You Don't Have to 'Crush' 2026: A Different Kind of Year-End Review
It's the last weeks of December and everyone's posting their "year in review" reels. Their wins. Their transformations. Their "best year yet" captions.
And you're just... tired.
You made it through 2025, yes. But you're not sure you have anything to celebrate. You're not bursting with gratitude. You're not ready to set audacious goals for 2026.
You're exhausted. And the pressure to reflect, to be grateful, or to plan your "best year ever" feels like one more thing you don't have the energy for.
So let's do this differently.
Let's reflect on 2025 in a way that's HONEST. Let's prepare for 2026 in a way that's GROUNDED. No toxic positivity. No hustle culture. No performing growth you don't actually feel.
Just the truth. And from truth, you can build something real.
What Most End-of-Year Content Gets Wrong
Here's what every end-of-year reflection post wants from you: positivity. Gratitude. Ambition. The performance of growth whether you actually feel it or not.
Let's talk about why that doesn't work.
Problem 1: The "Gratitude List" That Feels Like Lying
Most end-of-year reflections ask: "What are you grateful for this year?"
But what if 2025 was HARD? What if you lost something—a job, a relationship, a person, your health, your house, your stability? What if you spent most of the year just surviving? Just barely making it through?
Forcing gratitude when you're still processing pain isn't healing. It's bypassing.
Real gratitude isn't something you manufacture because it's December and everyone's posting their thankful lists. Real gratitude arrives when you're actually ready to feel it, not when the calendar tells you to perform it.
You're allowed to look back at 2025 and think: that was brutal. You're allowed to still be angry or sad or disappointed. You're allowed to not spin your pain into a lesson yet. That can come later.
Problem 2: The "Celebrate Your Wins" That Ignores Your Losses
"Look how much you accomplished!"
But what if you didn't accomplish what you set out to do? What if you feel like you're BEHIND? What if the year was mostly maintenance, not growth?
What if your biggest accomplishment was just... not falling apart completely?
You're allowed to not have "won" this year. You're allowed to have had a year where you simply endured. Where you showed up even when it was hard. Where you made it through without anything to post about.
Survival is not a lesser achievement. Sometimes survival is everything. But you don’t have to try to force it to feel like a win if it doesn’t.
Problem 3: The "Set Big Goals" That Ignores Your Capacity
"What do you want to achieve in 2026? Dream big!"
But what if you're EXHAUSTED? What if "dream big" sounds like a threat? What if you just want to not feel like you're drowning?
Setting goals from exhaustion leads to more exhaustion. It leads to January optimism that crashes by February. It leads to another year of pushing yourself beyond your capacity and then wondering why you're burned out again by next December.
You need to ground FIRST. You need to feel steady first. Then, maybe, you can build.
A Grounded Way to Reflect on 2025
Instead of forcing positivity, let's get HONEST.
Here are questions that honor the full reality of your year—the hard AND the good, without requiring you to spin the hard into a lesson you haven't actually learned yet.
Question 1: What did 2025 actually feel like?
Not what happened. Not what you accomplished. What did it FEEL like?
Heavy? Chaotic? Numb? Relentless? Lonely? Surprising? Boring? Suffocating? Free?
Name the FEELING before you try to make sense of the events.
Because here's what I've learned: when you start with how something felt instead of what happened, you get honest much faster. You stop trying to make the story sound better than it was. You stop performing for an imaginary audience.
You just... tell the truth.
So: what did 2025 feel like for you? Sit with that. Write it down if it helps. Let it be messy and unflattering. Let it be real.
Question 2: What did you survive this year?
Not what you overcame. Or transformed. What did you SURVIVE?
What did you make it through even though it was hard? What did you endure? What kept showing up that you had to deal with over and over?
Sometimes survival IS the win. Sometimes making it through is the entire point.
Did you survive:
A breakup or divorce
A job loss or career crisis
Health problems (yours or someone you love)
Financial instability
Grief
Loneliness
Anxiety that wouldn't let up
A complete loss of direction
The slow death of a dream
Whatever it was—whatever you survived this year—that counts. That matters. You don't have to have transformed it into something beautiful yet. You just have to acknowledge: I made it through that.
Question 3: What did you let go of (or what let go of you)?
Jobs. Relationships. Beliefs. Versions of yourself. Dreams that didn't fit anymore.
Not all of it was voluntary. Some of it was loss. Some of it was relief. Both can be true.
What left your life this year? What did you finally release? What fell away whether you were ready or not?
And here's the important part: you don't have to be grateful for the letting go yet. You don't have to see it as "making space for something better." You can just acknowledge that something ended, and endings are hard, even when they're right.
Question 4: Where were you out of alignment?
Where were you performing? Where were you saying yes when you meant no? Where were you living someone else's life?
This isn't about shame. It's about SEEING clearly so you can build differently next year.
Where did you:
Say yes when you wanted to say no
Pretend to be fine when you weren't
Take on responsibilities that weren't yours
Perform a version of yourself that didn't feel real
Ignore your own needs to meet someone else's expectations
Stay in something longer than you should have
Name it. Not to beat yourself up. To see it clearly so you can choose differently.
Question 5: What do you actually need going into 2026?
Not what you want to achieve. What do you NEED?
Rest? Boundaries? Structure? Help? Less responsibility? More money? Different work? Therapy? Community? Silence? Space?
Start with need, not ambitions.
