Hello, 2026!
It’s that time of year when people make resolutions they rarely keep. I’ve done it — and I’m sure you have too. Losing weight is a biggie — exercise more is up there too. Good intentions, for sure, but effort wains and goals are oftentimes not realized.
For 2026, I challenge you to ask yourself a simple but powerful question that will help you grow in the near year.
What do I want more of this year—and what can I let go of?
Answering this question helps you focus on adding more of what matters while also clearing space for it. The catch is that you still have to make your answer realistic. Like… if you want more money you likely have to let go of personal time since odds are not in your favor to win the lottery. If you want more personal time, you may need to cut out some of the material things you enjoy.
Consider habits, grudges, commitments, or mindsets that no longer serve you. Releasing these creates space for growth and lighter energy moving forward.
An experiment with an interesting outcome…
In the last 30 days I’ve consciously refrained from posting much on controversial or political viewpoints. Now I know my test is far from being a factual revelation or even a reflection of anything other than just my personal observations… but it’s still interesting.
These are stats from this website for the past 30 days and how it compared to the previous 30 days:
If I cared about having more visitors to whatifitdid.com (which I don’t), I should post more about the Epstein files, freedom of speech, and Donald Trump. If I made money from ad revenue here (which I don’t), I’d be blabbing more about Kash Patel and less about senior living in rural Indiana.
Bounce rate is a percentage that’s based upon how many visitors hit one page and leave. A good bounce rate is below 40% and overall average across the board is under 55%. In other words, a huge increase in visitors leaving after 4 seconds means they aren’t finding the material they expected or find interesting. Visitors here prefer controversial and political content. It makes me wonder if that’s what visitors want at every website they visit — and if it’s a contributing factor to how media has evolved with the Internet.
I don’t care about attention, hits, or visitor numbers.
I post about things I enjoy and simple lifestyle perspectives — an old woman with 3 dogs living in a pole barn on a county road outside a tiny town in Indiana. When I have thoughts about something controversial or political I’ll share them, but I’m not going to do it for hits or views. I only share what I want to.
That includes dog memes.
My answer to the above question for 2026 will not include changing what I do here to garner more attention. 🙂
Now you know: During the final 24 hours of George Washington’s life, his physicians withdrew approximately 80 ounces (2.3 liters) of blood in an attempt to treat his throat infection. This amount represented about 40% of his total blood volume.