28/12/2025
Some inspiration for 2026
26 Manifesto Rules for the Year.
1. Stare fear in the face. So often fear stops us. Instead live fearless - knowing when to stop and when to move and when to be brave.
2. Invest in your friends. Good friends listen and show up. Do the same. Friendship is give and take and give and take. Friends are the ultimate gift.
3. No excuses. You must take care of yourself: heart, body and soul. There is no excuse for forgetting you. Your family needs you to love you with the same tenacity that you love them.
4. Guilt doesn't need to dictate choices. Don't let guilt stop you from taking care of yourself. Guilt keeps one stuck.
5. Read real books again. Watch a mini-series. Start jogging. Do something that is not work, not chores, but simply that makes you happy.
6. Love your body. Your aging body. Yes, that. And stop lamenting the wrinkles, but embrace them as another year lived.
7. Don't short-change yourself. You are amazing.
8. Listen more, judge less. Comparison is the death of contentment. Instead of judging, be happy for others.
9. Slow down. Hold hands more. Say "yes" to one more book. Let them get the gum in the check out line. Just be present.
10. Create margin in your life. That space in-between the busy and the crazy where you can just breathe again.
11. Don't be afraid of "no" and trying. The worst that can happen is that you brush off and try again.
12. Be proud of yourself. Like really nitty gritty proud - of all the showing up and trying and giving and little things you do that matter so greatly.
13. Give to others. Maybe it's not money or time, but sometimes it can be grace extended.
14. Be straightforward with your words.
15. Love well. Love without fear. Love unconditionally. Love others. Love yourself.
16. Forgive. Grudges destroy, forgiving brings freedom. And if you’re not at a place of forgiving, it’s okay. It’s your timeline, not what others “think” is right.
17. Fall seven times, stand up eight. Don't lament the falling - celebrate the standing.
18. Learn from your experiences and mistakes. They don’t need to define. Sometimes those spaces of experience make us real and in the real spaces we forge connection.
19. Take risks. The biggest risk for me in life is the risk of not trying.
20. Mindset, mindset, mindset. What one thinks truly is what one believes, what one becomes.
21. Be adaptable. Life can change in an instant.
22. Love others deeply. For who they are, for their courage, for their story. Kindness and love are priceless.
23. Be a learner, but don’t let learning stop you from taking action. You have to start. Try. The only way to walk (or run) a thousand miles is to complete mile one. So be brave. Start.
24. Do the work. Whether it’s the mental work to change patterns or the active work to change things - talking and doing are some different. So don’t be afraid of hard work, put in the effort. Talking about change and working for change are completely different.
25. Step into YOUR story and fuel YOUR soul. Live unapologetically yourself. This is your time, now.
26. There is a duality to life. Hard and soft, hustle and peace, grit and grace, stength and flexibility, etc… lean into both. Life is not one or the other, rather is this beautiful place of needing both.
Begin. 🙌
~Rachel
PS: I originally wrote these at the end of 2019 and have been adding on with new lessons learned.
original words by Rachel Marie Martin of Finding Joyo
