To You, 2026

I recently read a post by Tom Bridge titled End of Year IT Reflections. In it is a list of questions one is meant to ask themselves as they reflect on 2025. I recently shared this with my team, but it has led to me doing a deep reflection on work, life, and the future.

I’m going into 2026 with one goal underneath everything else: balance.

Not peace. Not calm. Balance, as in staying whole while the world stays loud. If you speak Star Wars, I’m not trying to live “only in the light.” I’m trying to keep my feet on the ground and my heart intact, without letting anger or numbness claim me.

A long goodnight

For my young children, bedtime is at 7:00 PM. Most nights for me, this is not free time. It is the next shift. My daughter does not like being alone, so bedtime becomes me sitting in the room until she falls asleep. Sometimes it is an hour. Sometimes more. It’s a very specific kind of love, quiet and repetitive, and it asks for presence, not efficiency. Parents of “pandemic babies” know this all too well.

While I sit there, though, my mind runs through the list of what I am not doing. Chores. Exercise. Reading. Learning. Even getting through a few chapters of manga. I can read on my phone, sure, but it never feels like actually settling in and breathing. Only learning isn’t the same on such a small screen.

I’m not trying to fix this in 2026. I’m trying to stop treating it like stolen time and start treating it like a real constraint in my life. If I want balance, I have to plan like I live in reality, not like I live in a productivity video.

Work, Community, and Continued Training

Professionally, I want to keep showing up in the Mac Admins community, especially on Slack. More contribution. If I’m going to be in the room, I want to be present in the room.

I also want to keep representing security work that actually helps admins, like mSCP, contributing to the CIS macOS Benchmark, and the practical side of implementing controls in the real world. Security is not just the rule. It’s the change window, user impact, and the reality of limited time and limited people.

Terraform fits into that same theme. I’m learning it, and my simple goal for 2026 is to have Terraform fully running in my beta Jamf Pro environment and to develop a strong understanding of how it works, how to maintain it, and how to troubleshoot it when it breaks. I don’t need to be a Master. I need consistent training and strong fundamentals. That way, in my 9-to-5 role, I can attempt to implement Terraform when migrating Jamf Pro from on-premise to the cloud.

Somewhere in the middle of all that is the leadership work. My team is expected to bring on a new junior engineer, and I want to mentor with intention. Not just answering questions, but helping someone grow into confidence and independence. Practice leadership now, not later.

Tested Faith

My faith has been challenged in this past year, not by theological debates, but by watching people who claim Christianity show racism, discrimination, and apathy toward those who are different. Watching loud certainty get used as cover for cruelty. Watching people act like the label matters more than the fruit.

I look at the world and feel the weight of it. The Israel-Gaza crisis, the lives lost, the way hearts harden, and the way people speak loudly about one kind of hate while ignoring another. I have Muslim friends who feel the cost of that. It troubles me, and the question I keep circling is simple and heavy: what can I do realistically?

This is where balance stops being a theme and becomes the fight. I don’t want a faith that denies darkness. I also don’t want despair to be my identity. If the dark side is anything, it’s letting pain rewrite you until you can’t feel anything but rage, fear, or numbness. I don’t want to live there.

There’s also a real tension underneath all of this. I work in government contracting. There are truths I could say out loud that would risk my employment, and I’m not in a season where I can gamble stability. So my version of “wise action” has to be real. Supporting people directly. Showing up for friends. Giving where I can. Speaking in safer spaces. I choose my words carefully in public. Keeping my long-term plan in view. I can’t fix everything. I also can’t pretend that nothing is happening.

Stories, and The Art of Staying Human

I don’t watch TV news. Most of what I absorb comes from Slack, social media, and friends. That makes it easy to stay connected and easy to get overwhelmed. It also makes it easy to end up trapped in an echo chamber that hardens your worldview.

So in 2026, I want to stay informed enough to be grounded without being consumed. If balance is the Force, then attention is the lightsaber, and I need to stop swinging it at everything.

I also want to make space for joy on purpose. I want to read through the entire High Republic era of Star Wars media. I want to read more books in general, and maybe even catch my wife in the number of books she gets through. I have a yearly Coursera subscription, and I want to keep taking micro-certifications without turning learning into another source of pressure.

Rest matters. Play matters. Stories matter.

To You, 2026

So here’s to you, 2026. I’m not asking for an easy year, or a quiet one. I’m asking for balance, the kind that lets me stay whole while I keep showing up. If I do my part, I’m hoping you’ll meet me there.

A little extra in my goodbye to 2025

As I was prepping this post, I saw the following two messages within the Mac Admins Slack community:

Robert Hammen

If it’s a slow time for you, personally or professionally, a reminder that now is a good time of the year to update your resume and LinkedIn profile. Also a good idea to reflect back on your year. If you’re employed, and have kept an “accomplishments” document of things you fixed/learned/addressed in 2025, update that as well; it will help you in your annual review, assuming it’s not already occurred.

Nate Strauss

I would also add, if it’s a slow time for you… REST. Do nothing career related. Recuperate. Take time for yourself and your family. Enjoy the holiday season. You’ll always care more about your own life than any job will. Treat yourself right.

Thank you both for this needed reminder to not just make sure I take time to account for all that I’ve done in the past year, but to just as importantly, take the time to rest and recuperate. You two are always some of the folks who have timely words and a vast wealth of knowledge in the Mac Admins space.