In this personal‑development video, the creator reflects on the habit of choosing a single‑word mantra for the year and reveals that his 2026 word is "dumb." He explains that deliberately allowing himself to act a little less intelligently—by avoiding overthinking, over‑optimizing, and the need for perfect plans—creates faster momentum, makes work feel more fun, and sustains motivation. He contrasts the long‑standing value of being smart (receiving praise, validation) with the current cost of excessive analysis, which stalls progress. The speaker frames "dumb" as a permission slip: it lets him start projects, make decisions, or take actions without waiting for complete confidence, knowing he can course‑correct later. He offers a concrete prompt—"What would a dumb version of me do?"—to trigger action when feeling stuck, and invites viewers to share their own one‑word mantras for 2026 in the comments, promising to cheer them on.
Chapters
So we're a few weeks into the new year, and I've been thinking a lot about what I want my word to be for this year. I don't do this every year, but I really should because I want this word to be a thing that is a mantra for me, a North Star, something that I can continually look at, something I can stick on a note on my monitor and look at every single day when I know I need to make progress. I know I need to do the thing that maybe I've been putting off a little bit. Great example is that it's been like 3 weeks since I posted a video. Why? Overthinking, wanting to get it perfect, not feeling like I have a good enough idea, a new enough idea. And you can extrapolate that out. That's too fancy of a word. You can expand that out to really anything in life. So what's my one word for for 2026. And it's kind of funny because this year's word surprised me a little. It's dumb. Because when I'm willing to be a little dumb, I move faster. And when I move faster, I build momentum. And when there's momentum, life and work starts to feel fun again. Now, I'm not talking about being careless or reckless or irresponsible, but I am trying to be a little less clever. I'm definitely trying not to overthink or over-optimize or try and win the imaginary argument in my head. Now, this is a little tricky for me because being smart has really worked out for me. When you're a kid, being smart gets you claps, smart gets you pats on the back, smart gets you like, hey, look at how bright this kid is. This kid's going to be going places. So you think through like, oh, well, being smart really working out for me. Now, this may sound a little funny to you because so much of this channel is kind of based on being smart about having a plan, about exploring the angles and making sure that you're going in the right direction. And all of that still matters. But here's the difference. When you overthink every single decision, the momentum just stops and you get stuck. And what I want to be is a intentional about direction, even if that means making some dumb decisions along the way. Because as long as I'm making progress in the direction and with the intention that I want to have, I can always course correct, be like, oh, that was, that was a little dumb. Y'all, I don't care if it's a goal that you have. I don't care if it's deciding whether or not to have kids or change your job or start that, you know, start that newsletter, whatever it might be, you're never, you're never going to have all the information that you need to make the perfect decision. And I've gotten too stuck in that way of trying to make progress through life that it just has slowed me down. And it sucks a lot of fun out of things. Because you think like, oh, that would be fun, but might be a little dumb. I don't know if it really aligns with what I'm supposed to be doing. So So what I really mean is that dumb is like a permission slip for me in 2026. Dumb means that I don't have to have a perfect plan to start. It means that I don't need to wait for the confidence to show up before I begin. It means that I'm willing to act and look a little dumb while things are still unclear, knowing that I can make any change that I need to in the future. It also means that I am willing to act even when things are unclear, even when I might look a little dumb, because I know that that action will teach me more than just thinking about it ever will. The mantra that I have around this word is when I'm willing to be dumb, I move faster. When I move faster, I have more fun. And when I have more fun, I'm more excited to keep going. So when I feel a little stalled out or stuck this year, I'm just going to ask myself a question. What would a dumb version of me do? And then if I'm brave enough, I'll probably do that. Hey, before you go, drop your one word for 2026 into the comments. I'd love to cheer you on. Thanks for watching. I'll see you in the next video. It's probably going to be a little dumb.
