Feeling Your Way Into the New Year: Who Do You Want to Be in 2026?

What if you didn’t wait for a new year, a Monday, or the “right time” to begin?

In this New Year episode of the Pure Possibilities Podcast, I invite you into a different kind of New Year’s conversation - one rooted in connection, curiosity, and choice rather than pressure, resolutions, or fixing yourself.

Instead of asking “What do I need to change?”, this episode explores deeper questions:

• How do you want to feel - not just this year, but each day?
• Who do you want to be with yourself and in your relationships?
• What happens when curiosity leads instead of pressure?

I share personal reflections, including my New Year ritual, revisiting my year through photos, and why so many resolutions fall apart by mid-January - not because of motivation, but because of disconnection.

This episode also includes a Magic of What If™ card pull with a powerful question for the year ahead:   What if I take radical personal responsibility for my life?

This is an invitation to slow down, reconnect with yourself, and choose how you want to feel and who you want to be - again and again.

✨Reflection Questions:

• How do I want to feel this year?
• How do I want to feel each day?
• Who do I want to be with myself?
• Who do I want to be in my relationships?
• What version of me feels the most honest right now?
• What would change if I actually enjoyed my own company?
• Where am I waiting for permission that I could give myself today?

💜Listen in if you’re ready to move into the new year with intention, self-trust, and presence - without waiting.

Chapters

• 0:00 A New Year Without Waiting
• 3:28 Resolutions Versus Intentional Living
• 6:18 Liking Your Own Company
• 9:28 Reflecting With Your Camera Roll
• 13:08 Autopilot, Memory, And Meaning
• 16:28 Motivation Or Connection Problem

