Things We're Letting Go of This Year
It's 2026. The Year of the Horse, and while we're not prioritizing instantaneous breakthrough and intense pressure to achieve miraculous growth, we're putting one foot in front of another in the right direction to get closer to where we want to be.
This year, we're (yes, as a collective) letting go of the things that no longer serve us.
How do we do that, though? Is setting up a vision board and aligning our goals enough? Well, that's part of it, and we're gonna explore more of that later this month. But first, to figure out what we need to do, we're going to lean into what not to do or stop doing to set ourselves up for success.
Here are the things we're letting go of this year.
1. Obsessive Planning
Planning is good. I, myself, am an INFJ (if you believe in MBTI - the J representing a preference for planning), and that means that I love me a good, well-thought-out plan. However, we need to acknowledge that a lot of the time, planning is lowkey a form of procrastination that went to private school. By all means, plan. Set up goals and milestones with objectives and incremental plans on how to achieve them, but stay mindful about the ratio between planning and overthinking and action and execution. Action and execution should be the priority this year. It's better to learn through action and achieve small wins than not to start at all and be stuck with the 'what ifs' when you reflect on why you didn't achieve your goals.
2. Falling Off
If you can help it. Again, falling off is okay. We're not trying to demonize any of the things on this list today. However, we need a mindset change that can prevent us from falling off or even perceiving falling off as failure. Falling off is kind of inevitable. Everyone does it. But with efficient systems in place, we can both prevent it and ensure that in the event that it does happen (because it can), we know how to get back our center of gravity and get back on track. For example, if you've set a financial goal for the month but found yourself overspending in one month, you can take another look at your budget and decide an aspect to cut down spending on for the next month to get back on track.
3. Sweating the Small Stuff
This is coming from someone who definitely sweats the small stuff. I love a good crashout just as much as the next person, but WE are not doing that anymore. Choose your battles. In the face of adversity, take a step back and decide how big the scale of this problem is. If it's something small that can be resolved easily, take steps to move on to the resolution. If it feels like you have a bigger problem on your hands, take a breath. Is it something that's out of your hands? Don't sweat it. If none of your direct actions can change the outcome, then you need to let it go. This plays a huge role in keeping focus and even regulating your nervous system.
I've added a video by Mel Robbins about the Let Them Theory in my recommendations at the end of the newsletter. It ties in the idea of letting go by not sweating the small stuff. Make sure to check it out!
4. Places We're Not Going Anymore
You might've seen videos like this trending on social media about how the places we're not going anymore are: above and beyond, the extra mile, out of our way, etc., but as funny as these short-form videos are, they're speaking nothing but truth. Unless it's for yourself, in 2026, we're no longer overextending ourselves for the sake of others.
5. Productivity as a Measure of Self-Worth
This is a big one. One of my personal resolutions for the year is to learn how to rest properly. If you're someone like me who doesn't know how to rest and feels like they need to be productive, otherwise you're wasting time, then this one is for us. This year, we're letting go of tying our self-worth to productivity. Again, productivity is a good thing. There's no doubt about that, but feeling like you wasted time if you did something outside of developing yourself or your vision, can easily distort your sense of self-worth. Let's be kinder to ourselves this year and also take time to rest properly. Whether that means prioritizing your sleep, doing a hobby that you don't feel the need to monetize, or even reading a fiction book instead of a self-help book once in a while, embrace the idea that productivity is not tied to who you are and your value.
Letting go doesn't mean becoming less ambitious. It means choosing sustainable growth over burnout and self-inflicted pressure. Remember, it's all about intentional momentum for the long run.
