I'm Kara. I create content about personal growth, productivity, and technology, faith, and my well lived life. Subscribe to my weekly newsletter to get a fresh new article, a roundup of anything I published this week, and other fun stuff in your inbox (most) Monday mornings.
Happy New Year!
Published about 1 month ago • 5 min read
Happy New Year
My 2026 Vision Board
Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful holiday. Ours was filled with a little sickness (I dealt with food poisoning on Christmas Eve), some cooking and baking, a lot of good eating, some fun, and even some painting. Meet my new office accent wall. The color is Sherwin Williams Cruising.
My new office accent wall - and the first time I've managed pony tails since losing my hair to chemo. I still can't do a single pony tail, but two high side ponies like I'm 5...those I can manage.
I had my signature color of orange as the accent wall in my former office, but none of the oranges felt right this year. That said, this color just makes my heart happy. And, it happens to perfectly compliment this year’s theme which is…..
DRUM ROLL PLEASE…
Sail the Ship
As I was working through my annual planning activities, the word sail came to me first and I liked it, but I wanted something a little more so I decided to go with Sail the Ship. The two words together and the whole phrase have so many meanings and things to explore. I haven’t yet set monthly themes, but I mapped a number of monthly observances that correlate with themes in my Facts of Life Book course which is all about organizing life’s most important information for life’s most urgent moments. This month, I’ll be adding a couple of articles to the community about building a spending plan and documenting your financial choices. If you’ve got questions about organizing your finances, feel free to reply to this email or use the comment button in Circle. If you’re reading this in email, the Let’s Chat button below will take you right there.
While I’m not sure if I’m going to officially do monthly themes this year, I am still setting a few monthly aims and I’ll use this email to check in on those as well as to check in on my 26 in 2026 list. I’m also bringing back a process I loved in the past which is making monthly vision boards. My 2026 Yearly Vision Board opened up today’s email, and each monthly check in will be opened with that month’s vision board.
Also, here’s my 26 for 2026 list. My sister Susie jumped on the idea of tying these to letters of the alphabet and so I follow the lead of my big sis in many things - so here is my list (along with the other “contenders” that didn’t make the list formally, although I am trying the slow read of War and Peace):
My 26 in 2026 list (along with the items that didn't make the list)
For being the first check in of the year, I could technically check off Z already since we painted the wall after Jan 1, but I’d like to do more here. We’ve got art sitting around everywhere and Gayle and I realized that we need a little formal planning in order to actually commit to hanging it. And I already started with making 26 new to us recipes with a crockpot pot roast that’s downstairs getting happy as I type this. Monday’s are music practice nights at church and so crockpot dinners need to start ruling Monday nights.
How were your holidays? What are your intentions for the New Year? Have a theme or word for the year? Hit reply on the email or let’s chat in the community.
I took the holidays completely off work of pretty much all kinds. However, I did put out three YouTube items - two are now public and one is only available in the community. One of those is the Intention Setting Workshop linked above. You can read all of the details and get the handouts and resources in Circle.
YouTube Friendly Version of the Shelf Reflection workshop
I added all of the Obsidian Office Hours sessions for the first quarter of the year. If you love Obsidian, this is a great way to chat about the tool and get some help on anything in your workflow that isn't working for you.
January 05, 2026 09:00
(Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Join me for a one hour workshop designed to help you choose a theme for 2026 - and if you wish to go deeper to choose monthly or quarterly intentions or themes. Participants will receive a beautiful Intention Setting Guide to download. We'll spend an hour choosing a theme and deciding on ways to keep that theme visible to yourself during the year.
January 05, 2026 10:00
(Eastern Time (US & Canada))
It's hard to escape the noise of the world that we live in. Just like we need to give our bodies nourishing food and exercise, we also need to give our brains and nervous systems nourishment in the form of content that helps keep us sane and happy.
Join for this free workshop to reflect on your content consumption over the last year and do some planning for what you want more of in your content diet for next year. When you leave the workshop you'll have:
1. Tangible things you can do to tame the social media algorithms
2. A reflection of what you've consumed in the past year
3. An action item or two for what you want to consume next year.
Participants will receive a printable worksheet a few days before the workshop to download and use if you wish. If you don't have a printer or don't want to print, all you'll need to bring is a few thoughts about what you consumed this year and some way to take some notes for yourself.
January 09, 2026 13:00
(Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Join us for the bi-weekly Obsidian Office Hours Session.
Office Hours are a time to ask questions about Obsidian. If you have a question, reply to the event with your questions - or attend live and you can get your question answered in the session.
When appropriate, office hours sessions will be recorded and the recording posted here.
Disney's Brave
One of the themed coffee shops on the Disney Destiny, the newest ship in Disney's fleet, is café Merida - named for the main character in Disney's Brave. We'll be sailing on that ship at the end of the month as a part of it's inaugural season. I hadn't seen the film yet so we rectified that over the break. It's a very sweet coming of age story and the animated scenery - even nearly 15 years since release - is stunning.
I'm Kara. I create content about personal growth, productivity, and technology, faith, and my well lived life. Subscribe to my weekly newsletter to get a fresh new article, a roundup of anything I published this week, and other fun stuff in your inbox (most) Monday mornings.
