After a year that can only be defined as one of much needed changes and full of challenges, I am eager to jump into 2026 and leave 2025 in the dust! Maybe you are too.
Regardless of whether 2025 was the best or worst year of your life, I invite you to join me in an exercise that should help you live more creatively in 2026!
I am an avid journal-er, and every year I make a master list of aspirational goals I know I may not meet for the coming year. These are kind of the opposite of “SMART” goals; the point of setting them is an exercise in living more creatively than I would otherwise.
Hope you might be inspired by my list for 2026!!
(1) Attend a live music event once a month
My 2026 Concert Lineup currently includes:
- Ruston Kelly
- American Aquarium
- Ray Wylie Hubbard
- Sabaton
- Wednesday
(2) Read 12 books (roughly one per month – Audible counts!)
Currently on my TBR List are:
- Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis
- Field Notes for the Wilderness: Practices for an Evolving Faith by Sarah Bessey
- Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
- The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
- Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now by Walter Brueggemann
(3) Visit an art museum I’ve never been to
(4) Publish four new blog posts to this blog
(5) Attend a bird hike with other birders
(6) Handwrite a letter or card and mail it to a friend once a month
(7) Complete one of the projects from my Guided Art Therapy Card Deck each month
(8) Learn how to play Pickleball
(9) Journal at least once a week
(10) Cook a nice dinner for people I love
(11) Alphabetize and catalogue my record collection
(12) Try paddleboard yoga
(13) Become a certified lay leader in the United Methodist Church
(14) Hike a portion of the Appalachian Trail
(15) Coordinate a letter writing campaign to the NC and Federal Legislatures on abolishing the practice of solitary confinement in jails and prisons in the United States
(16) Get back into rock climbing
(17) Host a “Create and Congregate” event at church
(19) Refrain from complaining for one week
(18) Develop Sabbath practices to observe weekly
(20) Attend prayers at an Islamic mosque
(21) Record a song
(22) Set aside time to write creatively each week – and write!
(23) Go camping outdoors
(24) Attend a production of Hamilton live
(25) Create a scrapbook with memories from my time in the yachting industry
(26) Turn my “Made for More” sermon into a sermon series on why and how churches should engage in Prison Ministry
What are your creative aspirations for 2026?
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