Your Best Mind Ever in 2026

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I used to be way into resolutions and goal setting, but it was more about checking off a bulleted list. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But adding intention or an overall theme can really enhance the “design” aspect of your year. I still have goals, but over the past few years as I’ve gotten older and wiser, more balanced, and more knowledgeable about myself, I’ve started with more of an intention or a theme word for the year. If you’re interested in what it means to have a one-word theme for the year, the best resource I can point to is happiness expert Gretchen Rubin’s work on a yearly one-word theme.

Last year’s word was presence. Past words I can remember include connection, align, balance, create and growth. I think this year, it will be practice. Time after time, I recommend working on things (like self-compassion, confidence, etc.) that are continuous practices. You’re never an expert, and you’re never done. And this applies also to what I want to emphasize today:

If there’s one place to focus this year, let it be your mindset.

Mindset is defined as a mental attitude or disposition that predetermines a person’s responses to and interpretations of situations. It’s a habitual way of thinking that affects how you behave and respond to what goes on around you.

Mindset makes all the difference. Mindset is so powerful that it can affect your habits and thus your outcomes without putting in any other effort.

Dr. Alia Crum, a Stanford Psychologist who studies mindset, conducted this research study where they gave two different groups of people the same smoothie. It had the exact same calories and macro breakdown. Before they drank the smoothies, one group was told their smoothie was a “decadent smoothie” (kind of like an ice cream shake), while the other group was told they had a “healthy diet” smoothie. After both groups drank their smoothies, they did blood tests to measure ghrelin levels. (The “hunger hormone,” ghrelin release increases feelings of hunger, stimulates you to want more food, and promotes fat storage and insulin release.)

Guess what happened? The group that got the “decadent smoothie” had significantly lower levels of ghrelin than the group with the “diet smoothie”… but they drank the exact same thing! This is fascinating to me; this means your mindset can affect your physiology. In an interview I heard on this subject, Dr. Crum included stories of cancer patients who had better outcomes when they adopted the mindset that their disease was manageable vs. something that was devastating, hopeless, and life-ending.

Last year, I did an interview with Dr. Cory Fawcett, a retired surgeon and the author of The Doctor’s Guide to Finding Joy in Your Work. As a general surgeon, Dr. Fawcett would sometimes have an afternoon of colonoscopies in the GI suite. He’d go there after his clinic or surgeries and have to wait for the one of the morning teams to get done with their cases before he could do his. He’s waiting in the hallway, and one physician storms out of the room on the left exasperated, muttering under his breath, “I just hate doing colonoscopies.” Then, a few minutes later, the other physician saunters out of the room on the right, smiling and with pep in his step, proclaiming, “I just love doing colonoscopies.”

Same procedure. Completely different mindsets.

The power of mindset can be applied to anything you’d like to accomplish this year: Want to change your work-life balance? Want to be more confident? Want to make a career change? Decrease your work time commitment, switch or release some of your roles, or add time for another joy project? Adopting a mindset of abundance and indulgence will facilitate whatever it is you want to do!

Let’s talk about ways to identify and shift your mindset, using this new year transition as a starting point for your actions.

Spend a little time in reflection

Think back on last year. I’ve found that an easy way to do this is to scroll back through your photo album on your phone, unless you’re the type of person who deletes and curates your phone photos on a regular basis. If you are, kudos to you. Then, look in whatever app you store your photos in. The other option would be to look back through your calendar, but this can be a little more cumbersome. Identify the high points and low points of your year. For each one, ask yourself a few questions. What kind of mindset did I have during this time? What did I learn?

Frame up your goals

So the next step is to identify some goals for next year. You can also ask yourself the following questions, in preparation for figuring out what you’d like to work on this coming year… What do I want to continue doing this year? What do I want to start doing, and what do I want to stop doing?

Your 2026 goals can just be a few things, small things, or if you want, they can be bigger, more long-term things you want to do. Gretchen Rubin talks on her podcast Happier about coming up with a “26 for 26” list. This is a lot of items, but they can be as simple as “schedule a mammogram this year.” They don’t have to be big transformational items. Once you get a list of at least a few items, ask yourself, “What mindset do I need to have in order to reach these goals?”

Dedicate your activities

Let’s say there’s something you have to do that you’re not particularly excited about. How can you change your mindset around the task? Do you remember when people used to do dedications of songs on the radio? They’d request a song by calling in, and then they’d say on air, “I’d like to dedicate this song to …” I suppose people still dedicate their awards and books.

Dedicate your unsavory activity to turn it into something meaningful. For example, maybe you know you should be getting more movement in, but it always feels like a chore. You view working out as a punishment for drinking wine or eating cupcakes, and it’s not something you look forward to. While getting ready to do you work out, make a dedication. Dedicate your session to a loved one, like your child, who inspires you to want to be a healthier person so you can be around to see them grow up.

Let’s take a work task you don’t particularly love. Dedicate it to the patients or clients who benefit from your expertise every day. Reframing things in this way puts the “why” in the forefront and changes your mindset from one of scarcity, victimhood, or futility to something that has meaning behind it.

Remind yourself of your inner strength

You are capable of handling any challenge, and the way to remember this is by choosing to undergo small challenges every day. There’s a reason that Embracing Challenge is the third module of my Lean Out Confidence Course! Maybe making decisions is hard for you. Well, you make many each day, down to what clothes you will wear, what you will eat for bfast and which way you’ll drive to work. Maybe it’s tough to get up and make your own bed each morning, but you’re doing it.

Remember, hard is relative! Recognizing and celebrating the difficult things you do each day can be very helpful. Write them down in a journal or the notes app on your phone, because the act of putting the thoughts in your head to paper helps to solidify the ideas in your head, working toward that shift in mindset even more than just having the realization.

There’s so much in life we can’t control. But we do have the power to change our mindset in any given situation. I hope this was helpful for you today, as your thinking about what you want out of this year.

Tell me, what are your goals or intentions for 2026? Share them by leaving a comment below!