Hello, 2026. We can do a countdown or a list. Yes, let’s go.
On the first day of the New Year, make a list of bad habits to drop, a cleanup drive along the highways of your messy life. On the second day of the New Year, learn a new hobby while you are busy sweeping away the ugly habits piled up in your system. On the third day of the New Year, learn how to cook French hens — or any fowl, for that matter. A cookbook would be handy, or you can follow a cooking tutorial on YouTube.
While you are busy chasing hens in your backyard, consider this the resolution for the fourth day of the New Year: exercise more. Do not buy dressed chicken at the mall, even if getting on and off a vehicle to get there consumes a few calories. Running around your yard is better. It also gives your nosy neighbors something to talk about.
On the fifth day of the New Year, vow to reduce — yes, reduce — screen time, a vow you immediately delete from your to-do list. You and your phone are bedmates. You sleep with the darling phone by your side and reach for it as soon as you wake up in the morning.
So what shall you reduce then? Less coffee drinking? Less grouchiness?
On the sixth day of the New Year, save money and swim out of debt. Oh, that is like flying to the moon and singing among the stars. It is a dream we all want to achieve, but we wake up to the nightmare of nearly maxing out our savings while watching debts rise like floodwaters.
Do not fret. You can still do this at the end of the year when we receive our 13th-month pay. Save and pay, if you can.
On the seventh day of the New Year, a friend tells you Jan. 17 is Ditch New Year’s Resolution Day.
If by now your list has made you fail the medical stress test you took, this new information frees you from all obligations to try to be a better person in 2026. If that sounds tragic, cheer up. There is still hope. The year has just started. Take a deep breath and vow not to worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
I think if worry could make people taller, younger and prettier, by now I would be 18 and the next Miss Universe Philippines.