220: If you want this year to feel different, start here

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Acast helps creators launch, grow, and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast.com. Hello everyone and welcome to a brand new year of your life and to the very first episode of 2026. If you are new here, hello, my name is Mart Tweedy. If you're a long-term listener, welcome back, it's lovely to have you here again. Can you believe it? 2026! It doesn't seem like 2 minutes ago that I was just trying to remember not to write 1999 on the top of me pages at school and I was just trying to get used to writing the year 2000. Bloody hell, I just don't understand where my life has gone. I don't know where it's gone, but unless you've been living under a rock, you'll know that on the 30th of December, just the other night, me and a few hundred others, we set the tone for our 12 months ahead in my Achieving Your Goals workshop. Now, I said that this workshop was going to be around 90 minutes long, but we ended up on the call for 2 hours. I'm just not great at timekeeping, I'll be honest with you. I do apologize, but I had such great feedback from it that if you want to check out the replay, you can do that at cannycrystalsacademy.co.uk. .co.uk, or by clicking the link in the show notes for this episode. I'm going to leave the replay up for about a month, so if you want to get access to it, you can head on over to the website. And obviously, if you did buy it and you've already got access to it, you've got that for life. It's not going anywhere. You guys will have it forever. Okay, so I just found it so inspirational to hear other people's viewpoints, you know, doing little workshops like that. It always makes me realize that we're actually all very interlinked as human beings, and the limiting beliefs that hold one us back. They're the things that usually affect us all. So it felt really nice to just remember that we are not alone and we're all going through the same experiences in life. So this episode isn't here to make you do more or to fix yourself or become someone new overnight. I really want to help you arrive in 2026 differently, okay? A lot differently than you arrived into 2025, into 2024, into every single year that you've arrived into. You're going to arrive into 2026 so differently because because I think there's a lot of noise at the start of a new year, isn't there? We've got this pressure to set goals, we've got pressure to be motivated and hit the gym and eat healthy, we've got pressure to have clarity immediately. And yet so many of us, and so many people that I speak to, we're already feeling quite behind or overwhelmed or a little anxious that this year might just become a repeat of the last one. I don't want that for you, and I know that you don't want that either. So really, I wanted to record this episode to be about energy and intention and about choosing a different way of moving through the year ahead. I want you to feel calmer, I want you to feel safer in your body, I want you to feel more aligned with who you actually are right now. So I'm going to walk you through what it really means to let this year feel different without hustling, without forcing anything on yourself, and without that feeling of dread or burnout as well. So stay with us, let this be something that you listen to, not something that you rush through. And I'm going to start with the foundation of it all because I Before anything else happens this year, before a single goal is achieved or a single intention is set, there's something far more influential at play, and that's the energy that we are living from. As we know, energy isn't something mystical or vague, you know, it's the emotional tone of your inner world. So when I say energy, I mean it's the pace that you move at, it's the way your body feels as you go through each day, it's whether you feel safe or rushed or grounded or tense or open. So the energy that I'm carrying into this next year, into 2026, is one of grounded steadiness. Now, for a long time, I've just thought that momentum, it had to come from pressure. That if I wasn't pushing, if I wasn't striving, if I wasn't slightly stressed in business, then I must be falling behind. But what I've come to understand is that pressure doesn't create sustainable momentum. It creates a survival mode. And that survival mode, it might get results in the short term, but it starts to come at a cost. So this year, I'm not interested in living in that cost. I am choosing intentional energy that feels anchored rather than anxious. I want to feel calm rather than chaotic. And this is important because the state that you're in when you want something, it determines how you experience the process of manifesting it. So when you're living in urgency, everything around you is going to feel like it needs to happen right now. When you're living in comparison, nothing is ever going to feel like enough. When you're living in that self-doubt or fear, even little wins, they are going to feel fragile. It's not going to feel like a win at all. But when you are regulated and when your nervous system feels safe, your desires don't feel like emergencies. They're going to feel a bit more like an invitation instead. And that shift is going to change everything for you. So I'm also carrying an energy of self-trust into the year as well. I'm going to trust in my timing. I am going to trust my intuition. I am also going to trust that I don't need to micromanage every single outcome to feel supported by the universe. So for me, self-trust means that I don't override my body's signals anymore. I'm not going to ignore exhaustion and just call it discipline. I'm not going to work every hour under the sun and just be like, "Oh, I'm so well disciplined." Do you know what I'm saying? Because I do that all the time. Or I'll like, I'll work a 16-hour day and I'll be like, "Yes, I was so productive today. I got so much done." Nah, I'm actually fucking exhausted by the end of that 16 hours, so I'm not going to silence my intuition because something looks good on paper. So instead, this year, I am going to actually slow things down because I think that when you do that, you're actually creating cleaner, more aligned momentum. Another piece of energy that I'm consciously bringing with me is presence, because I think at the start of 2025 I said I wanted to be more present for my son. And yes, don't