I love the idea of a new year offering a fresh reset for anyone looking to grow in different aspects of their life. As a mom, there’s honestly little I’ve done over the last five years for myself as I’d been focused on raising a little one and keeping up with the other important roles I take up. There have been a few incremental changes here and there, which are worth celebrating still.

But I’m entering 2026 with a bigger opportunity to really make new commitments to better myself not just as a mom, but as a person. My son will be entering his grade school years, which means a bit more independence and free time and less hand-holding. I’ve settled into a steady rhythm at work and am blessed to have a solid support system at home, including outside help.

I thought about some new things I’d like to do, as well as things I’d like to get back to doing, as I enter 2026. Here’s my list!

I have always loved reading – and honestly, nothing quite beats the experience of running your fingers through the pages of an actual book and smelling the paper right before immersing yourself in the story.

My favorite thing to do at a mall pre-motherhood was to go to the nearest secondhand bookstore and comb through all my favorite sections, hoarding all the hard-to-find gems I could find that would otherwise cost me a fortune. My husband and I did this out of habit until we ended up filling an entire bookshelf with our finds.

Then came motherhood, and those books ended up dusting away at our bookshelf, still waiting to be read to this day.

This 2026, I want to make it my mission to read one book per month, to really set aside time to sit with my coffee and enjoy the books I’ve already collected.

I am grateful to have a husband who regularly asks me when I last took myself out on a solo date. As working parents, we’ve come to realize how life-changing just getting out of the house to recharge can be (it’s really not the same as staying at home holed up in a room!).

Over the last couple of years, I’ve started the habit of periodically leaving the house for a couple of hours to just stroll through the mall or go to my favorite coffee shop to watch K-dramas. But they weren’t consistent, and were oftentimes turned into an errand run – I just can’t help myself sometimes. I’m not out by myself a lot, so might as well make the best use of my time, right?

While the scenario above can’t always be avoided, I want to minimize it this year and be more intentional in giving my brain time to “breathe”.

Oh, how I loved journaling when I was much younger! I went through all the trendy diaries and notebooks, filling each of them with my thoughts and stories. As I grew older and started writing for a living, this waned and I ended up just chronicling these thoughts digitally or using social media as my thought dump.

But having experienced pen-to-paper journaling many years ago, I know how therapeutic it can be to release your thoughts and feelings by writing them down. Journaling takes time, and it forces you to slow down – which I’m not very good at these days.

I plan to start simple this year, using a journal that already contains prompts to help me get my thoughts going.

As a mom of a young child, scheduling time for friendships can be difficult, given the limited logistical and emotional bandwidth I usually have. But last year, I made the effort to attend a couple of mom socials, meeting peers I would never have connected with otherwise. And it was such a breath of fresh air!

I don’t consider myself an extrovert so I felt proud of myself for going out of my comfort zone for once – and it was a risk that paid off. I can sometimes feel numbed by the overly-familiar and predictable routines of motherhood, doing the same things every day. Doing something new for myself was a leap of faith I’ll forever be thankful for. Through it, I gained new friendships and was able to “receive” from fellow moms who were so eager to encourage.

I’ve always been a firm believer in surrounding yourself with people from different life seasons. Sure, it takes a mom to get a fellow mom, but we need other types of people enriching our perspective. We need other types of friendships and connections.

My girlfriends and I have always been passionate about empowering and supporting younger women, and we recently got to organize and launch a brunch social for them. We got to connect with younger peers, learn from and with them, be an encouragement to them, and create a space for them to also meet new friends.

I want 2026 to be the year where I’m more intentional about investing in the lives of Gen Z women, hoping that they will one day have the same heart for their younger peers.

This may be the last item on my list, but it’s certainly one of the most important ones. Our marriage has taken a bit of a backseat since having a child, and while we have made some good progress in spending quality time together, it still needs a lot of work.

My husband has expressed many times to me that he misses spending time with me, and I while I share the same sentiments, turning that desire into an actual date is easier said than done. Many of our attempts to have a date (whether at home or outside) have turned into one of us falling asleep before the other, canceling plans so we can reallocate the budget to groceries or tuition, or even fights because we’re both so burned out.

Thankfully, couples’ counseling has helped us navigate this rough season of raising a little one and we’ve learned to express our needs and work through them in a healthier manner.

Now that we’re in a better position to let our tribe look after our son so we can actually go on a date, I want to cultivate my “wife” role more intentionally by saying “yes” more often to my spouse. After all, a happier spouse makes a better parent!

What about you? What new things do you want to do in 2026 to better yourself as a parent? Let us know in the comments below!