Transcript

Shannon: 0:59

Welcome. You are listening to the Pure Possibilities Podcast. I'm your host, Shannon. Happy New Year. Happy 2026. So before we dive into today's episode, I wanted to share something that's kind of funny and a little bit ironic, I guess. I was getting ready to record this episode, and normally I release my episodes on Tuesdays. And the entire theme of this episode is about not waiting. So I thought it was kind of funny because I was kind of waiting to release it on Tuesday. And then I was like, well, that's kind of silly and completely against everything that you're talking about. So here we are. Several years ago, I recognized that New Year's resolutions are not something for me. Maybe they are for you. And I'm not guilting or shaming you for having New Year's resolutions, but I've noticed that most of the time people set a New Year's resolution because it's what everybody does. You've made it through your holidays and you're ready to dive into the new year and start doing all the things, you know, going to the gym, eating healthy, quitting whatever addiction or habit you have. And it occurred to me that it's like, if you want to do those things, that's amazing. And why wait until the new year just because that's what everybody does? Well, you're not everybody, right? So when we want to do something, when we have that deep connection within our body and in our soul, that it's something that we truly desire, we don't wait. We do it right now because life is happening right now. So this conversation that we're gonna have is a little bit different than the conversations you probably have surrounding new years. Because I don't want this to be filled with pressure, not with resolutions or fixing yourself, but about being more intentional because feeling your way into the new year still matters. Feeling your way into every day still matters. Choosing how you want to feel each day, not just because the calendar turned to January 1st and it's a new year. And so this year I want to add another layer to that question. Who do you want to be? Who do you want to be with yourself? And who do you want to be for others? I've shared before that I often spend New Year's Eve alone, and it's something I genuinely love to do. This year was a little bit different, but my New Year celebration has become kind of my own little ritual. I usually watch the movie New Year's Eve. It's a Gary Marshall movie from I think 2011. And I love it. And several years ago, I just started watching it and I reflect and I spend some time with myself. And the other day I was talking with someone and they said, You sure must like yourself. And I was a little bit caught off guard. I was like, Yeah, I actually do. And I meant it. And I actually, I even said back, I said, Well, if I don't like spending time with me, why would I expect anyone else to? And I'm not saying that from a place of arrogance, but that's that's a relationship. That's a relationship that I've cultivated with myself. It's connection to myself. I genuinely enjoy spending time with me. And with that, um, something else I did, but the end of the year, I I had heard Mel Robbins mention, you know, go through your camera roll month by month and look back on your year. And I do focus throughout my days on on how I want to feel. And I had a pretty incredible year. I had my ups and downs, just like everybody. My life is not perfect, but I had so much fun this year. And I stretched myself farther than I ever have by leaving my job. But when I went back, there were some experiences that I had kind of forgotten about. And they were moments that were important and mattered to me. And it reminded me how often we move through life on autopilot. We're doing and managing and not always noticing. And another thing that people have mentioned to do is like go through and write down one amazing thing that happened each week and put it in a jar. And then on New Year's Eve, you go through and you reflect on that. I don't feel like I'm disciplined enough to do that. So doing the camera roll thing made more sense to me. But it was really fun to do that, to sit back and go through and remember, remember all the fun that I had. And again, I'm not disregarding all of the downtimes, but we're so quick to focus on the negative and the things that went wrong or the struggles that we had, which then kicks into the New Year's resolution of I've got to fix my life. But what if you really try to remember those magical moments that you had and allow yourself to create them on a daily basis? That's why I take a lot of pictures. I take a lot of pictures when I'm out for a walk. I snap pictures of I take pictures of a lot of things. Then I also have moments where I forget to take a picture. I'm like, oh dang it. But when we don't pause to reflect, the year ends, and then we're asking, where did the time go? Did anything really change? Why does it feel like I missed something? And then January comes and we tell ourselves, okay, this is when I'm gonna change everything. This is when I'm finally gonna get it right, the gym, the food, the habits, the discipline. And then by the middle of January, we're shitting all over ourselves, judging ourselves, shaming ourselves, slipping back into familiar habits and patterns, and then making that mean something about who we are. But what if it's not a motivation problem? What if it's a connection problem? And the reason I'm talking about this is because I feel like we get into this habit of, okay, everybody's setting a resolution, so I've got to do it too. And we aren't actually connected to the reason behind why you actually want to make that change, make that shift, do something different. And so when you aren't connected and you're just doing it because it's what everybody else does, that's what causes us to slip back. Here's an example. My sister is so diligent about going to the gym, like she goes multiple times a week. I don't like going to the gym. And so I don't do it. I find other ways to get my movement and my exercise in, but I don't actually like going to the gym. To be fair, I had a bad experience several years ago, and it has kept me from wanting to do it. And I'm sure at some point I will make a decision to at least try again. But for now, I'm fine with that because I'm not gonna go get myself a gym membership and then not go and then get mad at myself for doing that because I know it's not something I'm actually going to do. Whereas she loves going to the gym, she loves the connection with the people, she loves to feel strong, she loves that. And that's amazing for her, but that doesn't mean that it's amazing for