January 01, 2026
January 1 always shows up with a weird confidence. And on days like this, the Thought of the Day and the Question of the Day can either help or hurt. They can become one more set of expectations, or they can become a small, honest way to take inventory.
It walks into the room like it owns the place, points at the calendar, and says, Alright. New year. Fresh start. Act accordingly.
Meanwhile I am standing there holding a cup of whatever is closest, looking around at the mess from the night before, and thinking, I am still the same person. The year changed. My brain did not magically receive a software update at midnight.
So I like a New Year question that does not pretend we are becoming a different species. Something honest. Something human.
And I like a New Year thought that does not try to motivate me into sprinting. Something that asks me to notice what is already here, even if what is already here is messy.
Thought of the Day
“And I urge you to please notice when you are happy.” – Kurt Vonnegut
That sounds simple until you try to do it.
Not notice happiness in a Hallmark way. Not notice happiness as an achievement. Not notice happiness because you finally earned it by doing everything right.
Just notice it. Like you would notice that the heat finally kicked on. Like you would notice your kid laughing in the other room. Like you would notice a moment of quiet where you were not bracing for the next thing.
I think a lot of us miss happiness because we are waiting for it to look official.
We want it to arrive with a certificate, a photo, a line in a journal that says, This counts. This is happiness. You may now feel happy.
But most of the real stuff is small. It does not announce itself. It is not even always comfortable.
Sometimes happiness is relief. Sometimes it is a tiny pocket of safety. Sometimes it is a quick joke that lands at the exact right time. Sometimes it is a song that hits you in the chest for no reason you can explain.
And sometimes happiness is so quiet that you will only hear it if you stop narrating your whole life for a second.
I have written before about the difference between joy and happiness in “The Difference between Joy and Happiness”, and I still think the distinction matters. Joy can show up in hard seasons. Happiness can be a surface feeling that comes and goes. Either way, neither one is guaranteed to be loud.
Vonnegut is not saying, Go be happy.
He is saying, When it happens, do not miss it.
Because if you miss it, you do not get it back. You might remember it later, but that is different. That is like watching someone else eat a meal you already finished.
Also, I am convinced this is part of why time feels like it speeds up as we get older. We stop noticing. We live on autopilot. We keep our heads down. We do the next thing. We survive the week. Then the month is gone. Then the year is gone.
I just posted “A Reminder That the Year Keeps Going”, and the whole point of that one is that the year does not pause for our feelings about it. It keeps going. It does not wait for us to get organized. It does not care if we are behind.
So if the year is going to keep moving anyway, I want to catch a few moments as it passes.
Not to hoard them. Not to force gratitude. Just to notice them.
If you want a practical way to do this without turning it into a self improvement project, try this today.
Pick one moment where you feel even slightly okay. Not ecstatic. Not accomplished. Just okay.
Then say it out loud, even if it feels stupid: I am happy right now.
That sentence is not a claim about your whole life. It is a flashlight. It is you pointing at a small corner of your day and saying, There you are. I see you.
Question of the Day
What is one thing you accomplished in 2025?
My answer is I survived.
Some people hear that and roll their eyes. They want a cleaner story. They want a before and after. They want measurable progress.
But survival is not nothing.
Survival means you kept going while carrying something heavy. It means you did not quit when quitting would have been the easiest option. It means you made it through days you do not even want to remember.
Survival can look like showing up. It can look like getting help. It can look like apologizing. It can look like starting over for the tenth time without making a speech about it.
And if you are reading this, you have at least one accomplishment already built into your presence here. You are still in the room.
The reason I like this question on January 1 is that it forces a kind of honest accounting.
Not the highlight reel. Not the year in review post where everything magically worked out. Not the carefully curated version of you who always learned the lesson on schedule.
Just one thing.
One thing that counts.
One thing that is true.
If your answer is survival, I get it. If your answer is something small, I get it. If your answer is something you are proud of but you do not know how to say out loud without feeling like you are bragging, I get that too.
Write it down anyway.
Then do one more thing. Ask yourself why that accomplishment matters to you. Not why it looks good. Why it matters.
Because that is where the thread is. That is where the year starts to make sense.
And if you want a low friction way to keep this going, I will send you the daily prompt in the simplest form I can manage. You can read it in thirty seconds and move on with your life.
Join the daily email and I will meet you here tomorrow.
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