No Worries

Know what? Let's freaking worry.

Photo by Gary Butterfield on Unsplash

It is January 18th, 2026. It was December 24th just a couple of hours ago, and here we are in the middle of January 2026. That’s 1/24th of 2026 already. At this rate, Q1 is practically packing its bags. Start putting up your Christmas lights, o, because the holiday season is right around the corner.

Trust me.

How are those big, hairy, audacious goals coming along? BHAG. Sounds so aggressive. How SMART are you feeling right now? Is 2026 giving you smart, measurable, actionable vibes yet? Or are you WOOPing with a vengeance? You know: Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan.

Your plans scattered like roaches the moment January’s light hit them, haven’t they? You’ve already crashed the thirty-day, 30-minutes-of-exercise-a-day shenanigans into a brick wall. The “everyday call someone you haven’t called in one year this month” goal has stalled at two calls so far, out of 18 days.

Ah, don’t mind me o, abeg. I shouldn’t even be talking. I’m the one who promised to share one chapter of Refr(action) every Sunday for four Sundays. Simple pact. Did I share it with you? For where. Well, at least half of the promise is intact. I have written a couple of chapters, but to share in public? Different conversation.

So. Should we be worried? Absolutely. Pay-attention worry, not panic worry.

Because when time moves like this, goal-setting isn’t the main wahala. Direction is. The way time moves these days makes it even more important to stop BSing around with structured goal planning and instead meet life as life is. I’ve always subscribed to the notion that rowing harder doesn’t help if the boat is headed in the wrong direction. What are you doing here? Why are you here? If your answer is something you mumble about your job title and ending climate hunger and taking care of you, then wahala dey. So yes, be worried that your wooping and smarting and bhagging is not quite goaling the way it should be goaling right now.

In her book, Tiny Experiments (quake book for me), Anne-Laure Le Cunff calls out the trap of linear goals. They are out of sync with the lives we live now. Half the time, the goals aren’t even ours. We borrow them from peers, celebrities, and whatever society is clapping for this week. Mimetic desire. I keep recommending another quake book, Wanting by Luke Burgis, if you want to understand that disease. And because we define success as outcomes, progress becomes nothing more than ticking boxes on big-ass goals.

So instead of big goals, what about doing something that levels up the experimental mindset? What about testing some of your assumptions about something you’re curious about? James Clear says being curious is better than being smart. What is catching your curiosity these days? Things outside your current realm, the things that make you go “hmm?” We should be in the throes of the joy of trying, seeking, unpacking. Solving puzzles with absolutely no guarantee of success, and still reveling in the process, which is juicier than the outcome.

Honestly, if you haven’t been around children lately, please do. Just watch them play. Watch them move with reckless abandon. You want to kickstart your curiosity, get back that magical feeling of discovery and wonder? Just chill with these beings that are not laden with to-do lists or plans, or tainted by the wahala of life. Watch them, try not to steal their joy or spirit, just observe and listen. Now, I know elementary school teachers are rolling their eyes and flipping me off right now, as they down their third shot after a day with a room full of these insurgents. But deep down, they know. It is the wonderful chaos of curiosity.

And quote “curiosity killed the cat” to me, and see thunder strike you three times.

Let me say this though: cultivating curiosity is easy to say, quite hard to do, and very valuable when you do it. Curiosity helps you get good at being lucky, according to Stanford’s Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. That’s what we should carry into every day.

Curiosity.

So, let’s go get good-lucky in 2026.

Oya, let me come and be going.