With 2025 in the rearview mirror, many people will inevitably begin thinking about their New Year’s resolutions.

Here are just a few of the classics:

“I’m going to get in the best shape of my life!”

“I’m going to cook more and eat better.”

“I’m going to get more sleep.”

“I’m going to quit smoking and drink less alcohol.”

“I’m going to spend less time staring at a screen.”

“I’m going to read more books.”

“I’m going to make better financial decisions.”

“I’m going to play a new sport.”

“I’m going to teach myself Mandarin.” (Good luck with that!)

By all means, you should absolutely prioritize your physical and mental well-being. And yes, financial stability is never a bad thing.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that if you cut out sugary drinks, eat more fruits and vegetables, and yes, chicken that hasn’t been pumped with hormones or red meat that wasn’t created in a lab, you’ll probably have fewer digestive problems.

Likewise, if you make a concerted effort to sleep 7-9 hours and you spend at least 45 minutes every day doing something that can be classified as resembling physical activity, your mind will be clearer, you will feel better about yourself, and will probably look better too.

It also does not take an astrophysicist to determine that all the hours spent mindlessly scrolling are destroying your attention span and taking precious time away from other, more productive endeavors.

For the record—posting the things that you’re most proud of on social media and then logging off after two minutes is not the same as constantly obsessing over what other people may be saying or doing every five seconds.

Have you ever logged onto Facebook and thought, “Wow, I feel so much better now!”

It is important to exercise your mind with books, music, and podcasts (if you must) that will make you think, and with movies or shows that won’t make you lose brain cells. I’ll let you determine which ones those are.

But, while the items on the aforementioned list are all noble goals, and ones that you should by all means pursue and strive for (except learning Mandarin), without discipline, some of them can be difficult to achieve immediately, and frustration can start to boil over when you haven’t mastered them.

Let’s circle back at the end of June to see how that osso buco turned out, or how many books you’ve read, or how long that hiatus from social media and alcohol lasted, or how that new CrossFit regimen is working out, or how that 9:30 PM bedtime is going.

Ideally, the goal of a New Year’s resolution is to align you closer to reaching your full potential and to create a better version of yourself. It should not be to overwhelm you with unrealistic expectations that you may not meet.

So, in light of that, let me propose an additional New Year’s resolution that ideally should not require as much effort as some of the ones from the list above but can still be equally as beneficial in the long run.

Make 2026 the year that you finally stop apologizing for being yourself!

By this point, if you’ve been on Earth for a few years, it should be pretty obvious by now that it is impossible to please everyone. Friends, family, peers, neighbors, classmates, and acquaintances will always have expectations or opinions of what they think your limitations are, what you should do professionally, how you should spend your time, how you should act in various settings, how you should speak, and even how you should dress.

Each day, every action or deed requires a decision. But overcalculation and overanalyzation about how you should act in every future event or what you should have said or done in past situations can become exhausting and lead to second-guessing yourself.

The bottom line is, assuming you’re generally a decent human being and not a serial killer who espouses views that are objectively repugnant and aren’t drinking your way towards a liver transplant—you should unapologetically lean into who you are and say and do the things that feel authentic to you.

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t have a filter or shouldn’t value or consider taking advice from the people closest to you—whether unsolicited or not. Eliminating poor habits is something we should all strive for.

But you shouldn’t get in shape, stay in the same career, or lower your standards and relinquish your dreams just to please other people—or to meet the low expectations they created for you. It is not selfish to pursue the path that feels most natural to you and best suits your skillset, interests, and personality.

Just because your “jokes” aren’t landing doesn’t necessarily mean you need to put a pause on your stand-up comic career. Although if the room is generally silent after the punch line, it’s probably safe to assume you’re no Mel Brooks.

But the point is, some people will love your sense of humor, and others will find it abhorrent. Some people will appreciate and respect your political views, while others will despise you for them. Some people will envy your charm, your good looks, your athletic prowess, your height, your physique, your possessions, your writing, your creativity, your cooking, your significant other, your job, or the company you keep—while others will be drawn to it.

Whether people love you or hate you for who you are and what you stand for is beyond your control. People are going to judge you no matter what you do, so you might as well let them judge the real version of you.

You don’t always owe people an explanation for the decisions you make. If someone chooses to end a relationship because your political affiliation offends them, or they feel slighted by something that was beyond your control, then they’re probably not worth being friends with anyway.

Relationships are important, but they should not trump your evolution and your growth.

Every second you spend worrying about whether or not you said something stupid at a business meeting or made an insensitive remark in a social gathering is a second of wasted mental energy.

To be sure, introspection is not always negative. But being your authentic self, as opposed to deliberately acting like a pompous jerk or failing to fulfill certain obligations, is not mutually exclusive.

It is not a betrayal of yourself to act differently in certain settings. Sometimes it’s better to take a step back and observe or know when to shut up. That’s called reading the room.

It is also necessary to recognize what your strengths and weaknesses are and in what settings your talents and your confidence shine brightest.

Whether in the corporate world, in sports, in the classroom, or in life generally, it is important to understand why a desired outcome was not achieved—and to try to determine how a more positive result can be attained going forward.

But, just like in golf, if you hit an errant shot into the rough—with the swing that felt most natural to you—shrug it off, take a deep breath, focus on the next shot and move on!

All you need is a little self-confidence, and everything will work out just fine this year.

Here’s to being yourself in 2026!

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David Keltz played college tennis and was a nationally ranked junior. He is the author of “The Campaign of His Life” and “Media Bias in the Trump Presidency and the Extinction of the Conservative Millennial.” His writing has been published in The American Spectator, RealClearPolitics, American Greatness, The Federalist, The American Thinker, and the New York Daily News, among other publications.