Healthy Habits - 5. Live Well in 2026

As 2025 came to a close, I felt compelled to delve into my growing shelf of finished journals in search of wisdom to help me move forward with purpose. While I rarely look back at what I’ve written, my hope was that my reflections and intentions from the past might shine a light on the path towards a brighter future.

Starting as I meant to go on

My first port of call was 1^st January 2025 and a look back at Day Zero of a 31-day journal that I intended to set me up for a transformative year. The plan was to start 2025 as I meant to go on, with a fresh copy of The Wellbeing 9-a-Day and the intention to move forward on my journey, improve my health, and enhance my relationships.

Setting off before the crack of dawn from a caravan in Scotland, our plan was to drive through the Cairngorms and celebrate the new year by climbing to the summit of Ben Nevis. Within minutes of departing, we crossed paths with a trio of majestic stags, which seemed to me to be an omen of great things to come.

As we got closer to Fort William, the snowy weather became ominous. We abandoned the plan to climb my namesake and set a course for Glenfinnan Viaduct, best known for appearing in the Harry Potter movies.

Marvel Jigsaw

Delighted with the change in destination, not least because I was on my 129^th day of listening to a chapter of the audiobooks per day, as read by Stephen Fry, I enjoyed a much more relaxing day afternoon than initially planned.

After completing the long drive back to the caravan, we continued work on a 1,000-piece Marvel jigsaw, which started as almost impossible but became progressively easier as each piece found its home. Unlike life, there is only one way to put all the pieces of a jigsaw together.

"As I wrote in my Let go reflections, “Time to leave 2024 behind and start the next chapter. It’s been a lovely day to start 2025, which I hope will be the year of The Wellbeing 9-a-Day.”

One of the hardest things in life is to find your own way to wellness, but I was confident that I was on the right path towards transforming my life for the better due to my years of journaling.

As I wrote in my Let go reflections, “Time to leave 2024 behind and start the next chapter. It’s been a lovely day to start 2025, which I hope will be the year of The Wellbeing 9-a-Day.”

Reflecting on my second adulthood

Jump forward five months and the year of The Wellbeing 9-a-Day had yet to materialise.

I spent my 36^th birthday in Mallorca, enjoying a lovely trip thanks to Jervie’s typically excellent planning. After a morning in Mdina and an afternoon sunbathing in Għajn Tuffieħa, we enjoyed a lovely dinner and then strolled back along the seafront to our hotel. I ended the day, as I so often do, by writing in my journal.

Normally, I’m not too bothered about birthdays, but this one felt more significant than most. I realised I’d been an adult for as long as it took me to become an adult, and so I decided to commemorate the occasion in a fresh copy of The Wellbeing 9-a-Day: For Beginners of All Ages.

Reflecting on my life so far, I found strength in the idea that I was entering my third era. If the first 18 years had been about becoming a man, the second 18 years had been about learning how to become the man I wanted to be. Here I was on the brink of my third era – leaving a legacy – and it was with thoughts of the future that I wrote the following entry…

“The two most positive things we can do with the past are learn from it and let it go. So this is me, in my present as a 36-year-old Geordie lad, setting the intention of learning from where I’ve been so that I can set a better course for where I’m going. I’ve always believed I was meant for more, but what I believe means nothing without action. For 18 years, I’ve hidden behind the idea that I was working towards a time where I would have something worth saying that I could say well. That time has long since arrived. The more I see of the world, the more firmly I believe that what I have to say is not only valuable but vital for the world. If I believe that, I must act!”

Leaving a legacy

It’s now seven months since I wrote those words, and I can’t honestly write that I’ve done enough to share our work with the world. I could point to excuses – my toe being crushed by a wardrobe, my mam tearing all the tendons in her shoulder – but the truth is part of me is scared to answer the call to adventure that has repeated in my mind for years.

Even as I write this, I know I'm being harsh on myself. The wheels of change are slow to turn, and yet life hurtles by at a frightening pace. If I’ve failed in sharing what we’ve produced, I can at least look to a body of work that empowers people to improve their health and wellness.

Chief amongst these is The Wellbeing 9-a-Day and our range of wellness journals, produced in partnership with Live Well with Cancer. Our latest version – The Prehab Edition – was funded by Northern Cancer Alliance to help newly diagnosed cancer patients to prepare for treatment.

In 2025 alone, we’ve produced The Sleep Better Series, The Prehab Hub and Menopause, Cancer & Me, with work well under way on Managing Fatigue and The Story of Transformation, a resource that helps users to structure and write fiction or non-fiction stories.

In recent months, I’ve had the honour of hosting Live Well with Banter, a podcast produced by Stuff Productions to capture stories from the Live Well with Cancer community. Now 10 episodes in, I’ve loved each conversation, and I’m excited for what the future holds.

I’ve always been better at creating than sharing, but the time has come for me let go of my fears and embrace the challenge of sharing our work with the world.

2025 began with a glimpse of three stags that I thought heralded great things to come. It ends with my pledge that I will do all that I can to help as many people as I can to Live Well in 2026.

Whether you want to prehab for treatment, manage fatigue or write your story of transformation, you’ll be seeing and hearing a lot more from me in the new year, as we develop and share resources and sessions that help you live well.

Subscribe to our newsletter to find out how you can live well with healthy habits and enjoy plenty of banter along the way.