Guys, welcome to 2026! Not that I was already here, but you know what I’m saying. As we start a new year, I like to reflect on what I will be doing. As you may have noticed from last month, I’m a massive fan of To-do lists, but the reason is that I’m a bigger fan of having yearly goals that I can achieve. Why do I like my yearly goals? Well, for me, it’s a way for me to reflect on my year and see what I’ve done. I enjoy reviewing what I’ve accomplished at the end of the year so that I can plan for the next one. Yes, I’ve already done this for this year, so I’m set and ready to go.

1) My goals for this year – I have a couple of big goals for this year. I usually have a few goals, mostly because I enjoy accomplishing things, but also because it’s a way for me to track my progress throughout the year. Simply tracking everything I got done worked for a while, but then I realized I needed more meaning behind my goals. This led me to finding themes (for lack of a better term) for each year. My theme is usually condensed into one word, which allows me to focus my efforts and center on what I want to accomplish. In some cases, I would focus on learning, so the theme that I would use would be “learning.” I have had some years where I felt terribly disorganized, so the theme that year was “Organize.” So what is the theme for 2026?

2) Do it scared – This year, I’m trying to do stuff that, for lack of a better term, scares me. Not in the traditional sense of being spooked by things, but instead, I’m taking on a couple of challenges that have been far too long in the back of my mind, freaking me out. One of them is going to sign up for an industry certification that I have tried before, but failed to achieve. Frankly, I was unable to complete all the learning required to take the test, so technically I didn’t “Fail” per se, but I felt like I did at the time. It’s been a black mark that I hope to wipe out this year. Another goal which has me absolutely shaking in my boots is starting a podcast. I’ll discuss this further in the introductory episode, but I plan to start each month with an episode that will establish the theme for that month. It’s scaring me, frankly, because for a long time I didn’t actually like the sound of my own voice. This is a challenge for me because I will have to listen back to the material I’m recording, but also live with the fact that there will (Hopefully) be a lot of people listening to me.

3) Looking forward to seeing how it works out – I’m always hopeful at the beginning of the year. This, I would assume, is like most people who stand up at the beginning of the year and say “I’m going to do THAT THING this year!” The only difference (I think) is that I’ve spent the last couple of months sorting out my goals, planning when and how I’m going to get them all done. I usually start the year fairly confident that I can do whatever it is that I’ve set myself to do. That being said, it goes one of three ways: I succeed (the best option), I change my goal (Can occasionally happen), or I fail to do the thing (Which is not optimal). I always hope for the best and do what I can to get everything done.

This is the time of year to be hopeful. It’s the time when our lives can be full of possibilities and hope for the coming year. I will be continuing to bring you information on how to Organize Your Digital life, and I hope that you can set yourself goals for the year and achieve them.

Happy New Year!