First Week of 2026: A Reflection on Resilience, Learning, and Forward Motion
- Dennis D Scott
- Jan 6
- 2 min read
The first week of a new year has a way of creating space - space to breathe, to look back honestly, and to decide how you want to move forward.
As I step into 2026, I find myself reflecting on a year that tested me in ways I didn’t fully anticipate.
2025 brought change, loss, and disruption. Not the kind that fits neatly into a growth narrative or resolves itself with a clean lesson by year’s end - but the kind that forces you to slow down, recalibrate, and confront uncertainty head-on.
Life, I’ve been reminded, isn’t just built on wins. It’s built on the full spectrum - progress and setbacks, momentum and interruption, confidence and doubt. And sometimes, the hits land harder than expected.
When they do, the most important thing isn’t avoiding the fall.
It’s getting back up.
In those moments, perspective becomes everything. I had to consciously remind myself of who I am - and what it took to get here. The work already done. The challenges already faced. The ground already covered. That perspective isn’t about ego; it’s about grounding. It’s what breaks the paralysis and restores motion.
But this time around, something felt different.
Resilience isn’t just about standing back up and bracing for the next blow. It’s about learning not to stand still in the same position. You counter. You adapt. You build the capacity to absorb impact and keep moving forward anyway.
That shift matters.
2025 reinforced a core lesson I keep returning to: keep learning. Every experience - especially the uncomfortable ones - contains signal if you’re willing to look for it. Circumstances can either become noise that distracts you or data that sharpens you. The difference is intention.
My goals haven’t changed. My purpose hasn’t changed. But the method will evolve. The route will adjust. Growth rarely follows a straight line, and insisting that it should only limits what’s possible next.
So as 2026 begins, I’m not chasing a reset that erases the past year. I’m carrying it forward - more informed, more aware, and more deliberate.
A new year doesn’t mean abandoning who you are.
It means recommitting to it - intentionally.
A new slate.
A fresh set of chances.
A new set of choices.
Another year to keep striving - with clarity, discipline, and resolve.
The question I’m sitting with as I move forward is a simple one - and maybe it’s worth asking yourself too:
What did 2025 teach you that you’re carrying into 2026?
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