2026.1: Good days

What do you think is more likely to be true? That you have little influence over your experience of life? Or that you have more influence than you can imagine?

Why does it feel so hard to embrace the idea that we can really create our own reality. This idea is hardly far-fetched. I'm not trying to create some cynical commentary of society here, but I feel like somewhere along the way we are introduced to the idea that we are relatively powerless. That maybe we are entitled to preference but that somehow the permission of whether we can do what we want, or experience the life we want lays externally.

Of course there are things outside of us that we cannot determine: like what other people do, the state of the economy, or how we feel moment to moment. But what if we get to choose where we place our expectations, attention, and efforts. We get to choose where we place our locus of control.

If happiness is the difference between expectations and reality, then having expectations of things that we cannot control is doomed to fail. What if life can be as simple as deciding what makes a good day - the presence of things you value, and striving to bring those things into each day. Maybe a good day is as simple as taking time to read a good book, having a conversation with a friend, or going on a walk and listening to the birds sing.

I wish you a 2026 filled with richness, substance, and good days.