New Year's Traditions? v2026
Resolutions and Reflecting
Chunks of this are taken from my first post of 2025 but, like any good framework, it only needs some changes from time to time rather than wholesale reinvention. While my values are mostly the same, which are most salient and how I choose to enact them can shift over time. So here’s the 2026 version of what I’m reflecting on and what I’m resolving to place at the top of my priorities.
Two of the most common positive activities that people engage in at this time of year are reflecting on the year that was and making promises to themselves about the year ahead. Something I find so interesting about people is how they’ll wait for a particular moment of the year to practice one or both of these activities. But, recognizing that’s just how people are, I’d like to engage in a little bit of both of them and invite you to do the same.
First, I want to take a moment to acknowledge that you’ve been following along for another year. I’m proud to say I’ve shown up every week for two years now. I want you to know how much I appreciate when you tell me that you save my emails when they arrive so you can read them when you have time. In a world that excels at packaging quickly and easily digestible content, it means a lot to me that you would put my writing aside so that you can give it more time. Like many other metrics I’ve discussed, open rates are just proxies for things that I’d rather know but can’t measure. While it’s nice to see that you open my emails, what I truly wish for you to open is your minds. That’s the kind of engagement I care about. So thank you for not just subscribing but for taking a journey with me.
Second, I’m finding my footing after changing jobs this summer. I have to admit that writing enough to get something out every week has been more challenging than I had expected. But I’m optimistic that I’ll continue to find inspiration and collaborators in the coming months. Stay tuned.
Speaking of inspiration, my biggest resolution for the coming year isn’t a thing I hope to achieve but a thing I hope to embody. I think often about the interaction between doing and being and I think my resolution for 2026 is much heavier on the “being”. There’s someone I want to be in the coming year. In that sense, I think my resolution is about my resolution.
Perhaps my biggest takeaway from the 2025 AVCA convention was a sense of determination. When my main job was working with a single team, resolution was sort of taken for granted. I was always doing my best to help the team be their best. Now, my sense of purpose is more self-determined and much broader in scope. At the convention, I had the opportunity to present some big ideas about the future of storytelling in volleyball broadcasts (links to come). While preparing for the presentation with my coworkers, I made a joke about one of them being Flavor Flav while I got to be Chuck D. (If you don’t know who they are, please educate yourself.) But, since then, I’ve come to embrace that comment as more than a joke.
Chuck D said a few things in Public Enemy’s 2012 song, RLTK that really resonate with me these days. (It just so happens I am currently 52, as he almost was when he spit this rhyme.)
5-1 not 5-0, Im’ma be 52
Bomb drop non-stop spitting on you…
I walk real talk across these beats
At the age I am now If I can’t teach
I shouldn’t even open my mouth to speak
The more I think about Chuck D’s legacy in music and activism, the more it inspires me to move boldly forward. There is a role I can play in volleyball that requires speaking eloquently and confidently about subjects we care deeply about. I need to be deliberate in my speech and convicted in my work.
In my work with VolleyStation, I have a chance to advocate for change in the future of volleyball in the US. I believe in our vision for continuing growth and engagement in our sport. In my writing here, I have a chance to advocate for change in how coaches learn and develop. I believe that, together with you, we can make a difference. Neither of these opportunities are for the passive. It’s going to take a lot of energy, but that’s something I can bring.
Shifting from my reflection and resolution to yours, I invite you to expand your reflective work in the coming year. As I discussed in one of my presentations at this year’s AVCA convention, So You Want to Control the Controllables..., as well as in my series on building a coaching philosophy, there are many ways of reflecting on your work. Many of you reflect on your choices and actions already. You ask yourself if the drills and games you use worked. You ask yourself if today’s practice plan worked. As Donald Schön wrote in The Reflective Practitioner, “We are…at once the subjects and the objects of action. We are in the problematic situation that we seek to describe and change, and when we act on it, we act on ourselves” (1984, p. 347). I invite you to remember that, not only are you part of the situation you are reflecting on, you are a changeable part of that situation. While you may default to changing other parts of the situation, look for moments when changing yourself may be more productive than other kinds of change available to you.
Lastly, I want to encourage you spend time in reflection throughout the year and not just at the beginning or end of years and seasons. It is possible to spend time reflecting on your choices as well as on your values regularly without being overwhelmed and without feeling like you are aimlessly adrift. A phrase I like to remember in my coaching is, “it’s never too late to make it better.” You don’t need to wait until a season is over to make changes or to try new things. You can make small tweaks or even large shifts while things are in motion.
Try it. Not all change is progress but there is no progress without change. I’m looking forward to a passionate, purposeful year. I hope you are too.