Intentions for 2026
Intentions for 2026
This year my husband and I went to Southall and spent the night with the plan to escape our house full of Christmas decorations and cardboard boxes, and recap our 2025 + plan for 2026.
I love the Mel Robbins podcast episode that gives you questions to ask yourself to review from last year and plan for the next. Using our camera roll to look through each month and highlight the highs (and lows) was so fun to do together. We were able to remember a lot of the small moments, big trips, and memories that we are so grateful for and want to experience more of this year.
We ordered room service and got a notebook out to write down our favorite things from each month of 2025 and by the end we were amazed at all we had done this past year.
I made a to-do list as we went, and filed some photos and screenshots into folders (like “jewelry inspiration” “recipes” “photos of friends”). I typically make a highlight of the year photo album on my phone so that I can easily scroll through them, or choose photos to print for our girls or to frame around the house. I also really want to get better about printing photos of good friends from trips and celebrations. Who doesn’t wish they had more photos printed out?! I have a grand idea of printing pics and dropping them off to friends as a little New Years surprise (on the top of my to-do list!)
After we went through our 2025 recap, we had a few concrete things we knew we wanted to do more of this year: more travel (California, back to Croatia but with our girls this time, Charleston for my husband and I in May, a friend’s birthday in Santa Barbara in August, so much to look forward to)! I honestly loved looking at all of the photos even of the simplest things (like a simple home cooked meal or a sunset at the park across the street) because it reminded me of the little moments that made me pause, brought me joy, and inspired me to make time for those things this year.
We watched a movie in bed and woke up for a lovely breakfast and a visit to the Southall Spa. We went to a sound bath and came out feeling rested, rejuvenated and focused on what we wanted for 2026 for ourselves and our family.
My husband and I both use a system called “EOS” or Entreprenuers Operating System (I recommend starting with the book Rocket Fuel if you’re an entrepreneur) at work and it helps us and our teams to keep our goals aligned, to do lists moving, and the structure of the business to work as we grow. We have sort of a shared language and practices around EOS now so we half jokingly said “we should use EOS for our family meetings!”.
I made a quick list of some of the things we want to do around the house, trips to take, and other financial goals we have. And we broke them into quarters of the year to make things more realistic and attainable. Then we created a few to-dos assigned to each of us to get those projects moving. If you don’t write them down and put some action items and timelines around them, it’s easy to make it through the year and never get things done. I notice home stuff especially falls to the backburner so I’m setting a calendar reminder every week to “check in” with the projects I want to move along (like replacing our washer/dryer with top loaders, replacing the cracked tile with brick in our mudroom, etc.).
Here’s a brief look at what our “EOS inspired” family meetings will look like every Sunday:
Every family member has:
A personal best from the week
A big goal for the year
A smaller goal/plan/request for the month (like have a lemonade stand, get a part in the play, move up in my reading level, keep my room clean all month)
A to-do for the week to make that bigger goal happen
We go over “family headlines” like:
Mom is traveling this week Wednesday to Saturday
Dad is out Wednesday with clients
Brennan has 2 basketball practices and a voice lesson
Regan has basketball and a voice lesson
This helps us to look ahead and for the kids to be ready to pack their clothes for sports and not act surprised when they only have 30 minutes to grab a snack between school and practice.
We ask “are there any family issues?”
Could be something like: the dog is getting fed breakfast twice, the toiler paper is always out in the downstairs bathroom, shoes and coats are getting left on the ground not put away, or if someone is feeling like they aren’t getting to pick what’s for dinner, feelings are hurt by something, etc. this is the time to chat it out
Then we discuss the issue and see if there’s a solution or who can “own” this task and make sure it gets done the right way
We can also give “snaps” by sharing what someone did that was kind or went above and beyond that we noticed.
We shared some of our plans and goals for the year including travel so we could get our girls’ input on where they wanted to go and get them excited and looking forward to our trips.
We also discussed allowance, chores and expectations for everyone as a team who all need to contribute to keep our house and family running smoothly. We also shared our goals with them like having a weekly lunch date, taking trips together, and putting our phones away from 8pm to 8am to get to bed earlier with less tech. Kids will keep you accountable.
I really enjoyed using this as a guide for our family to discuss the week ahead and I’m sure we will tweak and improve upon it but I am so excited to see how this shapes our year!
Next up, I am heading to Miami for our EOS annual for Yearly Co. to review the past year of business and make plans for next. I am so thankful for these deviated days to be able to reflect and grow in every area of life.
My “more of” for 2026:
Family photos, travel, concerts, church, tech free days/social media breaks, nature, walking, reading, family dinners, cooking, farmer’s markets, volunteering, intentional friend time, early bedtimes, morning meditation or vibration plate, family weekly meetings, homemade matchas
My “less of” for 2026:
morning rushing, cardboard/online shopping, starbucks, eating out, packaged/processed foods, mindless scrolling, prioritizing “chores” before daily movement, getting frustrated with our kids without setting expectations
One thing we agreed on was that taking the time away and actually focusing on this stuff was so helpful to clearly see what was working, not working, and why some systems might help us to do more of the good and less of the bad.
I regularly share my outfits, bargain finds and investments on my Instagram. Follow along here if you’d like to see more! And never hesitate to DM me with a question or if you’re on the hunt for something, the only thing I love more than shopping for myself is shopping for someone else!
+My latest finds here.
+How we celebrate at Yearly Co.
+A note on being a ‘cool brand.’