get us wrong, I have been a lot more present in the last year than I was the year before, okay? But I'm talking about real presence, not the kind that's like aesthetic or performative, but the kind where I'm actually here for my life as it unfolds. Now, presence allows you to notice what is working instead of constantly scanning for what's missing, because when we're present in the present moment, we can obviously take in what's going on around us. So it allows you to experience joy without waiting for permission, and it allows process to land in your body rather than passing straight through you. And I think this really matters because manifestation isn't just about creating things, it's about being able to receive them as well. So you can call in abundance, you can call in opportunities, love, or success, but if your nervous system is always braced and it's always waiting for the other shoe to drop, you'll never fully experience what you've created. So this year I am carrying an energy of receptivity. It's kind of like I'm allowing good things to arrive without being suspicious of it, if that makes sense. Kind of like letting ease be part of the process. And this is something that I really want you to hear as well, because you don't need to earn rest before you allow yourself to feel calm. You don't need to hit a specific milestone before you're allowed to slow down. You don't even need to be perfect before you're worthy of peace. The energy that you carry is a choice that you get to make again and again. Not perfectly, not all the time, but consciously. So as you listen to this, I want you to reflect gently just on the last 12 months, not with judgment, not with pressure. I just want you to think about what energy have you been living from recently? And more importantly, what energy do you want to carry into the next 12 months instead? Because I think once you choose that, once you start honoring it in small consistent ways, everything around you is going to begin to reorganize around that. And from that grounded place, we can then begin to talk about why this year doesn't need hustle to be successful and how that calmer approach can actually create more powerful results. And I think once you start paying attention to the energy that you're living from, something becomes very clear. You know, hustling, when you are busy all the time and you're just working for the sake of working, that has a feeling. Now, for most people, it doesn't feel expansive. It feels quite tight or rushed or heavy. And I think as human beings, we've been taught, whether explicitly or subtly, that success will only come from doing more or pushing harder or staying slightly uncomfortable at all times. And, you know, I was always taught that if you're not exhausted, you're not trying hard enough. And something else that's just popped into my head there is that I was always taught that rest is something that you earn after you've proved your worth. So you can rest at the end of it. You'll rest when you're dead. You know what I'm saying? So this is what I've learned both personally and through working with so many people on their manifestation journeys. When we are hustling, it doesn't create aligned success. It creates a survival-based success, and survival-based success is quite fragile because when you're hustling, your nervous system is constantly switched on. It's constantly scanning for what still needs doing. What isn't enough yet? What could go wrong? Even when things are going well, your body isn't relaxing because it's waiting for the next demand, and manifestation doesn't thrive in that state. We know this. So when your system is dysregulated, your intuition gets quieter, so your creativity will then narrow. Your ability to receive support or opportunities and ease, that's all going to diminish. It's all going to fall by the wayside. You might still get results, but they'll often feel a lot harder than they need to be, and they'll rarely feel deeply satisfying as well. So this year, the next 12 months ahead, it doesn't need hustle because hustle isn't intelligence, it's conditioning. It's what we've been taught by our parents, by our friends, by the media. So what actually creates sustainable success is regulation. When your body feels safe, because then your mind becomes clearer, and when your mind is clearer, your decisions are cleaner, and when your decisions are clearer, your actions are more effective. And that's where inspired action comes in, because inspired action doesn't feel frantic. It doesn't come from panic or comparison. It comes from that clarity. So it starts to feel purposeful even when it stretches you out of your comfort zone, because yeah, don't get us wrong, there's always going to be some form of effort involved, but there's a difference between effort and force. There's movement but no chaos. Okay, so think about moments in your life where things just flowed. Or where, you know, something just coincidentally fell into place, or where the right conversation happened at the right time, where you followed a nudge and something opened up. That didn't come from overthinking or pushing. It came from being present enough to actually listen. So that's the kind of momentum that we are going to create space for this year. So choosing not to hustle doesn't mean that you do not care. It doesn't mean that you're lowering your standards or dreaming smaller. It just means that you're choosing to work with your nervous system instead of against it. It means that you're allowing rest to be part of the strategy. It could also mean that you're letting your energy replenish so that when you do take action, it actually lands. And this might feel uncomfortable to you at first because it's going against everything that we've been taught and everything that we've learned over the years. But slowing down isn't the same as stopping, and ease isn't the same as complacency. So this year, success will get to feel spacious., and it'll get to feel supportive for you, and it'll get to include moments of quiet or joy or presence alongside ambition and growth. And once you release the idea that you have to push your way through the next year, you start to create room for something far more powerful, which is vision. Not vision driven by pressure or expectation from your friends or your family, but a vision that feels alive, exciting, and authentic to who you are right now. And when you release