need and want to work on. No noise. Just me. Little by little. I purposefully didn’t set goals. I didn’t define the outcome of what I want to happen. These focuses will be cemented in my brain and planner as to-do lists and blocks. Like oh! It’s 5 PM, time to get dressed and hop on the treadmill. Oh! It’s 4 PM, time to log off from work. If I fall off one day, no need to feel bad, just pick it back the next day. No guilt. No beating myself up for it. Just continue on as if the fall didn’t happen.