My new year’s intentions (for 2026)

January 1, 2026 - Written by Andreas

For the new year, I wanted to set a number of intentions. These are not resolutions, i.e., hard goals I set for myself, but they are meant as a form of “projects” I want to work on. They are mostly focused on self-improvement. For many, there is no specified end goal, although some are a bit more specific. Here goes:

Assume a more active position in the things I (want to) pursue. Over the past couple months, I’ve noticed that I can procrastinate or remain rather passive for things I want to do, such as signing up for certain recovery groups. In this year, I want to work on becoming more actively involved in the things I want, instead of putting them off in my mind and telling myself “I’ll do it later”—that clearly doesn’t work.
Discover my convictions and what drives me. Currently, I feel a bit lost in life. I don’t exactly know what I want to do (or don’t want to do). I hope to put in the effort and time, and have conversations to figure that out.
Work on my body and pay it more attention. I want to nourish my body better again this year after having neglected it for a while now. I want to build up stamina and gain some more strength.
Nurture friendships and communication. This year, I want to focus on nurturing the friendships that are important to me. I want to be better at staying in touch with the people I care about. I also want to work on my communication, getting better at expressing my needs and wants without feeling guilty.
Pick up and keep journaling. My lovely Evelyn gifted me a Five-Minute Journal, and I fully intend to use this daily. Although I had the intention to pick up journaling before, I believe this is a more concrete commitment that I made. Furthermore, with preset questions, it will be easier to stick to it (I hope).
Work on a more consistent daily structure. I really hope I can get back into a more consistent routine, e.g., with getting up and going to bed times. Over the past months I’ve not been doing great with regards to my mental health and I noticed my day structure is one of the things to suffer as a result of this. However, I also believe that having a better structure to my days will contribute positively to my wellbeing.
Read 30 books. This is one of my more direct goals and it is reading 30 books. I read 26 books last year, and this is also down to me being on sick leave for a while. However, even if I were doing things ‘full time’, I still want to ensure I make enough time for reading, as I really enjoy it (and have so many books I want to read!).
Be more mindful with technology and feed this blog. I want to be more mindful of my time spent doing “nothing”, e.g., scrolling on my phone. I will implement blockers where necessary. In conjunction to this, I also want to keep writing for this blog regularly.

I would love to hear of your intentions too - feel free to email me at mail [ at ] andreasknoben [ dot ] nl.

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