5 Things I’m Quitting to Simplify in 2026

Every year, I like to create some kind of list. It’s usually about simplifying, or things I want to change, or things I want to quit doing. It’s my way of course correcting. I like having a theme or an area of growth each year, so I feel like I’m continuing to evolve.

Because we can get stagnant. We can get stuck in the way we’ve always done things. And over time, that can start to make you feel small. Stifled. It can be really tough to come out of that.

For me, simplicity has been one of the biggest catalysts for feeling more peace and happiness. I’ve had a chaotic history at different points in my life, and I’ve found that simplifying is one of the main reasons I feel like a completely different person today than I used to be.

So this year, I’m sharing five things I’m committed to quitting and redirecting in order to simplify in 2026.

And honestly, this didn’t even start as a list. I wasn’t sitting down thinking, okay, time to make a list. I was feeling certain things, getting inspired to grow in certain areas, and I pulled out pen and paper like I always do. I started writing things down to make them real and make sense of what was going on in my head.

My theme for 2026 is deeper meaning. Deeper connections. Deeper growth.

1. I’m quitting explaining and hiding myself

This is something I’ve struggled with, and I think a lot of us do.

The more I try to push through and just be who I am, the more I notice how easy it is to stay quiet. It’s easier not to share the thought that has real meaning. It’s easier not to say the thing that’s been bothering me. Because the second you put something real out there, you open the door for feedback, misunderstanding, and people shooting it down.

That vulnerability hangover is real.

But at this point in my life, I’m ready to be beyond that. I’m ready to say the things I feel like saying. To share my viewpoints, even if everyone doesn’t agree or even if everyone doesn’t understand.

I saw this idea recently that really stuck with me: let yourself be misunderstood. Some of the greatest leaders have that quality. They don’t sit there explaining every decision, every action, everything they’re doing. They’re okay being misunderstood.

And I’ve seen how easy it is to get trapped in the mindset of "what are people going to think?" How will this be received? What if I offend somebody? What if somebody misunderstands me?

It isn’t even always about the public. I see this show up in relationships too, where people don’t say what’s bothering them. And I can’t imagine living in a close relationship without being able to say, " Hey, this bothered me, and this is why."

Open communication matters.

For me, it’s more about strangers, or people who don’t know me, having an opinion. Everybody has an opinion about everything nowadays. But there is nothing simple about constantly battling with yourself over what other people might think.

If something matters to me, and it’s important enough to frustrate me, then I don’t want to be the person who holds myself back from sharing it. I don’t want to only show the sugarcoated parts of who I am that everyone will agree with.

That’s not simple. That’s stressful.

A real example of where this showed up for me

Something that bothered me a lot in 2025 actually started at the end of 2024, when I was planning a virtual summit I hosted called the Modern Mom’s Simple Home Reimagine Summit.

The name was long on purpose because I wanted it to be very specific. It was for modern moms. Not people trying to live like homemakers from the 50s. There’s an undercurrent right now of “getting back to the old ways.” Some of that is great, but a lot of it doesn’t feel true for me.

I wanted an event for people who are okay with being modern-day moms and still want a simple, reimagined home. I also wanted it to be inclusive. Modern moms are a diverse set of people, regardless of sexual orientation, religious beliefs, ethnicity, and all of it. That mattered to me.

When I started looking for speakers, I found it surprisingly hard to find diversity in the space. Even in the simple living and intentional living community, so much of what showed up felt like one type of person, give or take five percent.

It frustrated me enough that I updated my Instagram profile and added the word inclusive. I wanted people looking for a more open, welcoming approach to simplifying to be able to find me and know I’m not putting up walls.

There were even moments during speaker onboarding where a form had a pronouns field, and some speakers reached out saying they didn’t want that listed anywhere. That whole experience made me realize how tense and polarized things have gotten and how quickly people attach everything to politics.

And that’s exactly why I held back for a long time. I didn’t want to get pulled into a whirlwind where people can’t wait to attack you.

But I’m okay with being misunderstood.

I want to share what I believe and still lead with compassion.

That feels simpler than constantly explaining and hiding.

2. I’m quitting ignoring my mental and spiritual growth

2025 was a beautiful year for me. We went to Japan, which I’ve always wanted to do. I got to see a different culture, and that lights me up. I took a road trip from Texas to Oregon and saw incredible mountains. I stayed at a Native American resort with horse stables and hand-fed the horses by myself, which felt so special because I don’t get many chances to do things like that alone.

And of course, watching Chloe grow through 2025 was wild. If you look at her from January to December, the growth is unbelievable. I tried to be present for all of it.

But I also noticed something. In the day-to-day, in the repetition, in chasing the days down, I wasn’t nourishing my mind or my spirit the way I usually do.

And I started getting forgetful. Like, embarrassingly forgetful.

I missed appointments constantly. Even with reminders. Even with calendar notifications. Even with me telling Matt that I had something coming up. The time would arrive, and I’d be off in la la land, not present.

I missed Charlie’s grooming appointment that I scheduled the night before. I missed my final physical therapy appointment. I missed an HOA meeting even though I reminded myself that same day. I missed two doctor’s appointments in a row. The kind of thing that gets you dropped as a patient.

It was frustrating. It was embarrassing. It was concerning.