that hustle and that pressure, something beautiful happens. That vision becomes clearer. So this year, my vision, it's not built on urgency or proving anything. It's built on how I want my life to feel as I live it day to day. Because achievements without presence, they don't actually nourish me. They just tick boxes. So before I looked at numbers or timelines or goals when I was setting me goals the other night, I asked myself a different set of questions. I said, how do I want to move through my days? How do I want my body to feel? How do I want to show up in me work, me relationships, and me own inner world as well? And the vision that came out of that was one that was rooted in spaciousness, consistency, enjoyment, excitedness, impact without depletion. So I do have intentions for this year, of course I do. There are things that I want to grow, things I want to create, —things that I really want to experience and receive—but I'm holding them with openness rather than that control. So instead of gripping tightly to the outcomes, I'm focusing on embodying that future, on becoming the version of myself who naturally aligns with what I want. And that means returning to simple, steady practices—not these huge dramatic overhauls, not rigid routines, just practices that support my nervous system and keep us connected to meself. So like daily check-ins with me body, honest conversations with me self about what feels aligned and what doesn't. Just gentle consistency rather than all-or-nothing bursts of motivation here and there, because that's not going to work for anyone. And this is how I'm calling my vision in: by living as if it's already safe to be here, by letting my energy match the life that I want to experience, not the one I'm afraid of losing. By matching the life that I want to experience. And honestly, like, I really think that something important happens when you approach vision this way, because it stops feeling like a future destination and it starts feeling more like a direction that you're already walking in. So you don't need to see the entire path, like, out in front of you. You just need to take the next aligned step. Your vision doesn't require perfection, it just requires presence. It wants honesty and that willingness to meet yourself exactly where you are, being authentic with yourself, not where you think you should be by now. So as you listen to this, I'm just inviting you to soften into your own vision, not the one you think sounds impressive to your friends or your family, but the one that feels nourishing or exciting or sustainable for you. Because when your vision feels safe in your body, you're not then going to self-sabotage it, are ya? You're not gonna rush it. You're not gonna abandon yourself along the way. And from that place, something is gonna shift. You're gonna stop asking why things haven't worked before. You're gonna start understanding what actually creates that change. And that kind of brings us onto the next bit that I wanted to talk about, which is why this year can really feel different for you, but only if you allow it. Now, at some point, most people realize that it's not a lack of desire or want that actually holds them back. It's not even a lack of effort. It's more the fact that they're trying to create a new year from the same internal place that they've always lived from. And when the internal landscape doesn't change, the external world just tends to repeat itself. This is why so many people set intentions with that genuine hope, only to find themselves back in familiar patterns just a couple of weeks in. That tends to be what happens, isn't it? Not because they failed, not because they weren't committed enough, but because the identity and the nervous system that they were operating from it never shifted with them. So if you want this year to feel different, it doesn't start with doing different things. It starts with being in a different relationship with yourself. So when you're constantly living from tension or self-doubt or pressure, even positive changes are going to feel unsafe because your body tries to pull you back to what's familiar, even if what's familiar isn't actually what you want. Because familiarity, it feels predictable, and the nervous system prioritizes predictability over possibility. So change will not happen through force. It's going to happen through safety. You've got to make your body feel safe. And this is where so many manifestation conversations miss the point, because you don't manifest from what you want. You manifest from what your system believes is safe to hold. So if success feels overwhelming, you'll unconsciously limit it. If rest feels undeserved, you'll resist it. If ease feels unfamiliar, you'll question it. So this year, just feeling different, it's not about creating a perfect plan. It's about allowing yourself to feel safe in these new emotional states. We want to feel calm, confident, content, trusted, and this happens in small moments. Okay, like I said earlier, not dramatic breakthroughs, small moments. It happens when you pause instead of push forward. It happens when you choose reassurance over self-criticism, and I think every time you do that, you are teaching your nervous system that a different way of living is available to you. Now that is the real work, and it's subtle and it's quiet, and it will not always look impressive from the outside, but it honestly— trust us when I say this— it's the difference between a year that looks successful and a year that actually feels good to live inside. So if you're listening to this and you're thinking, "Yes, I want this year to be different, but I don't know how," just know this: you don't need a complete reinvention. All you need is a new internal standard. You need a standard for how you speak to yourself, for how rushed you allow your life to feel, for how much presence you let yourself experience. And once that standard shifts, your actions will begin to change naturally. Not from pressure, but from alignment. They're going to be in alignment, so they're going to just change naturally. And just to quickly drop this in and mention it as well, but one of the biggest fears that people have when they let go of hustle is the quiet question in the background that says, "If I'm not pushing meself, will anything actually happen?" Now, that's a valid fear, especially if you've been conditioned to believe that effort equals worth