Ready, Renewal, GO!

It’s New Year’s Day! Whoop! Whoop! Happy New Year! Blessings to you and yours—you know, family, friends, pets, neighbors, all of those in your tribe. It’s going to be a great year. We’ve got this.

Do you have your habit ready?

In my last post, I shared that my habit for 2026 is to live my authentic life. I listed some things that living authentically would look like for me. Let’s revisit, shall we?

Living my authentic life means:

• Saying NO unapologetically.

• Not worrying about things I cannot change.

• Turning off the hyperbolic, frantic noise of social media.

• Loving more.

• Showing gratitude more.

• Doing what I want to do, when I want to do it—not because someone else thinks I should.

• Understanding that I don’t have to make things perfect for others.

I know I need to be more specific as I move through my days. I could make SMART goals for each value, but honestly, that feels like a lot of work. I’ve found that creating SMART goals sometimes takes time away from actually implementing what I want to do.

I suppose I could make one SMART goal for living an authentic life. It might sound something like this:

In 2026, I will live more authentically by identifying my top values and completing weekly reflections and quarterly boundary-setting actions that align my daily choices with those values.

Bla-de bla-de bla-de bla… right?

So instead, I’m just going to do.

It’s 11:00 a.m., Thursday, January 1, 2026. Let’s check in.

• What have I said NO to today?
  I said no to bed-rotting this morning.

• What have I decided not to worry about?
  I’m not worrying about not having black-eyed peas in the house today.

• What frantic, hyperbolic social media noise have I turned off?
  I haven’t opened TikTok today.

• How have I shown love?
  I sent my hen friends a Happy New Year’s text.

• How have I shown gratitude?
  I told my children how much I appreciate them being in my life—and how much I love them.

• What have I done today that I wanted to do?
  I took a shower, did my makeup, and fixed my hair. I have no plans. I’m not going anywhere. I’m not seeing anyone.

• What am I not making perfect for anyone today?
  I’m not going out of my way to make a traditional New Year’s Day meal. I may just have a ham sammich. Get over it.

Just realizing that I’m making an effort to live my authentic life is making me breathe easier. I’m smiling—just because. I will continue my weekly reflections about values and boundaries. I already do that anyway.

Living an authentic life is a huge habit. It has a lot of moving parts. I’ve been focusing on habits instead of resolutions for a few years now. (If you haven’t read Atomic Habits by James Clear, I highly recommend it—see the recommended reading on my main site.)

But you don’t have to eat this elephant all at once.

• Have you thought about drinking one more glass of water each day?

• Making your bed in the morning?

• Taking a walk around your neighborhood a few times each week?

• Treating yourself to a mani/pedi every so often?

Let me know what you’ve decided to include in your habit for 2026. Let’s celebrate this New Year together.

Blessings,
Bethanne