Connection  ·  Self-connection

A Different Way to Move Forward in 2026: Let Be, Let Go, Let In

January 23, 2026

As one year draws to a close and another begins, I always pause to ask a simple question: how do I want to live this next chapter?

For me, that question isn’t about goals or productivity. It’s about intention – how I want to guide my decision making, what values I want to live by, and the ways of being I want to practise and embed into the year.

And so, each year I choose a theme to guide that intention. Past themes have included Authenticity and Courage. As I look ahead to 2026, the theme that keeps returning is this:

Let Be. Let Go. Let In.

It feels deceptively simple, yet deeply challenging.

At its heart, this theme is about discernment – knowing what doesn’t need fixing, what needs releasing, and what I’m ready to welcome.

  • Let Be: some things don’t need to be changed or improved. They simply need to be accepted.
  • Let Go: of thoughts, habits, identities, and patterns that are no longer serving my higher self.
  • Let In: new thoughts, new habits, new ways of doing and being.

Embedding the theme into the day-to-day

Here’s an example of how this theme can be applied from a nice theory into lived experience. Lately, I’ve been dealing with terrible foot pain from plantar fasciitis. What sounds minor on the surface became emotionally heavy very quickly. Walking, hiking, running – the activities that have long supported my physical and mental health – were suddenly off the table.

Over the Christmas break, I found myself crying tears of pain and frustration. I worried I’d lose momentum, lose my sense of vitality, and lose a part of myself that feels deeply tied to those activities. 

My instinct had been to fight it. To push through. To “just keep going” the way I always had.

But that approach wasn’t working – it was making the pain worse.

Using the theme to shift expectations, thoughts and behaviour

When I consciously applied Let Be. Let Go. Let In, something shifted.

Let Be:
The pain exists. Fighting it wasn’t making it disappear. Letting it be meant listening to my body, resting when needed, and releasing the judgment that I “should” be able to do more.

Let Go:
I had to let go of the idea that exercise only counts if it looks the way it always has. Let go of the identity of “the person who runs and hikes” – at least for now.

Let In:
I let in new forms of movement. I focused on strength training – something that will serve me far better in midlife anyway. I tried yoga, which I’d never enjoyed in my earlier years, and discovered that I rather like it now. I swam or spent time in the local dam with the kids, doing deep-water running or treading water – staying active without punishing my body.

What surprised me most wasn’t just that I found alternatives – it was how energising it felt to adapt instead of resist.

Beyond the body: applying the theme to life itself

This theme doesn’t stop with physical health.

Like many people, I sometimes catch myself holding onto quiet regrets:
I should have made different decisions.
I haven’t done enough with my life.
If only I’d chosen differently 10 years ago.

These thoughts can be heavy, sticky, and familiar.

Again, the same framework applies:

  • Let Be: My life is the way it is – and that’s okay.
  • Let Go: Of regret, self-criticism, and wishing the past were different.
  • Let In: New ideas, new opportunities, and a future shaped by conscious choice rather than old stories.

Learnings I'm taking into 2026

What this theme is teaching me is that growth doesn’t always come from striving harder. Sometimes it comes from softening, releasing, and trusting that there are other ways forward – often better ones.

I’ve realised this isn’t just a personal mantra – it’s a simple self-coaching framework I now use whenever I feel stuck, constrained, or frustrated. One question per step. No forcing. Just clarity.

If you’d like to work with this idea yourself, here are a few questions to sit with.

Self-coaching questions for you

As you consider your own year ahead, you might ask yourself and reflect on:

  • What in my life is asking to simply be, rather than be fixed or changed?
  • What am I holding onto that no longer serves the person I’m becoming?
  • What am I ready – or quietly longing – to let in?
  • Where might flexibility serve me better than force?
  • If I trusted that my path is still unfolding, what choice would I make next?

Perhaps 2026 isn’t about doing more – but about choosing more wisely what you hold, what you release, and what you allow to enter your life.


Cherie Pasion

Cherie Pasion is the founder of Connection Compass, a practice grounded in listening, lived experience, and reconnection. A certified life coach and behaviour change specialist, Cherie has run award-winning behaviour change programs helping thousands of people across Australia. Cherie holds a Master of Social Science, Bachelor of Business, and Diplomas of Neuro Linguistic Programming and Shinrin Yoku (Forest Bathing). Cherie is also an internationally-published author.