What if your 2026 doesn't need to follow the rules you set in 2025?

On reassessing what actually works (and building momentum without perfect consistency)

Author

Makeda Boehm
January 13, 2026

Hey Love,

If you didn't get my newsletter last week, here's what happened: my first post on my new Substack publication didn't make it to most inboxes.

Technical issue. Still sorting it out.

But while I fix that, please subscribe directly in the Substack app so you're covered either way:

That's where my thinking lives now. Focused topics. More practical systems. Just a better home for sharing what I'm learning while I'm learning it and for us to interact.

Here's what's actually changing

I'm freeing myself from rigid publishing schedules, because the best systems are the ones that work around real life, not the ones that collapse the moment something goes sideways.

You'll still hear from me regularly. I'm just not forcing posts on Tuesdays at 5:30am if I don't have something worth saying. Or waiting an entire week if there’s something amazing to share on a Friday night.

This is what it looks like to build capacity instead of just output.

You'll also find me on:

What you missed last week

I wrote about the kind of freedom that actually matters.

Not "quit your job and escape." The real kind.

The kind that looks like slow Tuesday mornings, 1pm workouts, and mid-May travel because your schedule has actual space in it.

I said this:

"Options create protection. They create grace. They create margin. Margin to parent with patience and compassion because we're not always rushing to the next goal, milestone, or status marker."

This week's post: Permission to reassess

If you're already questioning whether your January commitments are sustainable... this one's for you.

I'm writing about capacity as the real flex in 2026.

Not how much you can produce. How much space you can create.

And how building a business is exactly like growing a garden: you can't force a tomato plant to produce outside in zone 7a January, but you can build the systems, the soil, the structure that make growth inevitable.

The setup work matters more than the hustle. The tending matters more than the forcing.

Make sure you're subscribed

Posts should hit your inbox automatically, but last week proved that's not guaranteed.

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Thanks for being here while I build systems that actually hold up.

—Makeda

P.S. Find me on Substack Notes for the in-between thoughts. That's where I test ideas before they become posts.