Catalyst

The 2026 Word Of The Year

2025 was a year of alchemy for me.

A practical year that felt magical.

I spent my time thinking, experimenting, and testing assumptions. Some things broke apart. Others burned off. I ended the year clearer about my value, my values, and what I want to be doing next.

Over the past few months, two questions kept surfacing:

What am I ready and willing to do with what I’ve learned? Where does my energy produce the most rewarding results?

These questions led me to my Word of the Year.

Catalyst.

For me, Catalyst is movement that is well-timed and grounded. It’s about recognizing when something has been thought through long enough and lived with deeply enough that forward motion becomes the responsible choice. It’s about taking raw materials and making something new with curiosity, planning, and the right amount of effort.

Alchemy required internal change. Catalyst requires external application.

It’s the shift from insight to use.

Over time, I’ve learned that I do my best work at moments of transition. When something is ready but hesitant. When momentum has slowed, not because the idea is wrong, but because it needs clarity, direction, or the confidence to move.

That’s where I choose to focus my energy in 2026.

Not everything needs to be catalyzed. But when it does, discernment matters.

Knowing when to make peace with what can’t be changed. Knowing when to experiment with what might. Knowing when it’s time to stop accommodating an existing reality and begin building a new one. Knowing what deserves my energy and what does not.

I’m working on new projects shaped by a year of working closely with clients, pressure-testing ideas, setting firmer boundaries, and widening perspective. It’s a natural extension of the alchemy that came before and the movement that’s now required. I’ll be sharing more soon about what I’m building.

Catalyst isn’t an identity.

It’s a decision about how to engage.

2026 is the year alchemy becomes the catalyst.

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