Letter from the first light of 2026
Happy new year! <3
Every year I wish the same thing for myself and my loved ones:
Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or life.
Take chances!
But FUCK THAT!
I don’t want to see life decisions as mistakes anymore. I don’t want to focus on things going wrong or label something as a mistake.
For years, Twitter had a big poster on the wall that said, “Let’s make better mistakes tomorrow.” The poster was upside down. It showed the philosophy of embracing screwups. But when they moved to a new office with a new CEO. They left that motto of making better mistakes in the old building
I do think people should make more mistakes. Become comfortable with mistakes. Fuck around and figure out. But for me, I have become nonchalant about making mistakes. Something going wrong doesn’t affect me much. It’s just another thing that didn’t work out and I need to keep moving because there’s so much to do. I don’t have time to crib about failures.
Something didn’t work out. So what? I have this moment from now to change things.
Everyone who has done something remarkable in life can tell you - Intention is always set within a second’s frame. That intention drives action and action makes dream a reality.
If I quickly glance at how my 2025, I would say:
Beginning of the year (Jan-Mar) was great. I was tracking my focused hours, step count & time.
I built a habit of focusing for 90 mins.
I started something called Akanksha’s brain where I used to log my daily thoughts. I continued that for 2 months.
April onwards, I lost track of time. I became inconsistent in most things - primarily writing and exercise.
Instead of traveling to new cities. I traveled to old cites to meet friends and catch up after years.
I started cooking healthy food. (Quinoa, Oats & Daliya became my best friends)
I cut down sugar.
A lot of great things happened in between but my brain isn’t supporting me in recalling them right now. I had a goal of doing my monthly reviews. Sadly, I was inconsistent there. I only have record of Jan-Feb. If I think hard, I can make a record of Dec. I have started time tracking again so that’s good I guess.
My time tracking system happens on my calendar. I have 4 different calendars with a color coded system:
Deep focus (blue): Writing, reading, studying, analyzing, work
Non-negotiables (yellow): Essential daily activities like cooking, cleaning, exercise
Events (dark blue): Client calls, sales calls, discovery calls, meetups
Chill time (red): Social media, surfing, leisure activities
My vision for this year is to:
Bring speed to my work. Do more in the same allotted time.
Write more fucking essays. Show up in ways I have never done before.
Exercise. Everything in life works better when I go out and do something instead of sitting like a couch potato.
Eat right. I am not a foodie + I have already built the momentum
A few key lessons:
Start before you are ready
Don’t hesitate to quit. Trust that you know the difference between qutting because of lack of competence vs you are quitting because its not serving you.
Honor the commitment in the moment rather than postponing it.
Currently I am reading “The Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. The main character finds a ghost and he asks him:
“Why do spirits walk the earth?”
The ghost says, “It is required of every man that the spirit within him walk abroad within his fellowmen, and travel far and wide, and if that spirit does not go forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world and witness what it cannot share anymore but might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness.”
Signing off
- Akanksha