Silvijn Kloosterhuis

Allan Simmons

@blacklion900609 · Jan 11, 2026 5:51 pm

I stopped trying to "fix" my life all at once. 12 months later, everything is different.

In late 2025, I was totally paralyzed by the "idealized" lifestyle that existed on the internet, feeling like the worst failure because I wasn’t getting up at 5 AM every morning or crushing huge goals every single day. For the year 2026, I decided that rather than trying to fix my whole life, the one boring habit that I was going to work on was to make sure the kitchen sink in my apartment was empty every night before bed. Regardless of how exhausted I was, no matter the time of night, I made sure to do that one thing, and it led to the creation of a chain reaction that started to give me better sleep, clear my head, and ultimately gave me the confidence to finally get my life together. There was one rain Tuesday in March when I nearly quit, but then it dawned on me that doing it “halfway” is better than not doing it at all. So, to you, dear reader, while you’re still looking for the huge wave of motivation in your life to try and turn it around, trust me when it says to simply wash the one dish, okay?