You Don’t Need a New You.

Dear Diary,

I find that I’m getting awfully tired of the “new year, new you” diatribe that pesters us at the end of every year. Time to get back to the gym, make new goals, and vow to do better at this or that.

Obviously, bettering ourselves should be a goal every day of the year. But this reminder that there needs to be a ‘new’ you does nothing but make us feel like the ‘old’ one wasn’t good enough. And when we hear the same message every year, it can make us feel—even if we miraculously meet each goal— that we will never be good enough.

I say, Fuck That. You don’t need a new you. You don’t even need improvement. You just need to continue to expand the You that is already perfect just the way it is. Okay, maybe not perfect, but you know. Certainly good enough.

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Only in the past day did I land on what my word of the year will be. This concept is my replacement for any resolutions that tend to only make us all feel like failures if life legitimately gets in the way of fulfilling them.

A word is a feeling-state more than an actual goal…’cuz any accomplishment you may be working toward is going to be much easier to attain if you are going for a general feeling-state instead. As we change throughout the year, so can our goals. Who cares what you do, as long as whatever you decide feels like your ultimate soul destination?

Here are my steps to finding the perfect word.

• Find a quiet space and sit with yourself. Think about how you would like to feel throughout the coming year. Accomplished? Calm? Happy?

• Settle on a word (or three) and look up their meanings in a dictionary. (Yes, you can use the internet. Does anyone really have a dictionary anymore?? That thought makes me sad.) Realizing a word’s actual meaning can validate or get you back in the search.

• Sometimes other similar words will be listed in the definitions. Do they resonate more? For instance, Happy is pretty broad. The definitions of Happy are:

  • 1. feeling or showing pleasure or contentment.

  • 2. having a sense of confidence in or satisfaction with a person, arrangement,

    or situation. —- You can see how these definitions include the words pleasure, contentment, confidence, and satisfaction. Do they feel more on the mark?

• Take it a step further. Once you settle on a word, head over to the thesaurus to find more similar-yet-different words. (powerthesaurus, anyone?) The goal is to settle on the one that makes you feel YES! in your bod.

You know what’s coming next, don’t you? The tarot.

Using the tarot can help you understand the best way to navigate your word as you move throughout the year. Here’s my Word of the Year reading:

1. What can I embrace to experience my word?

2. What/who could help me experience my word?

3. What may keep me from experiencing my word?

   How can I best experience my word with…

4. my relationships

5. my creative expression

6. my vocation

7. What action step could help me manifest my word?

Whether or not you use the tarot, these questions are helpful to ponder as you move forward.

As for me, my 2026 word will be Phoenix. This isn’t an adjective, of course, but I was called this in a recent reading, and as I recently read through my notes, its symbolism really hit home. I’ve done a helluva lot of work this past year, and made some huge breakthroughs. My goal is to keep burning with passionate ambition, while accepting the small but significant deaths that only make me stronger.

This is me bending the rules a bit with ‘the word,’ which always feels good. Hell, choose a phrase if you want. Anything that inspires you to embrace 2026 in a way that feels like the YOU that you are, and the ways you would like to expand. (Unless you’re a serial killer. Then you might need a new You.)

S.W.A.K.,