Even though I never blogged about it, I completed my usual, personal “year-in-review” process at the end of December. As the year winds down, I typically spend a few days looking back over all of my “documentation” (planner, journals, blog posts, photos, that kind of thing) to remind myself of the entirety of the year-just-ended. Basically, I review what-I-did and what-I-thought-about-it. It’s a nice way for me to “finish” off the old year . . . just as the new one is starting. Thus completed, on January 1, fresh journal and new pen in hand, I wrote these words . . . “In looking back, I can see that 2025 was not my best mental health year.”

And it really wasn’t.

Although I thought I had bolstered myself for what was to come, it became abundantly clear shortly after the inauguration that I really had not prepared myself (at all) for the ongoing, relentless, and tedious onslaught of bad news. I was completely undone by it all. My energy was drained. Despair set in. And it wasn’t just the breaking of the government. I was also completely beset by AI and the enshittification of technology, social media in general, my appalling lack of an attention span, and the sheer . . . grossness . . . of so, so many people.

I’ve had it, though. I’m officially sick of myself now.
I am determined to . . . recalibrate . . . in 2026.
I want to find my way out of that pit . . . and back to myself.

I decided to move slowly through January with a “state of strategic stillness,” giving myself some breathing room, some thinking room. No resolutions for me. No word-for-the-year. No goals. No plans. No new programs or classes or self-improvement ANYthings.

Just . . . space.
And . . . time.
To ponder and figure out how to find my way back to myself. Because even in this shitty historical place we find ourselves right now, we still need to get through our days as best we can. Y’know?

For the past many years (over 10 for sure), I’ve been starting out the year by creating a More/Less list. A list of things I want MORE of in my life and a list of things I want LESS of in my life. My lists always start out way too long and very scattered. But I keep refining and revisiting, combining ideas and streamlining . . . until I come up with something relatively simple and (usually) surprisingly balanced.

This process works well for me. It helps me come up with a general direction for myself . . . without pinning me down to specific (and probably premature) annual goals. Here’s my current list as it stands right now, mid-January. I’m sure I’ll keep refining it. Because it’s a process, and it will continue to evolve.

But this is where I am . . . for now.

I’ll continue to write about things on my More/Less list. Because, of course, there are stories, thoughts, and ideas behind everything you can see on my list. (These things, after all, have made it this far in my process for a reason. . . )

Things feel better already for me . . . just to have started this process. (Even though this really is a shitty historical time to be living through.) I plan to keep picking through the shards of my broken hopes and dreams here in 2026 . . . while trying to maintain my sanity – and my humanity.

I need to find a way to live in this world, even though the ground has very much shifted under my feet.

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How about you? How are you feeling about the new year unfolding before you? And . . . feel free to ask me any questions about my More/Less process, and let me know if you’d like me to address anything you see on my list.