The Real Opportunity of 2026

Every New Year we make these promises to ourselves to change something. It’s not so much that we are unthankful for our lives, but rather an inner quest to do something a different way, see something a different way or experience something a different way. And for all the lofty promises we make to ourselves, nothing really happens because nothing really changed. Change in its most fundamental aspect has first to occur in the mind. It is not the starting point, it is our starting point. We fail to change our lives to any appreciable degree because we fail to change our minds to any appreciable degree. A mental tête-à-tête where one side begs for change and the other side refuses the change. It’s as if we are waiting to feel the effects of the change without first making the actual change. What does the changed side look like? Start there. You are not going to solve your biggest problems with the same thinking that brought you there. Jesus, seems obvious. You have to train yourself to think differently. Instead of replaying those old stories on an endless loop, you have to come up with some new stories. As in, imagine them and see them like you used to do before you felt like you got too old. Nothing new under the sun? Yet in your mind, nothing new under the sun. Have you ever dared to see yourself living your life in a different direction? Different ending? Happy ending? And the irony? You keep playing past movies that are disproportionately negative and defeated, in your thinking, while lamenting the life you live today compared to the life you want. Oh, the irony. You have to write a different script. You have to become assertive with your life again. You have to consciously change those pictures in your mind. It’s not benign and it’s not bullshit. The life you live at this moment is still a direct parallel to the life you live in your mind. The real opportunity of 2026 is the ability to change your mind and subsequently change your life.

Lest you claim I’m fanciful and ethereal, I’m not talking about magic thinking that once encountered leaves a trail of gold dust that lasts forever. Your mind, like it or not, is already generating images and stories and predicted outcomes. It insists on supplying you with a running narrative about who you are and more importantly aren’t. It is almost like it is just running independently with an odd interjection on our part. But, that is just the thing. The infrequency of our interjection. It’s a wieldy instrument that must be roped in and tamed. You cannot trust it to run default programs because those natural defaults are never flattering. If you do not direct it, it will continue functioning. But, you will have so much garbage, so much self-hate, so much cruelty abiding there instead. How long have you lived in the world? The world isn’t rooting for you. It votes against you at all times without exception. So you can’t keep turning over all your votes. Letting your mind go wherever or else going where it is leading is not controlling what is yours to control. It is way too passive or said better, way too unknown. It is not taking charge of the one thing of which you can take complete charge. If you do not consciously seek to take charge of it, it will continue producing fruit in accordance with what you fed it. It will assign all of your limits, what you can and cannot have, all that you deserve, minimized, reduced and checked back for a lifetime. It is no accident and it has nothing to do with good or bad luck. It is the part you have to get right and it is the first part of finding the change you seek. Real, real opportunity.

Here’s the thing. Before making any plans to change, there is a requirement for humility. You and I have to humble ourselves in our own estimation. Instead of making up stories explaining what sucks, we need to be honest about what sucks. The things that suck are the things that need to change. What part of your life aint so good? It is okay to say it. Our minds know when we are pretending. It sees through the sham. The grand key is to become brutally honest about what is, with an equally urgent request to understand. But, you have to get honest. You have to accept that you might be the problem. Yes, you. It may surprise you to actually see some of what has been going on in your head. I mean like OMG see it. Some old, led by the world, not controlled thinking, mixed in with failures, hurts and losses produces a horrible mental brew that is not easy to shake, especially when you are not even aware it exists. Humility helps you see. Humility doesn’t humiliate you. Humility doesn’t humble you as it only works when you are already humble. Humility asks God for help and God always answers. Humility is willing to say, “I have no fucking idea.” The reality is you do not know and I do not know either. But Someone does know and humility will get you there quicker. This is the real opportunity of 2026.

You can change any aspect of your life if you need to and the choice will ever be yours. Stop scanning the horizon waiting for your ship to come in. The ship has to come in, in your mind first. Start learning how to control your thoughts, your ideas, your conclusions, in order to begin the imagery of the life you do want. 2026 is your year!

Just some good thoughts…