By: D. A. Slinkard
We are now moving deeper into the year, and I want to start this article with a question – How is your year going thus far? Hopefully, everyone is generating the success imagined at the beginning of this year. If you are not as successful or have not even begun to concentrate on what you want to accomplish in 2026, it is time to build momentum.
Too many people derail their weeks, their months, their years, and ultimately their lives because they fail to concern themselves with the right mindset. There is still plenty of time left in this year to accomplish great things, but we must also begin preparing ourselves for what is ahead in 2027.
Think about everything you still want to accomplish this year and make a list of those items. List them in the order of importance to you as necessities for making 2026 a success. When you make this list, envision these items as if you will not fail in your endeavors. Too often we limit our thinking and our lives because we approach our goals with the fear of failure instead of the mindset of, “I will not fail.”
It is time we no longer take the haphazard approach of “What if.” How many times have you heard someone empathetically ask, “What else can go wrong?” and before long, something else adds to the negativity. Asking questions with negative connotations adds no value to our lives or to what we want to accomplish.
Building momentum for the remainder of 2026 and beyond, your focus needs to be on activities that help you reach desired results. As you look at your list and the actions needed to achieve success, if you find an item that moves you further away from your goal or is not producing positive results, then you need to purge that item now. How many times do we quash our own dreams by wasting time and effort on things that bring absolutely no fruit into our lives? We need to add value to every single day we live.
Maybe that should become our goal – not to waste our time or efforts on meaningless things. Seriously, think about how “busy” we Americans are and how many distractions compete for our attention daily. We wonder why we struggle to find the elusive work-life balance, but is it really any wonder with the continued explosion of technology? I remember the days when the only way to talk to someone on the phone was to call their home number, and if the person was not home, then you simply were not talking to them that moment.
Technology has made us constantly available through our computers, tablets, phones, smartwatches, social media, and nonstop notifications. Although we are more connected than ever before, is this killing our momentum for success? I am going to tell you that it is. How much more successful could we be as a society if we learned how to “de-technologize” ourselves from our electronic devices, even if only for a little while each day?
As I write this article, my phone keeps dinging, and what do I do? I stop writing to check notifications, and before I realize it, I am lost scrolling through email after email, text message after text message, notification after notification. This is the same old story for countless people, and what little motivation there was has been lost because of distractions we constantly battle against.
With your list in hand, I urge you to make it a priority to “de-technologize” yourself so you can have the success in the months ahead that you desire, and maybe you will be able to cut out some of life’s distractions along the way. This may be easier said than done, but until you try it, you truly have no idea what will and will not work for you. If you were able to eliminate just a fraction of the distractions in your life, what kind of improvements could this make for you and your family?
How much more productive could you be in your work-life balance if you focused just a little more attention on what is truly going to bring success into your life in 2026 and beyond? This is what our resolve must be moving forward – we must look at life with the mindset of “I will not fail.” The time to build momentum starts now by looking at your list, knowing you can achieve success, and taking action today.
By: D. A. Slinkard
D.A. Slinkard would love your feedback. You can contact him at da.slinkard@gmail.com
