It wouldn’t be surprising if your immediate answer to the question in today’s title was, “…for it to be at least a little better than 2025.” If you think about it, there have probably been several years in recent memory for which you had the same answer. As M. Scott Peck says in the very first line of his remarkable book, The Road Less Traveled, “Life is difficult…”
Traditionally, people ask what your New Year’s resolutions are. Usually, resolutions are an exercise in self-deception. You start off with the best of intentions. You’re going to lose weight. You’re going to quit smoking. You’re going to make more effort to reach out to friends and family.
You get a few weeks into the year and already the resolutions are behind you and nothing has really changed. It’s not uncommon. It goes this way for most people. So much for resolutions.
The second of Stephen R. Covey’s legendary 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is
“Begin with the end in mind”
This is probably the habit I cite most often, which is because I am particularly focused on end results. In fact, the “title” on my business card and autosig is “Senior Resultant.” I’m big on results, mainly because every great manager I ever worked for instilled that focus in me and I truly believe it has served me well.
If you’re someone who keeps a journal, this would be a good time to record your answers to today’s question so you can look back next year and see how you did, because I’m going to ask you to think not so much about what you want to do as what results or outcomes you would like to see come out of the coming year.
Some examples:
· Your current net worth is $37,000. That’s because you have that much in your bank account and you have no other assets. Today is not the day to plan out how you’re going to increase that, but it’s a good day to simply set your goal for what you want that amount to be next year when I ask what you want in 2027.
· You’re working in a job you simply cannot stand. You hate going to work each day, but you do have to make a living. By the end of this year do you want to see yourself still in this job, or are you ready to commit to finding a new one?
· You are starkly aware of the impacts of climate change. You want to see some reversal in the causes, and that requires new legislation.
· You are not satisfied with your political representative. You want to see a new representative in place.
One thing to observe about these examples is they are each of one of two categories. Some you have the personal agency to impact and affect. Others you don’t. In between, there are some for which you have some agency, but it is limited. St. Francis of Assisi asked for the strength to change the things he could, the serenity to accept the things he could not, and the wisdom to know the difference. Wise words to heed here.
“Tabula rasa”, a concept first introduced by Aristotle, is Latin for “blank slate”
The coming of the new year is anything but a blank slate. Everything we have written on it in previous years, and everything that has been written by others, remains with us as we transition into the new year. It would truly be wonderful if we could start the new year fresh and brand new, but that will never be the case.
This makes the new year a really good time to assess the current state of your life and ask yourself how you’d like to see things change during the new year just beginning. Put everything you want in the context of what you currently have and ask yourself where you want to see yourself by the next time we reach the new year.
I suggest this approach because the planning involved in creating positive change in anything, especially your life, can be overwhelming. It is not something you’ll achieve in a day. So don’t daunt yourself today. Begin with the end in mind. Identify the categories of things that are truly important to you, state where you are with each of them right now, then project where you’d like to be at the end of 2026.
From this you can begin to plan how to get from where you are to where you want to be by next year in each of the categories you’ve identified. These categories may be personal, financial, emotional, spiritual, physical, or more. They’re your categories. You don’t have to ever share them with anyone. You just need to set a plan for each one over the next few weeks and then track your progress toward fulfillment of that plan.
The only way you’ll ever get to where you want to go is to start off knowing where that is. Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu told us “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” That step should at least be in the right direction.
Peck was absolutely right and life is indeed difficult. But ask yourself if you’d have it any other way. Challenges engage us. They make us think. Many people don’t feel alive until they’re confronted with a truly worthy challenge. It may not feel that way when you’re in the midst of suffering, but in many ways the purpose of life includes overcoming adversity, because when you do you have cause to celebrate.
Ultimately, you always have the choice to embrace the challenge and overcome it, or to surrender to it. Every surrender takes you down a road you likely don’t want to go down. Instead, revel in accepting and facing your challenges head on. You will be astounded by how much more you are capable of than you thought.
Begin in your journal today. Record your categories, your current state in each one, and your desired end state by the end of this new year. Then begin planning how you’re going to achieve each one.
You are among the most important people to me. My decision to publish here on Substack was driven by the fact that I could write for my readers and only for my readers. No influence from advertisers on sponsors, because I have none and won’t take on any. This is why I depend upon your subscriptions to keep the publication going.
For a writer like me there is nothing more gratifying than being able to create valuable content for my readers. I have found no better place to do that than here.
So, what I want in 2026 is to expand our community of readers dramatically. To reach more readers who can participate in the dialogue I’d very much like to see grow in 2026 with more of you sharing your thoughts, your input about what you want and how to go about getting it. The larger our community, and the more members who participate actively, the more we all learn and grow from the experience.
To live your intentions, you must first come to know what they are.
Please share “What Do You Want” with anyone you know who you feel would benefit from reading it as you have.
Please stop at the end of reading each post and send a comment or reply. Participate in the chat. Become an active member of this community of people who wish to drive their lives through their own intentions.
Thanks for reading this in 2025, and for continuing to read into the new year. May this coming year be filled with everything you want and may you find great joy and comfort in that.
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