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Hey Reader,

I hope you and your friends, loved ones, and family had a beautiful Holiday Season this year.

Wherever you're reading this today and wherever you feel like you're in life, I hope you’re able to slow down and take some time to rest and to reflect on the things you want to experience next in 2026.

I spent the past Christmas week on Anna Maria Island, FL, with family. The week honestly felt 'perfect' in that relaxing way, where you allow yourself to just be, without having many plans, without a schedule to follow, or without a specific goal or outcome for the day.

The whole week was spent basically just soaking up the sun, taking long walks along the beach and runs around the island, cooking and grilling at home, getting into the hot tub anytime I could, playing board games, watching movies, and going for ice cream and coffee after dinner in a golf cart.

It simply felt wholesome and restful.

And it served as a great reminder of the importance of allowing (and dare I say, even creating) more blank space in our lives (and in our calendars) to experience the magic that's already around us.

We only had two real scheduled plans for the whole week.

• A dinner at a good restaurant the night after we arrived, which reminded me of how good it always feels to eat around the table with loved ones and family, to eat fresh fish on the beach, and that there's nothing as refreshing and luxurious as eating a fresh, well-made, yummy salad.
• A horse ride on the beach experience this past Friday that felt like pure magic, and which felt like we were flying above the water. Who knew that horses could swim and actually enjoy being on the water? Random fact: We learned horses need to squat to pee (and they do it in the water often, too, lol).

This week made me think about the best ideas and the main themes I'm taking with me in the coming year.

Here's the round-up of the 5 things I'm taking in 2026.

"What is really holding you back?"

We often think it's this big, visible, intimidating obstacle, the thing that is holding us back.

• The business or project we haven't started
• The career promotion, or salary upgrade, we haven't received
• The health goal we haven't gotten to
• The relationships we haven't made
• The freedom we haven't built

And so, we blame the big, scary goal for our lack of progress.

But what if the real reason keeping us stuck is a lot more subtle?

What if the thing holding you back is all the small, silent, easy-to-ignore things that compound the longer you keep them in your life?

• The fixed and negative mindsets you maintain
• The bad habits you continue engaging in and don't break
• The limiting stories and beliefs you keep repeating to yourself
• The negative people and petty drama you keep allowing to drain your energy
• The environments and systems around you that don't allow you to win

The mountain is the visible, intimidating goal that feels like the obstacle.

The pebble is the silent, invisible, apparently unimportant things that you don't notice day in and day out.

A pebble may seem insignificant in your journey until you have gone with it for weeks, months, sometimes even years, and suddenly you feel its impact on a grand scale.

Oftentimes, what is keeping you stuck and holding you back is not the mountain ahead of you, but the little pebbles you refuse to take out of your shoe.

"Why is doing hard things so important?"

Most people will tell you that it's important to do hard things. However, most people don't explain why it's so important to do difficult things.

I deeply believe it's because you value much more anything that you work for.

We value the things we earn and put effort into, much more than what's easy.

I can see this pictured in my life so clearly, too.

I used to say that I hated running and that it was the worst exercise ever. Ironically, one of the things I'm most proud of doing this past year is running my first marathon (and feeling good most of the 26 miles).

I'm proud not only because of the result, but because of the process involved in getting there and how committed I was to my training. For around 2 months, I basically ran one hour or more every day, whether it was hot, sunny, rainy, or anything in between, and whether I was feeling like it or not.

Completing my first marathon felt incredible, but I'm even more impressed with myself by the effort it took mentally and physically to commit to running daily, consistently, and to even allow myself to learn to enjoy the process of doing it.

So, the lesson is simple: The more effort you put into something, the more meaning you extract from it. The struggle of getting it is important because it provides a sense of pride and purpose to our lives.

This fact has been proven by science as well.

In 2011, behavioral scientists coined the term IKEA Effect to describe the cognitive bias that occurs when people tend to value an object significantly more if they made (or assembled) it themselves.

The IKEA Effect speaks to how we tend to like things more and perceive they're worth more if we’ve expended effort, time, and energy to create them, compared to other pre-made, identical items.

This effect extends to everything in our lives...