And I don’t know if it was vitamin D, winter in the Pacific Northwest, or just a “you don’t use it, you lose it” situation, because I took a long sabbatical at the end of the year and really didn’t do much. I gave myself space to do nothing. But I also felt like I wasn’t evolving.

If I feel stagnant, or worse, like I’m shrinking spiritually and mentally, I don’t feel good. I don’t feel complete.

I don’t want to live in a cycle of repetition. I want to be actively present and actively growing.

The thing that expands my mind the most

The funniest thing that helps me break out of that stuck feeling is space. Outer space.

We take a family vacation every summer to Central Oregon and camp in the desert. On that trip we listened to the audiobook Project Hail Mary. It’s by the same author who wrote The Martian, and they’re making a movie of it with Ryan Gosling.

I’m not here to spoil anything, but that book gave me perspective. Thinking about our planet as one of so many. Zooming out and realizing how small we are in the grand scheme of things.

It’s scary, but it’s mind-boggling.

And when I get that perspective, so many of my daily irritations feel tiny. The fears feel smaller. The stuff I give too much weight to starts to loosen its grip.

That kind of mind expansion is part of my mental and spiritual growth. Travel does that too. Exploring somewhere new, especially alone, even just for a few hours, wakes up that part of me that feels creative and connected and curious.

That’s what I want more of in 2026.

3. I’m quitting avoiding phone calls

This one is funny because I’ve contradicted myself on this before.

A couple of years ago, I made a whole list of things that waste time, and phone calls were on it. And I still believe some things can be one sentence in a text.

But for years, I avoided phone calls. I didn’t like the sound of the phone ringing. No matter how much I loved the person, I didn’t want to talk on the phone.

I feel differently now.

I spent Christmas in Texas with my family this year, and it reminded me how much I love them. I got to see my grandparents. I spent over a week with my parents. My mom’s health is doing better now, and that made it possible to be more active and engaged with her. We drove four hours to see my other grandmother and had a big barbecue with that side of the family, too.

It brought back a lot of nostalgia. And I realized how much I miss them.

It honestly made me emotional. I was watching ice skaters at the Galleria in Houston and almost cried because I’d been missing that part of my family so much.

It made me think about how long people will be around. It made me want deeper connections. And it made me commit to making the phone calls.

I’ve been calling my mom more. Talking to family several times a week. And it makes me feel connected. Loved. Grounded.

Community has been proven over and over to be a necessary factor of happiness. And in America, especially in the tech age, we’ve become isolated.

So why is this simplifying?

Because it stops me from filling in the blanks with my imagination. I know how my mom’s health is because I call. I know what’s going on. I’m not sitting around wondering or assuming.

Open lines of communication make life simpler.

4. I’m quitting letting my bank balance dictate my spending

You should know what’s in your bank account. If you’re living tightly, you have to pay attention.

But in 2025, we were doing okay. And I kept watching the number go up, feeling good about it, and letting that persuade me to spend more.

Like, "Oh, we’re up this much. What do we need around here?"

When I looked at my bank statements, I was surprised. Shopping wasn’t as high as I expected. But food was. Groceries and eating out were much higher than I thought.

It was those little add-ons. The filler stuff. Six dollars here. Eight dollars there. And food is expensive now, so it adds up fast.

There’s a quality of life in being able to buy what you want at the grocery store. I’m not trying to make life miserable. But you can go overboard. You can spend so casually that you stop appreciating it. Food sits there. You spend more and don’t even notice.

And the savings stayed stagnant. Not higher, not lower. Just stuck.

Now I have reasons to save. I want to invest. I want to do retirement things I’ve never done. I want to buy a house. The housing market is expensive, and down payments are hefty. We’ve talked about wanting rental properties someday.

So in 2026, I want my spending to align with my goals, not my bank balance.

I’m going back to see what I can do if I’m discerning. Conservative without being uncomfortable. I want a low-spend 2026, and I’m excited to see what that looks like by the end of the year.

5. I’m quitting having too many influencers and mentors at once

This one is big for me.

Having too many mentors at once is overwhelming. Taking in all that information is overwhelming. Implementing it is even more overwhelming.

In 2025, I took multiple business courses at the same time. Different methods, different systems, different email templates for basically the same situation. I was trying to take the best from both and follow both, and I ended up not following either.

It was stressful.

I love learning. I like emails from Amy Porterfield. I love Melissa Griffin. I’m listening to Mel Robbins right now, and her book 'Let Them' is so good.

But I only have so many free hours a day to absorb information. I don’t want to feel behind because I can’t keep up with everyone.

And social media makes it harder. You can’t just follow who you follow anymore. You try to check on family or a few friends, and you have to wade through dozens of posts from people you don’t even follow. Your attention gets pulled into side projects you never intended to focus on.

So in 2026, I’m limiting my inputs. I want fewer voices. More focus. More depth.

That doesn’t mean who influences me will never change. It will. I’ll finish one book, move to another. But I’m not trying to learn from 20 people at once anymore.

That feels like a straightforward way to simplify.

What I’m really aiming for in 2026

This whole list comes back to deeper meaning.

Deeper growth. Deeper connections. Less noise. Less hiding. Less mental clutter.

If any of this landed for you, I hope it gives you a little inspiration for your own simplifying. Maybe it helps you notice what you want to quit, redirect, or do differently this year.