This New Year's Date Was Different

Day 4 of the New Year and I’m already (Still?) living my intention. How about you?

This year, it’s no longer about pleasing other people, or proving that I can adjust to a difficult person or situation and make it work. Instead, it’s about finding a realistic path forward that makes the most sense for my lifestyle.

In my last article, The Important Lesson I Learned from My New Year's Date, I described how I spent New Year’s 2024/2025 with a plant that had potential, but never blossomed.

For this year, 2025/2026, my choice was clear - a plant that already showed clear promise of new blooms. As you can see in the picture, Ms. Orchid is already opening new flowers!

If you want to know why I spent New Year’s home alone with a plant as a date, that’s covered in the previous article. No regrets - I had a great time with Ms. Orchid and some friends at a dance party over Zoom!

Other than learning how to care for an orchid, I’ve been productively spending my time figuring out more ergonomic and easeful ways of living. Given my chronic health issues, this is a good use of my energy.

Since the start of this year (4 days) I’ve already had a variety of technical issues that have further pushed me to find new ways of dealing with things. I’m no longer trying to make things function - when they clearly don’t.

And I am viewing the world through a new lens of what’s really going to work for me long term, rather than what everybody else does or thinks I should do.

It takes time and effort to change, but I think it’s worth it to make improvements that will ultimately make life better.

If every moment of your time had a price and it was valuable, how would you spend it?

What’s your philosophy and intention this year?