How to Find Your Art-Making Mantra for 2026

Instead of focusing on what you want to accomplish this year, ask yourself how you want to feel in your art making. This approach comes from ultra running, where having a mantra (words that keep you present and grounded) is key to completing long distances. Nicholas’s words for 2026 are “grounded ease” because ease creates presence, prevents stress about the future, and allows for better work. Find your own two words by asking: How do you want to feel in your art making and life making this year?

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A Different Kind of New Year Approach

I’ve been thinking a lot about how I want to approach my art making this year.

Not what I want to accomplish or what goals I want to hit. But something different.

How I want to feel.

This might seem like a small shift, but it changes everything about how you show up in your studio and what becomes possible in your work.

 

 

The Ultra Running Lesson

My years of ultra running taught me a great deal, and I learned this from others who were really advanced in running long distances.

There’s an idea around this in the ultra community, and I know this relates to a lot of other kinds of intense sports.

When you’re faced with adversity, when you have 80 miles to run or whatever the thing is you’re taking on, the advice I got was to absolutely spend most of your time in the present.

Because to think about what you had to endure coming up, or how, you know, what had happened in the past, that would inevitably weaken you. Weaken your resolve and slow you down. And kind of take you out of the possibility of completing the thing.

This was a huge, powerful lesson for me.

The Power of a Mantra

The way that I did this was I had a mantra.

I think that my words were “smooth, cool, and easy.” And this is what I would return to. This is how I wanted to feel. These were just the words.

It was like a grounded way of being. It wasn’t that you were in denial of what you were faced with. It was a way of being that allowed you to not be reactive, to not get upset if things were really not working out.

You could just stay in this way of being.

Applying This to Art Making and Life Making

I’m sharing this with you because this relates to anything we do.

I learned it from long-distance running years ago, but I’ve applied it to my art making, to my life making.

And I want to start today with just a question for 2026.

How do you want to feel in your art making, your life making, in 2026?

That was the key to achieving the successes in the running. I want to feel calm, I want to feel smooth. And by just staying in that and remembering that, it could change the outcome of what I was making.

My Words for This Year

My words for this year, because it’s cool to have them for a year, are grounded ease.

And I love that because I know if I approach things, if I have that ease, I’m going to have more presence. Like, I know that’s the key.

If I’m present, if I have the space for it, if I have more grounded ease, I’m not going to be stressed out. Because once I’m stressed out, I’m worrying about the future.

What Ease Means

Ease means doing less usually. Like that’s what I’ve seen. Doing less, but doing it better.

What Groundedness Means

And groundedness just means that you’re not kicked off your flow because you’re overreacting or you’re just jumping, going high and going low. It’s just more even, super even.

These three areas—your art, your life, your home, your relationships—it all is part of these words and this theme and this way that you want to be, to feel.

How to Find Your Words

I think it’s a great thing to think about for the coming year.

What is it? How do you want to feel in all of it? All of it. The art making especially, but it also relates to your life making.

Here’s how to approach finding your words:

• Start with the feeling, not the outcome. Don’t think about what you want to achieve. Think about how you want to feel while you’re creating.
• Keep it simple. Two or three words that you can return to again and again. Words that ground you when things get difficult or uncertain.
• Make it personal. These aren’t generic inspiration words. They’re specific to how you want to show up, how you want to be present in your practice.
• Test them out. Say them to yourself. Do they create a sense of calm? Do they help you stay present? Do they feel like a way of being you can return to?
• Write them down. Jot this down. Write it down in that journal. What these words are can change everything for you in this year.

Why This Matters More Than Goals

Here’s what I’ve learned about this approach.

When you focus on how you want to feel, you stay present. You’re not worried about whether you’re hitting metrics or achieving outcomes. You’re engaged with the actual process of making.

And paradoxically, that presence is what creates the best work.

When I’m in grounded ease, I make better decisions. I’m not reactive. I don’t get thrown off by a painting that’s not working or a technique that fails. I can stay with it, stay curious, stay open to what wants to emerge.

The goals and outcomes tend to take care of themselves when you’re operating from the right state of being.

A Quote to Carry With You

I want to leave you with this quote.

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then do it. Because what the world needs is more people who have come alive.”

That’s a quote by Walt Whitman. It seems absolutely so fitting for Art2Life and everything we’re doing here. And I know it relates to you as well.

Your Turn

So here’s my question for you as we start this new year.

What are your words for 2026?

How do you want to feel in your art making? In your life making?

Take some time with this. Write down a few options. Try them on. See which ones help you feel more present, more grounded, more alive in your practice.

It can change everything.

Share your words in the comments below.

I hope you get out and make some art today.