My theme this month is a World-Class training camp. It feels like I am in the accelerated program.  Being world-class is about mindset and how we show up in the world. We’re only two weeks in, and I realize how much my thinking and my environment have deteriorated over the last six years.

My social life has been terrible, and I have isolated myself in my house, and that isn’t me. Of course, sometimes I need to hide in the house to recharge. As an extrovert, I prefer to be around people that I enjoy, and I am so glad that I am reconnecting with my starting lineup with more to come! I’m also excited to meet new people!!

Escaping the Box

Over the last ten years, I was in a box, and over the last six years, the box got smaller and smaller. It has taken me a year to make a full escape from the box, and I could not be more grateful.

The last six years in particular were a masterclass in settling for every short stick that was available.

I was in deep regret over my career choice and my circumstances in the summer of 2025. As I

have come out of the box, I now understand that the regret wasn’t really about the career choice.

The regret centered on unrealized potential, because I knew I was selling myself short in every area of my life. My career choice just seemed to be the easiest one to complain about, but I was constantly settling for the short stick in every single area of my life due to fear of failure, fear of disappointment, religious conditioning, and feeling like, well, ain’t nothing exciting happened by now, so it probably ain’t gonna happen. May as well just settle down here and go for the short stick, because it is the safer choice than fantasizing and expecting more from life.

Escaping the box role model, Alyssa Liu: “I don’t make bad decisions.”

Olympic Figure skater Alyssa Liu is from the Bay Area, and I have seen her story covered several times in local media. I loved a recent article about her in our local newspaper. She quit figure skating and then came back. She said quitting figure skating was the best decision she ever made, and coming back to it was the best decision she ever made. Liu summed it up by saying, “I don’t make bad decisions.”

I love it!

Liu said that before she quit skating, her training was no fun. Of course, training is not supposed to be centered around fun, but it sounded like it had become miserable because she wasn’t having fun outside of skating. Liu said that as an extrovert, she would rather have been doing anything other than training.

I can identify with that because training had become like that for me. I liked my clients, but the training environment was terrible, and I wasn’t having fun outside of work. I have changed environments, and I am enjoying going to work so much more.

I am also taking a cue from Liu and working on having more fun outside of work. “I literally have so much fun every day, I can’t live without fun,” she said. “I don’t rest. I have too much energy.”

Alyssa Liu escaped the box of her life and identity, being reduced to being a figure skater. She’s returned to skating on her own terms, choosing her own music, outfits, coaches, and her training schedule.  Sometimes we need to step away from what we are doing, gain clarity about who we are and what we want, and return on our own terms.

I am reading Angela Duckworth’s book. Grit, and she defines grit as passion and perseverance. Alyssa Liu definitely qualifies as a gritty individual. In the book, Duckworth also talks about developing a life philosophy or a theme to use as a compass for decisions we need to make regarding our pursuits.

You may have already guessed what mine is: Don’t settle for the short stick.

We can blame all of our problems on our circumstances, and yes, a lot of the time our external circumstances need to change, but they aren’t going to change until we have an internal shift.  I began to feel a significant internal shift toward the end of 2025, and the shift has only accelerated since then.

The key is alignment.

Get into alignment

Alignment is my word for 2026, and it was my January theme. Alignment is the basis of everything. According to the Google AI overview, if a vehicle’s tires are out of alignment, it is harder to control, tires wear out prematurely, and fuel efficiency decreases due to rolling resistance.

The same is true for our lives. When our lives are misaligned, it is harder to move forward, we wear out prematurely, and we are less efficient. Being out of alignment is draining and exhausting; we may be busy, but we aren’t necessarily moving forward.

Get honest about who you are and what you want

Most of us get out of alignment because we are not being honest with ourselves about who we are and what we want.

I have been out of alignment with nearly every part of my life because I wasn’t being honest about who I am. I was conforming to who I thought I was supposed to be according to the rules that I was following from a narrow worldview. I was clinging to the idea that if I just followed the rules, performatively served at the church, and conformed to the box, then life would finally make sense.

It didn’t work.

In fact, life hit rock bottom.

Now I am liberated enough to be honest about who I am and what I want. I don’t want the boxed-in, small life with all the checkmarks. I want a full life of vibrancy, vitality, beauty, adventure, and, most of all, connection with wonderfully diverse and authentic people.

As I align with who I am and what I want, an internal shift is beginning to manifest in my external world. I have switched to a more upbeat, positive work environment; I have reconnected with several people in my starting lineup, and I sense a transition and change on the horizon. I have outgrown training as a main career, and I am waiting for my next steps. As Alex said at the Inner Flame workshop, “You don’t have to force anything.”

I can say that, as I have focused on alignment in the first weeks of 2026, I have had more excitement in the last six weeks than in the last six years combined.

How is it happening? For starters, changing my mindset and reconnecting with my starting lineup

Mindset

Mindset matters most. Your mind must be right to get into alignment. When I was in that box, my thinking had become limited and stagnant, and, as a result, my world had constricted. The first thing that needed to change was remembering what it felt like to imagine possibilities, and to remember that the world is a very big place, not the small box I had placed myself in.

Reconnect with my starting lineup

To do this, I needed to get around my starting lineup again, and just talking to them, I remembered the possibilities life had to offer as they offered suggestions and encouragement. It is so important to align with those in your life who help to elevate your thinking.

When you’re in alignment, life begins to flow, and that’s the best place to be.