The turn of the year is something that makes many people think about their plans, wishes and goals for the new year. After about 15 years of managing various sales and service units, I am no longer a big fan of goal setting in my personal life, as it often repeats the human-doing part instead of human-being.
However, this new-year-new-me thing can be taken as a good opportunity to think about how I want to feel every day? What kind of experience do I want to have in life and what do I need to do to get there? How do I want to experience my relationships at home, at work and with myself? How do I want to experience life as a whole? How do I want to be? What do I no longer want to do and be?
For many, of course, the New Year is secondary, and a personal birthday is more important as a milestone in the mid-year review. It is true that the whole concept of taking stock can go over the top at some point, and with the goals and targets we set ourselves, we create the side effects of guilt and shame that we have not moved towards our goals with sufficient speed. This is often the case with goals that are about proving, showing, doing, being something for someone else.
Whether it’s a change of year (year of life or calendar year), the solstice or the change of quarters, or other significant events in life, people often want some peace, order and clarity in their lives.
There is even a search for balance. This has always seemed strange to me. After all, balance is stasis. In order for something to be balanced, it stands still. But life never stands still. Perhaps it is harmony and peace to cope with life without losing oneself in the process?
My vision for 2026 describes exactly this – to bring something into the world through myself that has not yet been brought. In short: I let life happen through me and I come away with my must-have-wanted story.
Here I am reminded of a thought that Meelike Saarna said to one character in her book “The Girl with Two Hearts”:
“You know, even if you manage to get your life – as you say – in order, to put everything in its place, to think it clear, it’s only clear for that moment, that’s the clarity of that hour or that day. But then comes a new day, new things, new people, new ideas, thoughts, smells, places…. and it changes, shifts. You experience sometimes disappointment, sometimes pain, sometimes joy, and the clarity you seek is always only a past clarity, that of the previous moment, no longer valid now. “
So as you make your plans for the year change in your life, have the maturity to know and notice that life is never finished or mature and that we are just sometimes ahead of life with our concepts of how it should be, but it’s not. We are perfect at every moment and always, but not finished.
Have a wonderful time already being perfect despite the change of year!
Ah yes, this is the topic we discuss with Reelika Jeferjevin the 163rd episode of our podcast “Leadership without leadership”. Come and have a listen or watch us on the audio or video channel of your choice.
