January first marks the ultimate fresh start. It is the pinnacle of perfection if only you can snap your fingers and change your life starting right now. For some reason every year I have this urge to pick one thing I can do for 365 days just to be “perfect” but we all know that that is a lie. Perfection does not guarantee success. In fact forcing perfection rather than connecting with the purpose behind your actions is what is holding you back.
What can you really change in 1 year, 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days? The answer is a lot but that is the wrong question. What are you willing to remove from your life right now to see your life change. What are you will to to add into your life to make it easier to change your life.
Change takes time and it is not linear. It’s a scribble across the page filled with ups, downs, reverting back to old habits and catapulting forward into a life you can only dream of.
3 Ways to Start Changing Your Life Right Now:
- Thought Patterns
- Environment
- Daily Habits
Thought Patterns
If you are looking to change your life and you are someone who overthinks, ruminates and maladaptive day dreams you want to start becoming aware of your thought patterns. What do you do when life gets overwhelming or you try to change your actions. Most people who ruminate are trying to hold onto a false sense of control. If you play the argument over and over again while feeding both sides of the conversation you are obviously going to win that argument which makes you feel like you have control over the situation. But you don’t. And that sucks. What you do have control over is how you react to your thoughts, which thoughts you focus on the most and turning up the volume on the thoughts that make you feel safe, heard and empowered to take action.
Environment
Your environment plays a huge roll in your life. It influences how you show up and take action. Your environment includes your home, school, work, extra curricular, friend groups and partners. This part is hard to change especially if you don’t have the means to move or change your degree or let friendships go. However, you can build up boundaries that help you move towards the life you want. Also, if your friends or partner make you feel like shit striving for more, they are not the friendship group for you. I lost my entire group of friends after my relationship ended, it sucked. I tried to maintain a few of them but they would all get together with my ex and I was not invited. I realized then that all of those people were connected through him somehow. I was in my early twenties at the time but it opened my eyes to how much I did not know myself enough to be in a relationship. I couldn’t name my interests, hobbies and dreams. I needed to get to know myself on my terms before getting into a new relationship. Changing your space and the people you let into it will change your life.
Daily Habits
Take action towards your goals every single day. You can find one daily habit that takes you five minutes or less in order to get closer to your goals. It will feel weird at first and your comfort zone will trying to pull you back to your old ways. However, trusting your self to show up every single day is the best thing to work on in 2026. Imagine building a relationship where you feel loved, accepted and heard. Now build that relationship with yourself through daily actions.
The Action Plan:
- Journal out your current thoughts. Stream of consciousness what is coming to mind.
- Look at your environment. If there is one thing you would change what would it be? Why? And then make a plan to do so. If it’s moving out, take a look at how much that would cost, and start saving.
- Pick 1 to 3 daily habits that connect to you big goals and get started on executing those habits.