Happy New Year! Yeah, I’m a little late, but plenty of people aren’t counting 2026 until Monday anyway. Every new year starts with promise, whether it’s hope for something good to begin or prayers for something terrible to end, but sometimes I think we put too much pressure on the changing of a calendar. Hell, a lot of people don’t even live by January-December. Remember when you were in school? The end of the year was May or June, and the start of a new life was the start of the academic semester or quarter. The week after Christmas ain’t got nothing on Finals Week!

Don’t get me wrong; I’m all about making changes. New Years Eve is as good a time as any to reflect, reaffirm, and revise your life intentions. Change doesn’t really feel like fireworks and champagne, though, does it? Change can be sluggish. Dull. Hard. Annoying. Unfortunate as it may be, intention and immediate gratification rarely go hand in hand. So, while the new year can a great way to leverage motivation, there’s nothing magical about moving from one number to another.

In one light, this seems super depressing, but stay with me! If you don’t hang your hat on January 1st (or any other specific day for that matter), literally every day becomes a new year.

You can start over any damn day.

Now, this type of thinking can be dangerous too. If you free yourself from the burden of New Years Day (and don’t put any other boundaries or deadlines in its place), you risk losing the structure needed for sustainability self-induced change. For example, if I decide to stop eating Oreos [this will NEVER happen] but keep resetting the clock every day because “every day is a new chance”, I’ll never actually make progress. Going to the gym for the first time on a random Tuesday isn’t any easier than going on January 1st – okay, you might have fewer crowds, but that’s not the point. You do have to do the hard thing in order to get the desired results. You just don’t have to wait until the new year to do it, and you’re allowed do it even if society’s optimal time for change has passed.

To be fair, I’ve never been great at making resolutions. Typically, they read more like pleas to the universe or overly ambitious to-do lists. For the sake of content, though (and maybe to encourage anyone who reads this to think about their goals for whatever their next “year” entails), here’s what I’ve got so far!

Some of these things have built-in deadlines, which is helpful. Some rely entirely on me, which is concerning. Overall, though, I’m hopeful. Happy New Year! [if you come back to this at another time, that sentiment still stands].

-Love, Claire 💜