If Your New Year Needs a Redo

On New Year’s Day, I did a polar plunge. I went to a local pool club, quickly stripped down to my bathing suit, and jumped into the shallow end.

When my kids saw the video on Instagram, they made fun of me for being the last one to jump in, ignoring that everyone else jumped right back out. I was the only one who waded across the entire pool to grab my phone, which had been recording the whole thing.

I may have been slow to start, but I had stamina!

The plunge, for me, was not a “Let’s Go!” or a “New Year, New Me!” proclamation. It was a symbol of my intention to be awake, alive, and present as I entered the new year.

If I’ve been moving towards anything these past two months, it’s integration. What adjustments can I make in my daily rhythms and routines to help make everything I want to do—and everything I’m responsible for—feel part of the same whole, rather than a bunch of different things competing for my time and pulling me in different directions?

Those adjustments don’t happen overnight. So in 2026, I’m taking my time.

On this week’s episode of More Like You, I’m talking about why it’s important to pause before moving forward. I share the simple year-end reflection process I did with my family, including the questions we used. 

The thing that surprised me the most was how no one rushed to set goals. We spent way more time talking about and processing the year we’d just lived.

We don’t look back to stay stuck in the past. We look back so we can recognize what energized us and what drained us, what we’re proud of, and what made an impact on us. 

We look back to acknowledge the hard things we’ve lived through and the brave things we’ve done. We look back to recognize patterns that we don’t want to repeat.

We can’t trust ourselves if we don’t know ourselves. We don’t need a date on the calendar to begin again. And we don’t need to rush in—even if we feel ready for a change. Pause before you plan. It’s not too late.