Dr. John A. King argues for 1% monthly improvements instead of ambitious New Year goals. He uses a bodybuilder's 500 lb bench press and a pilot's navigation analogy to show how small, consistent changes build sustainable progress. Start with five-minute walks or reading a few pages daily.
My name is Dr. John King. I am one of the partners at Mana Life, and I am a writer and an author, and I work in the area of mental health. And you can find me at stubs Substack at DrJohnAking.com. I wanted to talk a little bit about how to find peace and ease in 2026 coming into the new year. Why I think this is important is because for many of us come to the end of one year. And we're looking forward to the things that are ahead. Unfortunately, a lot of the motivation behind us looking forward to the things ahead are actually regret. We regret things that we didn't achieve. We regret things that we had done. We want to do better at what it is going forward. So I just want to give you a little bit of permission and a little bit of insight. On how to live with peace and ease in 2026. Because I would imagine a lot of people coming out of 2025 have thought, man, I wish I could have done that better. Man, that was so stressful. I never got there. I never achieved it. Or I achieved some, but I want so much more than what I actually got. So how do I actually go about doing that? So here's some thoughts for you. Old bodybuilder. If you're on Substack, drjohnaking.com. I am one of the partners at Man Alive. I'm an old bodybuilder and I remember when I was going for a record, personal record of pushing 500 pounds. So I was pushing 135 pounds and then I just did make a decision. I was one day going to push 500 pounds. I'd hop on a bench, try and push 500, and I would fail miserably. I would've ripped up everything. I would've thrown everything out. It just would not have got well. So here's what we did when we were trying to push for this goal of 500, this thing that's very hard to achieve, this thing that I'd never done in my life before. We started small and we started incrementally and we started consistently and we went after it day after day after day. That's actually what I want to encourage you to do in 2026. I'm not a big fan of big goals. I am a fan of consistent small goals executed over time. If you've ever flown an airplane, and I had the privilege of getting my private pilot's license, you can only be 1 degree off. And over the course of time, you will be 100 miles from where your destination is supposed to be. I think it's exactly the same with recovery, with personal growth, and with developing a performance mindset is we often think everything is going to be obtained to us by these big, big, stark, bold declarations and moves. I haven't found that to be the case. So think on this with me. If I want to change my life 100%, 100%, and I declare I'm going to make that change now, I'm going to change this area of my life now. We've all been and done those things and, and, you know, they haven't worked out for us. So, but what about this? What if you just decided to just do 1%? Well, you know, if you do 1% a day, that's 365% by the end of the year. Yeah, but that's not obtainable. You're not gonna change 3 times within the course of a year. Well, what if you just did 1% a week? Then you would see your life change by 52% by the end of the week. But here's the one I want you to aim for. I want you to aim for 1% a month because in the course of 4 years, you would've totally revolutionized your life and it's sustainable and it's maintainable. I think these big stressful goals of wanting to change these big things and areas in our life, that is actually where we lose our peace and our ease. Now we've been through a year and some of us came through and we hit all our goals and our benchmarks. Fantastic. Knock yourself out, sunshine. But then there's the real people or the people who have been struggling in an area and you feel like you haven't done those. I want to give you permission to try less. Try less in the sense of don't take on so much and actually lower your expectations. Disappointment comes out of unmet expectations. Now, I'm not saying don't have expectations. I'm just saying set 'em realistically. Some people wanna set about these 50 and 60 and 100% changes and they never obtain it, and all they get is disappointed, discouraged, and they don't go again. My suggestion for you with practicing peace and ease coming into, uh, 2026, It's like this old bodybuilder trying to get to 500 pounds is every 2 or 3 times a week, I would turn up and I would put 1 pound on. I had to get little half-pound weights. And then when I really graduated, I got 2-pound weights. And eventually, I got there. I didn't break my 500. I would've liked to, but I got to 495. And that was pretty close. That was satisfactory. So I want to encourage you for this year, and please follow me on Substack on Dr. John A. King. Dr. John A. King website is drjohnaking.com, and you can find me on all other social platforms as well at Dr. John A. King. Love to interact with you, and I'd love to hear from you about what your thoughts are about 1% goals. Say for reading, what would your 1% goal be? For this year? Well, maybe you could just read 5 pages a day, maybe 1 page a day, every day. What about exercise? Why don't you start with a 5-minute walk? Why don't you start with a 10-minute walk? Why don't you start with just buying some new shoes, putting 'em on and going for a stroll to the letterbox? Well, that's a start. Well, that's nothing. That doesn't count. Yeah, well, you've done nothing, bugger lugs. For the last 18 months. Why don't you try buying some shoes, putting 'em on, and walking to the letterbox? That's a start. Don't decry the small. If you think of it, it took you 20 or 30 years to get to this place of disrepair. It's gonna take you a little time to get out of it, but the key to it is starting it. And I wanna encourage you to start it. If you have any messages, I'm gonna stay online for a little bit and answer 'em. If you've got something you wanna drop in the chat, I'd love to have a talk to you, get your feedback and your input. And, um, if not, I will let you go off and walk with peace and ease into 2026. I actually don't know how this thing works. You know what, this whole live chat thing, I'm just giving it a go just to see what'll happen. Just 1%. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you enjoyed the chat. Have a tremendous year, and I'd love to connect with you on Substack, Dr. John A. King. I'd love to connect with you on other platforms, and, um, I wish you all the best. And remember, starting is the hardest thing. Consistency is the hardest thing, and I want to encourage you To start slow, to think slow, to walk slow, and walk consistently. Because over time, all these things add up. And I believe that that's what's going to be the key to so many of you achieving your goals this year. All right. Cheerio. Have a great time. Bye-bye.