Because here's the truth: you can't build anything sustainable on top of unmet needs. You can't goal-set your way out of depletion. You have to start with what's actually missing.
So what do you need? Write it down. Be specific. Be honest. Don't worry yet about how you'll get it. Just name what's needed.
A Grounded Way to Prepare for 2026
Instead of setting goals, let's build a FOUNDATION.
Goals are what you build on top of a foundation. But if the foundation isn't there—if you're depleted and out of alignment and running on fumes—the goals will just become one more way you fail yourself.
So let's build the foundation first.
Foundation Piece 1: Realistic Expectations
What can you ACTUALLY handle in 2026 given your real life, real resources, and real energy?
Not "if everything goes perfectly" capacity. Not "if I were more disciplined" capacity. ACTUAL capacity.
Think about:
How much energy you actually have (not how much you wish you had)
What responsibilities you can't get out of (kids, job, caregiving, etc.)
What resources you actually have (time, money, support)
What patterns from 2025 will likely continue
Now build your expectations around THAT reality.
This isn't pessimism. This is honesty. And honesty is the only foundation that holds.
Foundation Piece 2: One Boundary You'll Protect
Not ten boundaries. ONE.
What's the one thing you will NOT do in 2026? What's the one "no" you're committed to?
Examples:
I will not overextend myself during the holidays
I will not say yes to projects I don't actually want to do
I will not perform being fine when I'm not
I will not carry other people's responsibilities
I will not work on weekends
I will not ignore my body's signals
I will not people-please at the expense of my own needs
Pick ONE. Write it down. Make it your line in the sand.
You don't have to be perfect at it. You just have to come back to it when you notice you've crossed it.
Foundation Piece 3: One Practice That Grounds You
Not a huge routine. Not a complete overhaul. ONE thing.
What's one practice that, when you do it, makes you feel more stable? More like yourself? More connected to your body or the earth or something real?
Examples:
Morning walk
Evening stretch
Weekly therapy
Sunday meal prep
Daily tarot pull
Friday rest day
Monthly solo time
Afternoon tea
Seasonal ritual practice
Pick ONE. Commit to it. Not because it will make you productive or successful, but because it will help you stay grounded when everything else is chaos.
This is your anchor. Protect it.
Foundation Piece 4: One Thing You're Ready to Change
Not ten things. ONE.
What's the one thing you KNOW needs to shift in 2026?
You don't have to know HOW yet. You just have to name WHAT.
Maybe it's:
Your job (or how you relate to your job)
A relationship that's not working
Where you live
How you spend your time
How you make money
How you treat your body
How much you take on
How you show up (or don't show up) for yourself
Write it down. That's your seed. You'll figure out the how as you go.
The point isn't to have a complete plan. The point is to name what you already know needs to change so you can start moving toward it instead of pretending it's fine.
Foundation Piece 5: Trust the Turning
Remember: the winter solstice just passed. The light is returning. Slowly. Imperceptibly. But it's returning.
You don't have to force spring in January. You just have to trust that after the darkest point, the direction changes.
2026 doesn't have to be your "best year ever." It just has to be more aligned than 2025 was.
That's enough.
You don't need a complete transformation. You just need to take one step closer to living a life that actually fits you.
The light returns one minute at a time. Growth happens one degree at a time. Change happens one decision at a time.
Trust the turning.
The Anti-Resolution
Most people set resolutions that are:
Achievement-focused (lose 30 pounds, make six figures, write a book)
Vague (be healthier, be more present, be happier)
Destined to fail by February because they're not grounded in reality
Instead, try an ANTI-RESOLUTION.
An anti-resolution isn't about what you'll DO. It's about what you'll STOP doing.
Because sometimes the most powerful change isn't adding more. It's removing what's depleting you.
Examples of anti-resolutions:
I will stop pretending I can do everything
I will stop saying yes when I mean no
I will stop performing capability when I'm depleted
I will stop measuring my worth by my productivity
I will stop waiting for permission to rest
I will stop making myself small to make others comfortable
I will stop sacrificing my needs to meet everyone else's expectations
I will stop treating exhaustion like a personal failing
Pick one. That's your focus for 2026.
Not adding more. REMOVING what's depleting you.
That's how you ground. That's how you create space for something real to grow.
Permission to Not Have It All Figured Out
You don't have to enter 2026 with a perfect plan. You don't have to know exactly what you're building or where you're going.
You just have to be HONEST about where you are right now.
You're exhausted. You made it through 2025 but you're not sure you have much left.
That's okay. That's real.
The work isn't to jump straight into ambitious goals. The work is to GROUND first.
To get honest about your capacity. To set boundaries that protect your energy. To build a foundation that can actually hold you when things get hard.
2026 doesn't have to be your best year. It just has to be more sustainable than 2025.
And that starts with reflection that's HONEST, not performative.
You don't have to crush 2026. You just have to show up for it in a way that doesn't crush you.
Start there.
Inside The Unfolding, December's work is all about moving from Exhaustion to Grounding—using seasonal wisdom, tarot, rituals, and practices that actually work. If you're ready to stop pushing through and start building a foundation that holds, join us here. Current members are locked in at $25/month. Price increases to $35/month in January.
The Unfolding is a seasonal membership for people who are ready to stop fighting the natural rhythms of the year and start working with them. Each month, we explore the spiritual, energetic, and practical wisdom of the current season. Learn more and join us here.
