Neutral is good

Here we are at the halfway point of the year. It’s a great time to reset the atmosphere.

On 2026.
On a habit.
On your perspective.

In my case, literally.

I recently walked through my new house waving a burning sage stick through the air. I wanted to neutralize the environment so I can create my home from a blank slate.

I’m learning: Neutral is good.

In coaching conversations, I notice a common desire to stop or eliminate, or start or add.

Examples:

I want to stop eating fast food.
I want to eliminate Amazon Prime.
I want to start making more money.
I want to add meditation to my routine.

There’s nothing wrong with any of this. And I wonder if we’d get more mileage out of first looking with neutrality at what’s currently occurring.

Most of us spend plenty of time looking at how we eat, spend, and self care (or don’t). Almost none of us do it with neutrality.

We judge.
We criticize.
We name call.
We ruminate.
We make up stories.
We spiral.
We scare ourselves.

Looking with neutrality looks different. It’s curious. It’s non-judgmental. It feels like a game.

Is there something in your life you’ve been wanting to change?

As an initial step, try slowing down on what’s right here.

What’s your current system for the thing you want to change?

Another way of thinking about this question is, how are you approaching this situation / problem / dilemma now? What actions are you taking or not taking? What story are you telling yourself about what’s occurring? What assumptions are you carrying about what’s possible?

No need to judge your responses. Stay curious. Just notice.

With practice, this brings you to neutral. It’s a less reactive stance. It allows you to calmly assess and make more conscious, clear-headed decisions.

Maybe you thought you needed to upend a whole situation. Upon looking at it with neutrality, you realize there’s just one aspect that needs to change.

Maybe there’s another area where you’ve been sustaining on small tweaks for months or years, when really it’s time to drop the baby and the bathwater.

It’s tempting to stagnate in fixed beliefs about why things are the way they are. It’s easy to forget that at every moment, a reset is available.

If 2026 hasn’t been what you hoped it would be, no problem. You’ve still got the whole back half to play. Before spending the next six months adding or subtracting, try getting to neutral on where you are right now.