Daniel's Domain

The start of the new year, for me, doesn’t necessarily call for resolving the previous year’s issues or ‘resolving’ yourself to new goals. I get that the benchmark isn’t arbitrary, but I think it can be a poor time to add more on to the pile.

The best times to set goals, for me, are when my other priorities get checked off. As an example, moving. The change of environment changes some pretty important variables – commute, living expense, and free time. When the move happens, the variables change, and so does the capability to execute on your goals. Lower commute, more free time. More living expense, more planning and monitoring of money, less free time. It could be minutes on the hour, or hours on the day. Point is – the benchmark here is the change of the living environment – and not the calendar year.

The ritual of a new year’s resolution is still valuable for alignment though. It brought me back here to write something after all. I like calling the ritual the new year’s alignment. And it works like this: What did you do in 2025? What did you like doing? What didn’t you like doing? From what you like and what you dont, what can you change? What are you, without a doubt, doing in 2026? The key here is that you are focusing on what you did do and not what you didn’t or ‘should have’ done.

Focusing on the latter can convince you to buy a gym membership that you don’t actually need, or have the capacity to execute on.

Doing mental inventory on things that haven’t even happened can be a big waste of time and emotion. You have to be true to what’s really on your mind.

To go with the ‘gym’ example: Did you actually spend a lot of time thinking that you need to get back into the gym? If you did, then maybe a gym membership is warranted. Did you spend a lot of time thinking “I need to take better care of myself”. That doesn’t necessarily warrant the membership. Find the precise words – align vague generalizations with specific benchmarks. For me, writing in the wordpress site is ‘taking better care of myself’.

With all this said, I wish anyone reading a Happy New Year and I hope you find the time to introspect and be sure take good care of yourselves.