We attach a deeper value and meaning to the things we work hard for:

• The healthy body constructed through years of taking care of yourself
• The family meals that you cook and bake with love.
• The deep relationships shaped through hard conversations and shared experiences
• The career earned after years of learning and being in the field
• The business built from scratch
• The resilience forged from struggle and doing hard things
• The growth mindset formed through failing and getting back up
• The peace created by constant reflection

The energy and effort that is required to achieve these things increase their perceived value in our minds.

Doing things that feel hard consistently improves your life because it infuses it with more meaning and more texture.

Nothing feels as good as the things you earn with effort and energy because they prove you're capable of creating good things in your life.

The tale of the "Two Wolves Within."

Nobody (and nothing) is all good. Nobody (and nothing) is all bad. We're all a mix of both things. What wins in our lives and the experiences we have more of depend on the choices that we make daily.

There is an old Native American parable that talks about the two wolves fighting inside all of us, and represents this

At any single moment, life is full of both.

Having negative thoughts and lower frequency feelings doesn't make you a bad person. What you make with them, though, what you focus on, and the actions you consistently take are what determine your character and the experience you have of life.

What wins in your life are the things you feed and nourish. Never forget that.

"Do what you say you're going to do."

If someone were looking at your life from the outside, what would they see you care about?

There are two types of priorities we have in our lives:

1. The priorities you constantly talk about and that you say you have
2. The priorities your actions show that you have

This is what is known in Behavioral Science, the "Say-Do Gap", and refers to the common discrepancy between what people say they believe, value, and do, versus what they actually do and show they care about in their actions and choices.

This gap highlights the disconnect that exists between your intentions and your real-world behavior.

This is seen in your daily life when:

• You say you care about your physical and mental health, but you never make the time to work out, cook homemade or healthy food, or reflect on your thoughts and feelings.
• You say you care about your relationships, family, and friends, but you never make the time to connect, talk, and share experiences with them.
• You say you want to learn new skills or practice new hobbies, but you spend your free time scrolling online, watching TV, or doing things that don't help you grow.
• You say you care about your finances and saving/investing money, but you casually spend more money than you have regularly.

The reality that most of us don't like to confront is that often, this gap between what we say and what we do is bigger than we think.

We say we care about many things, but when we truly look at our actions and the things we do on a consistent basis, it's easy to notice the places where our words don't align with our behavior.

Don't talk about your priorities and what matters to you. Show it.

What you want is on the other side of action. Start taking it.

(Or at the very least, stop talking about the things you're not yet willing to work for).

"Nobody Cares"

• When everything is going well, and you're crushing it in any area of life, nobody cares.
• When things are going bad or you feel like you're losing and failing, nobody cares.

Not because people don't love you or don't care about you. But because nobody cares about what you experience as much as you do.

Nobody is thinking about you as much as you are. We're all too busy focusing on ourselves, much more than anyone else.

This shouldn't make you feel bad or deflated. It should empower you instead.

It means that your life is your responsibility and you're in control of it.

When you feel that fear that stops you from moving forward. The fear of judgment. The fear of embarrassment. The fear of what other people might say or think. The fear of not being liked.

When you're worrying about what other people might think about you, or those moments when you believe that other people are thinking about you in the first place...

Remember this: Nobody truly cares as much as you do.

So, that thing that you've always wanted to do? That career or project you've always wanted to pursue. That person you've always wanted to talk to and invite out. That weird hobby you've always wanted to try. That jump that you've always wanted to make.

Go out there and do it.

You're in control of your life.

A question for 2026

Action task for next year: Be intentional in adding the things that provide your life (and your calendar) with more energy. Then, reduce the time spent on the things that drain it.

Thank you for being here

2025 truly gave me a lot of clarity about what I want to create in my life moving forward.

In the coming year, I will continue sharing more actionable ideas and insights to help you (and me) create a better, more fulfilling life, daily.

I'm truly very thankful to each of you that take the time and attention to learn things that have the power to improve your life. I hope I have been able to bring value to your life in 2025.

The best is yet to come. Believe it!

Wishing you a healthy, peaceful, and joyful start to 2026.

P.S.: If you’ve been feeling the need for something more or something different in your life: a new chapter, a new dream, a new version of yourself, this episode is your permission to go for it and start believing it’s possible for you. Listen on Spotify here. Or in Apple Podcasts.​

Love creating your mind one day at a time? Forward this to a friend so they can get in on the action and sign up below. Subscribe to The Created Mind Thank you for reading and sharing, Jenny ​​​​

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