How to make the most of 2026 with early intention-setting

January has a way of arriving with pressure attached in the form of “resolutions.”

You make promises to overhaul your life, fix what’s broken, and become someone more disciplined or more polished than you were before. But resolutions rarely honor where we’re actually standing. I believe there’s a better way to take advantage of the new year, and that’s by using it as a chance to reset and evaluate your goals.

That doesn’t mean overhauling everything, making entirely new habits or living new lives. And frankly, forcing these things just creates more distance between who we are and who we think we should be.

Setting intentions from your evaluations instead invites us to pay attention to how we are actually living and decide what deserves care moving forward.

To get started, ask yourself these three questions:

What drained you this past year?
What nourished you?
Where did you abandon yourself to keep things smooth, easy, acceptable?

These questions are not meant to be answered quickly. Sit with them the way you would with a trusted friend and let the truth surface slowly. The goal is not to tally wins and failures but to understand the patterns you’ve been living inside.

Many of us confuse effort with alignment. We work harder when something feels off, assuming more discipline will fix it, but often what’s missing is not effort but permission. Permission to rest, change our minds, and stop settling for versions of ourselves that no longer fit.

Listen to how your body responds to the first set of questions. Then, move on to:

What environments make you feel expanded rather than braced?
Which conversations leave you depleted?
Who do you feel most yourself around, without performing or proving?

Evaluating how you spend your days reveals your true priorities far more than any goal list. If your schedule doesn’t reflect what you say matters, it’s time to adjust.

From this place, intentions can emerge naturally.

An intention might sound like:

I intend to protect my energy.
I intend to create more space between my reactions and my responses.
I intend to move toward what feels honest, even when it’s uncomfortable.

Notice how these are not outcomes but orientations to guide how you show up rather than what you must achieve. That’s because intentions are meant to be lived with and not completed.

Intentions can change as you change. They can also be revisited on ordinary days, not just when motivation is high. This flexibility allows you to realign your life, one step at a time.

Another important part of resetting is acknowledging what you’re carrying forward. You don’t begin the year as a blank slate. You arrive with grief, lessons, attachments, and hopes that didn’t pan out the way you expected. It’s important to acknowledge all of these so you can let them go.

Ask yourself what you’re ready to release and what still needs tending.

Release might look like loosening your grip on expectations that were never yours to begin with, like working a corporate job, earning a fixed income, or not traveling much. It’s OK to outgrow the things society told you to strive for.

Another helpful practice is to choose a single word or phrase that reflects how you want to feel as you move through the year. Not what you want to become, but how you want to experience your life. 

Any of these words can work as examples:

Curious.
Steady.
Spacious.
Honest.
Rooted.

Let that word serve as a compass, and when decisions arise, check in. Ask yourself, “Does this move me closer to that feeling or further away?” This simple pause can change everything.

Remember that growth is rarely linear. You will circle back to old habits. You will forget your intentions some days. None of this erases the work you’re doing. In fact, it’s part of it, because resetting is not a one-time event. It’s a practice.

As the year unfolds, let yourself evolve without needing to set strict resolutions. Identify your intentions and then let them meet you where you realistically are rather than where you think you should be by now.

Remember: January is just an invitation, and you get to decide how you answer it.