Posted by Athena Scalzi
https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/01/02/me-writing-a-post-over-intention-setting-on-january-2nd-instead-of-january-1st-is-indicative-of-why-i-want-to-set-intentions/
https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=58975
Originally, I wanted to write a post on December 31st that talked about how I feel 2025 went for me personally, and how I was planning to go about growing in 2026. Then, I didn’t, and it was New Year’s Day. Of course, that’s the perfect day to post a fresh, welcome to the new year post and talk about how the last year went and speak about 2026. But I didn’t do that either!
And so, here we are on the second day of 2026, and I’m finally getting around to doing something I meant to do last year (ha, get it?).
Bad joke aside, it really does bother me that I didn’t write what I wanted to write when I wanted to write it. Procrastination is so annoying and benefits absolutely nothing and no one, and yet so many of us struggle with it to a point of detriment. It’s a lifelong issue and I definitely have no idea where it comes from.
Anyways, I’m here now, and I’d like to talk about some of my intentions moving forward.
While I’ve never been a huge fan of New Year’s resolutions (especially ones regarding hitting the gym, waking up at 5am, and cutting out treats), there are some things I’d like to work towards and improve upon as I go through 2026. In that same vein, I was never a fan of “setting intentions.” It sounded fake and not worthwhile just to say the things you want. Manifesting and vision boards sounded like hippie-dippie mumbo jumbo.
It took me a few years of unlearning cynicism to see that there is genuinely value in writing down and speaking about the things you want. It’s good to make it clear to yourself and to others in your sphere how you feel and what you want for yourself and your life.
It also helps to know that the words you say aren’t a prison. Your hopes and goals for a better you should be a guiding path, not a cage. You will never get better through punishing yourself and putting Current You down in hopes to get to a Better You. Better You is Current You after you give yourself time and love to get there.
Inspirational poster sayings aside, here’s my hopes for 2026.
I’d like to work on being a better friend, and deepen the friendships I have, emotionally speaking. A lot of my friends are going through big changes in life, like marriage and kids, and even though our paths don’t look the same I still love them and want to be there for them. It’s been a challenge to be supportive to my friends who have very different life situations than me, but I’m hoping to grow and mature and find ways to show up for them more.
I want to be more than just a fun hang, I want to be someone that my friends can trust and depend on for anything. Inconvenience is the cost of community, and I really want community.
I’d like to continue working on my mental health journey. Though I’ve been in therapy every week for six years, I never wanted medication because I was convinced that one day I’d just magically be better. I thought I was “strong enough” to overcome it on my own, that I could somehow beat my anxiety and depression just by hoping it went away. But I only ended up getting worse, and finally in August last year I got prescribed 10mg of Lexapro.
I was hesitant to take it and scared of side effects. It felt like my mental illnesses were winning, and that I was having to use medication as a weapon in a war that I was losing. Turns out, I feel a lot better! Wild how that works. In fact, just last month I went up to 20mg of Lexapro because I’m no longer scared of taking it and the higher dose makes me feel even better. Who knew!
While it is obviously not a 100% perfect cure and I still have my moments and episodes, boy am I doing better and looking forward to further addressing and working on my mental health. Yippee!
Part of why my mental health has been absolutely ass for so long is in no small part because of my magic little screen that fills my head with dread. My doom-scrolling has always been a bad habit, for lack of a better term, but in 2025 I’m sure I’m not the only one that was doom-scrolling at unprecedented levels. Scrolling was off the charts, and my brain was constantly drowning in negativity.
So, for 2026, I genuinely, honestly, so very badly want to reduce my screen time. Or, at the very least, my small screen time. Obviously going to the theater or watching new shows and movies doesn’t count as like, “bad” screen time.
Every day for years my phone has told me that my screen time is anywhere between five and eight hours a day, and that starts to feel like it’s adding up. I want to use my phone for things I enjoy, like calling loved ones and texting friends. Actual phone things!
Sometimes I see media in which the characters have corded phones on the wall and I start to romanticize them. My phone is not a tool in which I use to benefit myself, it is a black hole I am sucked into on a daily basis. I hate it and yet I do not know how to live less attached to it. But I cannot keep doing this whole doom-scrolling and being force-fed ads and AI shit. I don’t want any part in the way technology is “progressing.” Fuck ChatGPT and generative AI. Congrats on making a “tool” that has made me start to hate my own technology and want to be on the internet SO MUCH LESS.
Going back to what I mentioned earlier about not absolutely loving the idea of cutting out treats and becoming a gym-bro, I do finally feel like I’m at a place in my relationship with food in which I would like to work on nourishing my body better. I don’t want to restrict myself from having what I want, or guilt myself about eating something “bad.” I only seek to give my body more nutrients and vitamins and listen more to the things it needs to feel better.
While I’ve truly hated my body my entire life, I think I finally feel like if I start to love it, it might start to love me back. And I don’t mean “start to love it” as in “be happy with how I look currently,” but in the sense that if I eat nutritionally, stretch and move my body in some small ways, and stop force-feeding it fast food, sugar, and alcohol so much, it might start to respond better, be stronger, and maybe look closer to how I would prefer it to.
Additionally, I’d really like to cook and bake more in 2026. I love cooking and baking, yet so rarely do it. Mostly because it is a lot of effort, but what worthwhile thing isn’t? I’m hoping that my connection to my own food and the intentional action of cooking and baking will help me eat in a more thoughtful and nourishing way. Not that I’ll be throwing protein powder into desserts, or anything.
While I won’t list absolutely everything I’d like to improve upon or work on, I will end this list with how I would like to grow in a creative and professional capacity. For so long, creating things has felt like a chore. Even though I’m usually happy with the result of sitting down and writing, the aforementioned sitting down and actually writing part has always been hard. Aren’t I supposed to like this whole creative process and content creation thing? It’s like my whole gig, after all.
I want to enjoy the process, not just feel relieved I got it done and end up liking the result well enough. I want to feel less like everything I do has to be purely for production purposes. If it ends up as a product (like a blog post) then great! But I don’t want to feel like that’s all I do in a creative sense.
This year I’ll be doing some fiction writing. I won’t say too much on it, but I have some lofty goals in that regard and after years of writing on the blog, I finally feel ready to move into the world of fiction and write more creatively. I’m excited for this endeavor and I hope it goes well!
So, be a better friend, less screen time, eat better and move more, and write more and enjoy the creative process. Sounds pretty standard when it’s all summed up, huh? Well, even if they’re basic goals, I’m really optimistic in making progress on them this year.
How about you? Got some basic goals, too? Let me know in the comments, and have a great 2026!
-AMS
https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/01/02/me-writing-a-post-over-intention-setting-on-january-2nd-instead-of-january-1st-is-indicative-of-why-i-want-to-set-intentions/
https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=58975
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