January 2026 - Elevated Mind and Movement

I’ve been talking about motivation a lot lately, and I’ve noticed that a major theme with people is that motivation is difficult to find when the world feels heavy.

And the world feels pretty heavy right now, doesn’t it?

So here’s what I have found helpful. Motivation does not have to be one thing. I think we have all learned that when you set a goal for yourself, you also have to find your “why”. For instance, “I want to eat healthier because I want to live a long life”. Sounds good…but…what happens on the days when you are sick, or tired, or the world is burning and you think to yourself “Maybe I don’t care if I live to 100 if that means I will be sick, tired or living in a fascist state”.

Suddenly, you might not feel so motivated to eat healthy.

So, instead let’s think about motivation as being a changeable thing. Some days you might wake up angry- maybe anger is your motivator that day. “I will violently crunch all the carrots!” Other days you might feel drained and tired- and making life simple might be your motivator. “I’m too tired to chew and I don’t want to cook; I think I will toss these carrots in the blender with some strawberries and ice cream.”

Work with what you have each day. Don’t try to force what you don’t.

Well, here we are.

It is the first Monday of 2026. We are five days into this year. How are you feeling about it so far?

One thing to know about me…

I HATE New Year’s Resolutions. First of all, nothing magically changed at midnight to make me a totally different person from last year. None of the things I had zero motivation for last year are going to suddenly become my new guiding star. Secondly, I’ve always felt like a resolution meant I was doing something wrong before that I needed to “resolve”. I have rarely ever been excited about judging myself negatively straight out of the gate. Third, um…pressure anyone? Do we really love being stressed and guilted into doing something? Not me!

Now, this isn’t to say that we cannot use the New Year as a fresh start. I just prefer to think in terms of “intentions”.

Instead of setting a goal like “I will eat vegetables three times a day” or “I will lose 15 lbs by March”, I prefer to think in less rigid terms.

I set my intentions around what I want to see happen in the coming year. “I want to age in a healthy way”. Maybe that means vegetables and weight loss….maybe not. The point is, I get to re-assess every day what that means for me. Maybe today I am feeling tired, will pushing myself to meet all my goals result in healthy aging? Sometimes it might. Other days, that might look like sleeping in a little longer or reducing stress. It could mean going to the gym to do strength training, or it might mean exercising my brain by curling up on the couch with a good book.

I like the flexibility to rewrite what it means to follow my intention each day, rather than have a black and white goal that I either check off as having accomplished or not.