or pressure equals progress. But there's a difference between intention intention. Okay, tension tries to control the outcomes, intention creates direction. I'll say that again: tension tries to control the outcomes, intention creates direction. So when you're holding intention without force, you are clear about what you're moving towards, but you're not gripping the timeline, you're not micromanaging every single step, you're just allowing for things to unfold in ways that you couldn't have planned for. And this is where so many people get stuck in manifestation. They either push on relentlessly, or they detach so much that nothing actually moves. The middle ground is conscious embodied intention. It looks like choosing a direction and then asking yourself gently and honestly, "What feels like the next aligned step?" Not the biggest step, not the most impressive step, just the next one step that your body will not resist. Aligned action often feels quite surprisingly simple. It might just be sending a message that you've been avoiding. It could be resting when your body asks for it and feels sore or tired, saying no to something that drains you, or saying yes to something that excites you, even if it scares you a little bit. There is effort involved, but it's clean effort. It doesn't leave you depleted, it leaves you clearer. And this is really important to note: when you release force, you don't lose momentum, you gain responsiveness. You become more available to opportunities, conversations, ideas that you might have missed when you were rushing around. So holding intention without force also means trusting that you don't need to have everything figured out right now. You don't need a full year plan. You need presence and honesty in the moment that you're in. So this year, I'm letting intention guide us, not pressure. I'm not going to let pressure overtake my life this year. I'm allowing things to build through consistency rather than urgency, through listening rather than overriding. And the more you practice this, the safer expansion is going to begin to feel, okay? Desire stops feeling like something that you have to chase, and it will start to feel like something that you're walking towards. So start thinking about your daily life. Because inspiration is beautiful, but I think it's that integration— that's where things start to actually happen, isn't it? You don't need to remember every single word of this episode. I'm not testing you or anything. You don't need to overhaul your routines or redesign your life overnight. What matters most is the energy that you return to again and again and again in those small moments in your day-to-day life. Now, anchoring that energy into your year begins with awareness. So just notice when you slip back into rushing or catch yourself when pressure creeps in. Just gently bring yourself back to presence without criticising yourself. Don't beat yourself up. Everyone does it. It's a practice, not a performance. You might choose to start your day with a simple check-in. You might want to ask yourself how you feel in your body before you look at your phone or your to-do list first thing in the morning. You might pause at the end of your day and notice where you honoured yourself and where you didn't. You know, without turning it into a story about failure. These moments matter more than big declarations. So anchoring also means choosing one internal standard to live by this year. Just one. Something like, "I don't abandon myself for productivity," or "I allow things to be good without rushing ahead." And then just let that standard guide your decisions. Let it shape how you speak to yourself. Let it be the thread that runs through your entire year. And when you forget, because you will, we're all human, we all do it, I don't want you to start again from scratch. You're just going to simply return to where you are. That's the difference between a year that feels different and a one that feels familiar. The ability to come back to yourself without punishment. So as you finish listening up to this episode, I just want to leave you with an invitation rather than a task. Carry this year with intention. Not urgency. Move with clarity, not pressure, and allow your success to feel calm, spacious, and supportive. And when you feel yourself slipping into those old patterns, just come back to this episode. Let it remind you of the energy that you chose and the vision that you're holding. This year doesn't need to be louder. 2026 just needs to be truer. And I'm really glad you're here for it. So I hope that your 2026 is filled with lots of success, happiness, joy, and excitement. Do you know what would really fill my life with lots of happiness, joy, and excitement? If you'd leave me a review or a rating wherever you listen to this episode from. It takes seconds to do, but it really does help keep my podcast high in the charts, and it helps others to find me to listen to as well. Don't forget as well, we recently started my 31 Days of Gratitude practice to enhance your manifestation power this January. It's the perfect way to kickstart the year, and it's not too late for you to join us either. So it's just £10 for the entire 31 days, and you can start at any time. Time, just head on over to cannycrystalsacademy.co.uk or click the link in the show notes for this episode. Right, I'm off to take action and get after me goals. I will see you all in a week's time where I'll be joined by the incredible Victoria Jackson to talk all about her brand new book Reset. I'm so excited for you to hear this episode, so have a great week ahead everyone, and I'll speak to you all later. Bye!

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Wayfair. Every style, every home. Acast powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend. Hello, American podcast listeners. Max Rushton here from The Guardian Football Weekly, which I think you should give a listen. It is good. It comes out 3 times a week, and the podcast delivers you analysis, news, both the good and the bad from the beautiful game, and maybe even the occasional laugh. He's angry about everything. He doesn't have a great poker face, does he? I would like to play cards with Bruno Fernandes. You can listen to The Guardian Football Weekly wherever you get your podcasts Hopefully see you soon. Acast helps creators launch, grow, and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast.com.