Staying True

The year 2025 is winding down — obviously — and I am rounding up loose ends I want to get taken care of, before the year turns over.

While I am well aware that time is an artificial construct and I can start new projects and habits at any time, there is something neat and tidy about closing things out in an old year, and not starting anything new till the new year.

I don't really do New Year's resolutions as I believe they mostly serve to set people up for disappointment, rather than accomplishment.

Granted, some of that has to do with the different things that motivate us, but I am better off doing things quietly in the background and then simply announcing "I did this!" when people are not expecting it.

Expectations have always played a big role in my life, in the sense that when I feel under pressure from the expectations of others it quickly leads me towards stagnation and immobility.

It's likely one of the reasons why I never did very well in corporate work settings. I'm more likely to succeed if I just quietly tackle the "big box of mess" nobody wanted to touch, deal with it privately, and then just present it as done, when nobody was expecting it.

But that's not really how life works, is it?

One of the important lessons I learned a long time ago is that while it is important to be able to stay true to yourself in life... one aspect of that is that you have to be willing to suffer a certain measure of discomfort in service of building the framework in your life that makes it possible for you to live an authentic life.

What derails a lot of people is often that we get on tracks where our hopes and expectations are completely derailed by some aspect(s) of our reality.

I knew what my authentic life needed to look like — this was almost 30 years ago — but I also realized that I had to unravel my life at the time to create a "container" within which I could live that life.

If you want to be an artist and you're unsure where your income might come from, you first have to "undo" the lifestyle you might have built as a corporate litigation attorney!

That $3,000 mortgage payment is just not going to be part of your reality, anymore. But then again, neither are incredibly stressful 70-hour work weeks!

Much of my family was appalled when I turned my back on the pursuit of the "elite lifestyle."

While it has never been particularly enjoyable to often be struggling financially, I can't say that there's really anything about the proverbial "rat race" that I really miss. Would I love it if my art and writing were more readily able to pay my bills? You bet!

But at least I get to say that I am staying true to the path I chose when I said goodbye to a type of work and life that actually fit other people's expectations far better than my own desires.

I don't have — and don't enjoy — the cutthroat dog-eat-dog nature of so-called "Hustle Culture."

If you're not based/living in the USA, perhaps a lot of this doesn't resonate... but authenticity pretty much crosses all borders... and we owe it to ourselves to strive for whatever feels right to us, not just what the world expects of us!

So staying true remains top of the list of what I will pursue in 2026!

How about YOU? Do you have any things you are trying to accomplish before the new year? Are you setting any specific goals for 2026? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

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Created at 2025.12.28 21:32 PST
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