me, too. And so I'm not gonna go do that just because she's doing it, because that's not what feels good for me. I enjoy going for walks, I enjoy doing yoga, I enjoy different forms of movement. So, okay, so let me get back on track. So, what if it's a connection problem? So, what if instead of asking, what do I need to fix? you asked, Who do I want to be? Who do I want to be when I wake up in the morning? Who do I want to be when things feel hard? Who do I want to be in my relationships, in my work, in my body? And along with that, how do I want to feel? Because how you feel shapes how you show up in your life. And who you're being shapes how you live. So as we have this conversation about who you're becoming and how often we rush ourselves, it feels like a good moment to allow curiosity to lead instead of pressure. I have a friend who said that 2026 is gonna be the year that she allows curiosity to lead. And I love that for her. I love leading a curious life. Everything is interesting. All right, I'm gonna go ahead and pull a card from the Magic of What If Card Deck Volume Two. And let's see, what's the energy of the new year for us? All right. What if I take radical personal responsibility for my life? What if I take radical personal responsibility for my life? That what's coming through for me as I say that is this is your life. And just because everybody else is setting resolutions doesn't mean that you have to also. Do you want to have goals? Yes, absolutely. But but do the things that feel good for you. Show up for yourself the way you want to. Make yourself a priority. What's important to you? And also be honest with yourself. Because if things are not going the way you want them to, again, don't wait until January 1st to make a change or to shift something. Do it now because life is happening right now in this moment. Like I talk about, it doesn't have to be big, massive things, just little steps. You know, you wake up in the morning and you set the intention of, you know, I really want to have a good day today. I want to feel good because whatever you're focusing on, that's what you're gonna draw in. And so notice the small micro moments in your day. Set alarms on your phone to remind you to check in with yourself. How am I feeling in this moment? Am I feeling off? What could I do? Could I put on some music and shake my ass? Do I need to go for a walk? Like, what do I need? What does my body need in this moment? And taking that radical personal responsibility because it is your life. It's yours. It's not anybody else's. What a perfect card for today. I just invite you to notice what happens in your body when I say, What if I take radical personal responsibility for my life? Like what happens when you feel that? Is there something that you're not being honest with yourself about? Is there an area that you know you want to be different and you're scared to change it? Just notice. Notice what comes up for you and allow that question to be with you as you move through your year. So we are not forcing answers, we're not rushing clarity. I want to leave you with a few reflections. We're gonna do a few more than we have been doing. And again, you don't have to answer them all at once. You don't need to do them perfectly, just notice and be open and curious. All right. So feel free to come back. I will have these in the show description. So if you don't have the time or space to do this right now, and I would really like to invite you to reflect on these questions. How do I want to feel this year? How do I want to feel each day? Who do I want to be with myself? Who do I want to be in my relationships? What version of me feels the most honest right now? What would change if I actually enjoyed my own company? Where am I waiting for permission that I could give myself today? And maybe consider capturing your year as you go. Maybe a note each week. Maybe that's something that feels good for you. Taking photos, maybe doing a photo every day. There's there's an app where you can like do a photo or a video. It's like one minute, or you can take one each day. I cannot remember what it's called, but there's apps for that. There's apps for everything, right? But you could snap a picture every single day. And you know, the moments that you don't want to forget. I I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before too. Like one of the alarms that I have on my phone that goes off every day is what is one thing I want to remember about today? Because I know that I don't journal every single day. Some people love to do that. I don't. However, I want to make sure that I connect with myself at the end of the day. What's one thing I want to remember about today? And sometimes I do write it down, sometimes I don't, but I don't like to set myself up. I don't like to set myself up to guilt and shame myself. So, I mean, I definitely have goals and I have things that I want to do, but I don't intentionally do things or set goals for myself of things I don't actually want to do. Think about that, you know, and ask yourself. Like, I had a conversation with somebody the other day about like dry January. And, you know, it's like, is that something you actually want to do? You know, like I don't necessarily feel like I drink excessively. I go out occasionally and enjoy myself, but I don't like I don't feel like I need to do dry January because I don't, I don't want to, because I don't feel like I need to, and I don't want to do it just because everybody else is doing it. And so I asked that person, I said, is that something you actually want to do? Or are you doing it just because it's what it's what people do? So remember that you don't have to be like everybody else. You don't have to do all of the things that everybody else does because that's what you're supposed to do, because you're not. You don't have to. You get to choose. It's your life. You get to choose, and you get to take radical personal responsibility for your life. Hmm. And remember, you don't have to wait for a new year or a Monday or the first of the month. You get to choose again and again and again. How do you want to feel? How do you want to show up? Who do you want to be every single day? I hope you have a very happy new year. I'm so grateful you're here. I'm excited for what's coming in 2026. And I look outside and the sun is shining. It's really cold out, but the sun is shining and it's really beautiful. And allow yourself to be present, present in your day, present in your life. Take pictures, focus on how you want to feel, and have the most amazing 2026. Have a beautiful, beautiful day and an incredible week. Much love.