This year’s realisations make the truest resolutions – here are three to take into 2026
This is where clarity and confidence come from: not the validation of others, but eye-to-eye with who we are and what matters to us.
This was the last Friday of the year in the Writers’ Gym membership calendar. Normally on Friday mornings, we acknowledge and celebrate things achieved, begun, ended, said yes or no to that week – in personal or professional life.
This week, though, I invited everyone to reflect on what we’ve achieved, done and said not only this week but over the course of our year.
Reading my own as well as my members’ was a great reminder our clearest reflections create our real resolutions; the one we’re starting to create.
Here are mine, headlined by some of the Writers’ Gym’s top exercises-come-throught-habits. I’d love to hear if you grab one (or more) to be part of your new year…
Saying the Thing
Naming fears so I can deal with The Thing itself – and not waste the energy in the outer layers around The Thing of what I might have thought it said about me. Recognizing the fact in the world as distinct from the feelings around it, so that I can make my choices based on what’s really going on rather than my fears of what’s going on. Becoming closer to people in my personal life and more efficient and open in my professional life as a direct result of knowing saying the thing is the way to do all of that.
Thinking on the Page
Allowing myself freedom from the perfect – or even the really, really good – version of what I let out of my head and onto the page. By doing so, I ensure something good enough into the world where it can do the good it’s meant for. Instead of being held back by the ghost of the perfect.
Seeking first to understand before being understood (Stephen Covey)
This one’s been with me through a lot of things. Right now, it’s about allowing myself freedom from needing people in general to validate me in order for me to know that Iagree with me; that I feel that what I’m doing is right for me or right for the world. And so, moving towards requesting specific feedback on specific things from specific people. Just like writing, when we move from the general to the specific, the truth is in there; it becomes the universal. We reach it. And that’s where confidence comes from: not from the validation of others, but the clarity of who I am and what matters to me.
Wishing you a new year that is a true reflection of who and how you want to be in the world, and your power to do and be all of who you are.
A longer version of this article can be found in InkCouragement: my creative confidence newsletter.
The Writers’ Gym is back in the office on Monday 5 January.
Join us here: thewritersgym@rachelknightley.com | @jointhewritersgym
The Writers’ Gym podcast is released every week on all platforms. Download this week’s interview with author, keynote speaker, Barefoot Coaching founder and Psychologies columnist Kim Morgan.
Rachel Knightley
Writing, Speaking and Confidence Coach
I’m a fiction and non-fiction author, creative writing lecturer, professionally certified business and personal coach (PCC) and founder of The Writers’ Gym membership and podcast. There is nothing I love more (apart from writing) than supporting others to enhance, develop and celebrate their voice — whether that’s on the page or out loud, in life, work or art. My lifelong love of communication and performance began with acting and directing in theatres, schools, workplaces, charities and universities. It formed my fascination with perception and reality (leading to my PhD and to my PGCerts in Business and Personal Coaching with Barefoot and Teaching Creative Writing with Cambridge): how do the roles we play inform our identity? How much can our self-belief inhibit, or enhance, how we bring that self to our life, work and art? I bring all my knowledge and love of writing and speaking – and of how worthwhile the journey into creative confidence is for work and life – to every client relationship whether we’re together for a workshop, a course or a coaching session or programme.
