My Words for 2026: Systems & Alignment
2025: The tail end of an epic 23-day sojourn through Southeast Asia .
What a year 2025 has been! I can honestly say it’s been one of my most dynamic years in the past 5 years. 2025 was filled with peaks and valleys and closing it out kind of feels like a personal graduation for me- all last year felt like being on a grand obstacle course for character development.
Now that I am halfway through my 30s, I can look back and recall that these years have not looked like what I expected them to, and I’ve spent more time shedding layers of myself rather than exhilaratingly enjoying every moment. I spent a lot of time mentally battling with timelines set upon me as a woman in her 30s, while also trying to create a life that is authentically mine. 2025 was finally the first year in my 30s that I experienced more joy than sadness, more moments where things just made sense, and more opportunities to express gratitude for exactly where I am at this point.
My contentment from last year is due to feeling like I finally know myself. I know what I like and dislike, I know what my body needs to feel good, I have developed my discernment, and most importantly, I have learned how to use my voice to speak up for myself. With gratitude, I love the woman I have become and for this reason, I only want to get better at being her and expand my capacity for all life has to offer. For that reason, the two words that I am choosing to guide me through this year are systems and alignment.
Why I am Choosing Systems
The best people, environments, and organizations run on well-oiled systems. Think about it; the most successful person you know probably has a work-flow, a type of system, that consistently guides them in accomplishing their goals from start to finish. When you have spent 30+ years of your life trying to figure out what works best for you, you start to realize the only way to build sustainable habits is to create a working system. I want to have a consistent workflow for literally almost everything I do. Each week it's mandatory that I eat under a meal prep system, increasing the amount that I am actually eating from home, creating content for yoga and wellness and marketing my offers under a weekly system, my finances are automated meaning each dollar has a systematic function and destination.
For almost anyone that knows me, health and wellness has been the centerfold of my life. Movement has always been a staple in my life, especially as a former long-term student athlete, nutrition has been a topic I spend a lot of time thinking about, and I love to preach about lifestyle habits and changes. However, where I was personally getting stuck in my journey was sticking with a system that actually worked. My lifestyle does reflect health and wellness but I want to get more serious about my life reflecting that.
Systems are a way to get me even more grounded than I ever have been before. As my hands are in quite a few pots, and my mental and emotional health are more important to me than ever, I need a system to run my life on so I can continue to receive the best of what life has to
My first large scale yoga event in 2025 was a success!
Why I Am Choosing Alignment?
I never really paid that much attention to Chinese astrology until 2025, the year of the snake. This year opened my eyes so much because the snake energy was omnipotent. In the past year especially, I made so many concessions for other people, not because they were aligned, but because I noticed I have an underlying belief that I am a very particular person that finds alignment to be elusive, because I always am the “only one” of something. Whether that is as the token black girl, the only black girl who speaks Spanish, or does yoga, or is very health conscious, I am pretty accustomed to always being the odd one out, which always comes at an expense. Because I think that people and opportunities for me are “difficult” to come by, I'll accept a situation at face value, knowing that it’s somewhat beneath me, but it's the next best thing until what I want arrives.
This has happened to me in business, with friends, and with dating. In these circumstances, I end up pouring a lot of my goodness and never getting what I need back. It’s like everything and everyone benefits from me, and while I obviously benefit myself, getting poured back into often never happens in the way I desire and I can no longer live like that anymore. I can no longer afford to accept things that only align somewhat and not all the way. Alignment for me looks like:
Only accepting opportunities that pay my worth
Not allowing someone to pick my brain for free, without offering something to benefit me, in return
Less working hours, more income vs. more working hours more income
Not performing emotional labor for people who have no interest in meeting me where I am at
Spending more time inviting people to events, rather than being invited to events.
Doubling down on the resounding “HELL YES”. If there is any doubt, I will not move forward.
Where Systems & Alignment Come Together
Overall, I want 2026 to feel like a breezy year for me. According to the Pareto Principle 20% of effort determines 80% of the outcomes, or in better words, the majority of results come from a minority of inputs. My aim is to put this theory in practice, by completing more high-impact tasks while minimizing my need to busy myself with many small-ended tasks with less impact. I am a person with many interests and capabilities which has allowed me to have my hands in many pots over the course of my adulthood. I want to have more discretion about how I spend my time and making the most of all the things that matter to me. In order to do that, I cannot do it all. My discretion requires my discernment so that what I choose to produce and involve myself is in alignment with my ultimate goal and directions or my life
I have made such a habit to stay busy my whole life and truly it is unsustainable. Working full-time, teaching yoga in between, trying to grow my yoga community, two outside jobs, and a side hustle on top of it all, to continue on like this would not be good for me.
In Conclusion
Systems and Alignment will be my guiding words for 2026 and I am excited to see how these very specific words will lead to an even more specific year. What about you all- what words have you chosen for the year? I’d love to hear from you so share yours in the comments!