What Do You Want in 2026?
As it is with every year, I once again find myself in the time between Christmas and New Year, deeply pondering existential questions. What did the past year present to me, and how did I respond? What dreams did I have at the beginning of the year that remain untouched? What do I want from the year to come?
What do I want in 2026?
It sounds like a simple question.
And yet, when I sit with it — really sit with it — the answer refuses to be neat.
My answer comes easily and not at all at the same time:
I want to be happy, healthy, and at peace.
It feels true. It feels grounded. It feels like the right answer.
And inevitably, then the next question arrives, uninvited:
But what does that actually mean?
How do you quantify happiness? How do you measure peace? What does “healthy” look like beyond numbers, scales, or spreadsheets?
This is where the pondering begins.
—
From the earliest of days, we’re taught to measure outcomes, not states of being.
“Be a good girl”, “Get your grades up”, “Our team performs at this level”, “You have to meet this target”, “Get “this” done by “then”…”.
Our lives are governed by KPI’s and metrics, and so the rat race continues. Christmas rolls into Easter that rolls into winter. Then we start looking forward to summer, wishing the days away, just for that holiday to disappear in the blink of an eye.
We lose ourselves in the endless rushing to get to everything and everyone.
And this is usually the point where the sensible, spreadsheet-loving part of my brain rolls its eyes and mutters something along the lines of:
“Perhaps those hippies had a point.”
You know the ones. Barefoot. Grounded. Talking about presence and alignment while the rest of us were busy colour-coding our five-year plans. My buddy Nic comes to mind.
Annoyingly… they may not have been entirely wrong.
We know how to set goals:
Lose the weight
Hit the target
Reach the milestone
Tick the box
But happy, healthy, and at peace don’t live comfortably inside checklists.
They live in the body. In the breath. In the quiet moments, no one applauds.
So perhaps the question isn’t “How do I measure this?”
Perhaps it’s:
“How will I know I’m living it?”
—
Happiness doesn’t announce itself
Happiness, for me, doesn’t look like constant joy or smiling through every day.
It looks more like:
Waking up without a knot in my chest
Laughing without checking who’s watching
Looking forward to something most days
Feeling aligned instead of performing
Happiness shows up quietly. It’s not fireworks. It’s relief.
—
Health is more than discipline
Health isn’t punishment disguised as self-improvement.
It looks like:
Energy that lasts through the day
Fewer crashes and less recovery from burnout
Moving my body because it feels good, not because I’m chasing worth
Sleeping deeply enough that mornings don’t feel like battles
Health is rhythm. Not restriction.
—
Peace is often what’s no longer there
Peace is the hardest to define — and the easiest to recognise.
It looks like:
Quieter self-talk
Less explaining, justifying, proving
Faster recovery after emotional triggers
Choosing rest without guilt
Peace isn’t passive. It’s protected.
It shows up as boundaries. As discernment. As saying no without rehearsing the apology.
—
Maybe we don’t quantify — we notice
Instead of asking have I achieved happiness?
What if we asked how many days this week did I feel grounded?
How often did I choose myself without explanation?
How quickly did I return to centre when life shook me?
Not perfection. Frequency.
—
Identity over outcomes
This shift changed everything for me:
In 2026, I want to live as someone who is happy, healthy, and at peace.
Not chasing it. Not earning it.
Living as her.
So now the questions sound different:
What does that woman do when she’s tired?
How does she speak to herself?
What does she no longer tolerate?
What does she allow herself to enjoy?
You don’t chase peace. You become someone who lives in alignment with it.
—
Let the answer evolve
Some seasons define happiness as joy. Other seasons define it as rest. Both are valid.
You don’t need a final definition. You need a direction that feels true in your body.
So if your answer for 2026 is happy, healthy, and at peace, know this:
You’re not vague. You’re wise.
You’re not avoiding specificity. You’re choosing depth.
And perhaps that’s the most honest beginning of all.
And yes… perhaps those hippies had a point after all. Not because they rejected structure — but because they understood that a life well‑lived can’t be measured only in numbers.
—
What do you want in 2026 — and how will you know you’re living it?
