Hi there, and happy new year.
Wherever and whatever you are, I hope you had some time to enjoy the holiday season with loved ones, even if that loved one was yourself. Welcome to 2026.
I am at a café in one of my favorite corners of NYC. I did some learning and some journaling. My phone is charging now, and I am finding other ways to fill my time before my nail appointment in an hour.
Before nail appointments, I like to be a bit of an overachiever and pick the color and shape I want ahead of time. I say overachiever, but it is partly due to a bit of anxiety and not liking to take up too much space. The more I know before I get there, the easier it will be for everyone.
I have settled on a pretty blue color and a short silhouette. Why? Well, I find the color blue grounding, and I want to be grounded in January. Short is a bit unusual for me these days, but if you look closer, this decision is really a reflection of my new year, new me, Bella phase, so we are right on schedule, loves.
I think after the age of 25, I stopped setting lofty goals for myself in the new year. I became much more pragmatic, choosing instead to focus on systems, habits, and things that needed small fine tuning. For instance, with fitness, 2023 was committing to a gym. 2024 was spending a certain number of days at that gym. 2025 was taking a specific number of specific types of classes. 2026 is now about upping some of those numbers.
So far, this system has been working well for me. It is realistic. Rome was not built in a day, and neither will these abs of mine be. I foresee them in 2030, haha.
In all seriousness, if you have been here for some time, it should come as no surprise that I love goal setting. My mom and dad love planners, calendar books, and schedules, so naturally I grew up with those. You know the planners they gave us throughout grade school and high school? My friends used to mock me for how seriously I took that practice. Let us just say old habits die hard.
But as beloved as my journals and planners are to me, I do not want to spend this post in the same old rhetoric of goal setting. I want to invite you to something else, gratitude.
I find myself in this practice a lot these days, thankful for the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, Pluto, and Mars in all their forms, including Bruno and his upcoming new album. I have found that by focusing on giving thanks, I have been able to better measure my growth and give myself grace for how that growth is unfolding.
To be honest, there is a lot around us that can steal that practice. So in some ways, I see my gratitude as a bit of selfish rebellion. By focusing on what is good, I find myself engaging in practices that help sustain that feeling.
I am still setting my goals and planning my days, do not get me wrong. But I am also making room to simply be. To be grateful, more specifically. So today, I am cutting my nails short because I am grateful for this blog, and I want to blog more because I am grateful for the joy it brings me. And I type faster when my nails are shorter :) They will be blue too, which feels like pretty grounding typing energy.
Happy new year again.
xoxo,
Bella
