Hell yeah…
New year.
Same doomscroll impulse sneaking up and trying to drag you under…
I get it.
You open your phone and it’s immediate chaos again. I mean we’re only 6 days in and things look like they’re starting off wild.
The news alerts are now screaming about whatever fresh hell just dropped (Venezuela anyone?)
The rage merchants are out in full swing trying to monetise your anxiety.
I’m sure the social media platforms have tightened up their algorithm fed catastrophe porn, which is designed to keep you paralysed and clicking to a new level ready for this year.
Although, I’m not saying ignore the world.
But I am saying this with my whole chest and keyboard.
You don’t owe the news cycle your entire nervous system.
2026 can be different.
Not because the world suddenly became less of a shitshow. It didn’t.
Step 1 is to turn the news off completely…
Not forever. Just enough to remember what your own thoughts sound like when they’re not drowned out by someone else’s manufactured outrage.
Check in once a day if you need to. Then close the tab. Delete the app. Whatever it takes.
The world will keep spinning. The crises will still be there. But you’ll actually have the mental bandwidth to do something useful instead of drowning in ambient panic.
And then? Build something.
Your email list. Your audience. That hobby you keep saying you’ll get back to. The business idea living rent free in your head.
Whatever it is. Just start the damn thing.
Not because hustle culture says you should. Not because some LinkedIn motivational vampire told you to “rise and grind.”
Cause like I’ve said in previous emails: Creation is the antidote to consumption.
When you’re building something even if it’s something just for you.
You’re not stuck in passive mode anymore. Even though it’s fun to watch the world burn.
You’re making something new and new shit is cool.
And believe it or not. That’s the type of thing that matters.
Remember this: The negativity wants you to suck…
It wants you scrolling, seething, sharing the latest nightmare because engagement is currency and your outrage pays someone else’s rent.
Fuck that.
Take that energy and redirect it. Channel it into something that compounds. Things like your writing, your craft, your weird little corner of the internet where people actually give a shit about what you’re doing.
Grow your list. I’d rather have a handful of people who want to hear from me instead of them also getting screwed by all of the noise.
The trick is to feed your audience. Not slop. Not recycled takes, but the stuff only you can say in the way only you can say it.
Work on your hobby. The thing that makes you feel like yourself again.
Build your business. Even if it’s just a side thing. Even if it starts messy.
And don’t allow any of those woo woo shit lords tell you that you’re being “Toxically positive!”
I’m not telling you to manifest abundance or whatever the wellness grifters are selling this week.
I’m saying the world is dark enough without you volunteering to be a full time documentarian of its collapse.
You can care about things and still protect your energy.
You can stay informed without being consumed.
And you can spend 2026 building instead of just bearing witness.
So yeah. Start here.
Less doomscrolling. More creating.
Less panic. More progress.
The news will still be there tomorrow.
The thing you’ve neglected last year won’t build itself.
So before I vanish off to bed, I’m telling you to;
Get after it.
Stephen Walker.
P.S. If you built something in 2025 that you’re proud of, even something small. Reply and tell me about it. I want to know what you made when the world tried to convince you to just scroll instead and get sucked into the latest TikTok trend…