I Play Too: Make 2026 About the Process

By Jason Bookheimer, CPRP, Director of Community Recreation, Danville Parks and Recreation and Project Consultant, Oxbow

Have you ever felt like a tight rope walker around the holidays? In our field, numerous large events, tons of programs, parades, and budget proposals happen this time of year. Not to mention the insane, hectic personal schedules, family gatherings, or extreme emotional challenges that happen as well. It truly can be a balancing act to figure out what you are supposed to be doing next or where you are going tomorrow, all while trying to maintain some form of sanity when you have to turn the lights on in your office for the last hour of the day because now it is getting dark before we get off!

It is a great time of year as a department, team leader, or individual to reflect on the past year. I am a huge fan of looking back to learning and discovering or defining the processes that got you where you are. We cannot go back and change things so, no need to waste time but we can use our experiences to push us to grow in the new year. For your teams, seek opportunities to tie individual learning opportunities to team goals. Involve your team in reflective exercises that highlight shared experiences and recognize all the great work you have done. Identify ways you will lean on those experiences to grow moving forward. Create space within your team as well for everyone to celebrate or not celebrate holidays and how it shows up for them, versus creating a singular focus around department holiday events to exclude cultures. If you don’t know, just ask your team how they would like to celebrate, you don’t have to guess.

As individuals learn from those experiences, take time to understand why they are important enough for you to reflect on them as key moments in the year. Adapt and change through identifying those opportunities and use them to set goals as you move into 2026. Reach high and set goals that may seem unachievable. SMART goals aren’t always my favorite; if you always set something that is realistic, how do you know just how far you can go or if it is possible? Quick reflection: a person once sat in a meeting and said, “lets shoot off a huge rocket with someone in it to see what is on that big white thing up in the sky” and everyone in the meeting looked at them like they were crazy. I encourage you to look for ways to merge your work and personal goals and have those discussions with your leader. Push yourself, ask difficult and direct questions. Understand how you showed up this year doesn’t have to be next year if you are not happy with that. Focus on the process and how you plan to reach your goal. A goal is just a goal; it is a target or singular measure. The most growth and achievement will happen along the way and most of the time in the ways you don’t anticipate. If you have never thought about process goals, I encourage you to achieve exponential growth or just think about a time in your life when you felt an extreme shift and how process got you there vs. the singular event or emotion. Research shows that New Year’s resolutions will reduce by 23% by the end of two weeks and by the end of the month a 43% drop off; don’t become a statistic this year.

In Roanoke this October, I Play Too focused on the “Value of Time.” Take the time this season to spend it with those who mean the most to you. Take the time to learn from experiences but also create experiences and memories for yourself and your department. Take time to share how someone has impacted you or to acknowledge that maybe you weren’t your best self in a situation this year and share that with them or whomever it was with. Just don’t wait too much time in doing so. Every day will pass and give you another opportunity to do something amazing or take a step in the direction you wish to be, don’t miss it or push it off until another year. Most of all, take time to play as we wrap up the 2025 year and reflect on things that resonate with you the most. Prepare for something great, define your processes in 2026, and do something you think is unachievable, because time is not waiting for you and neither is your community. If you plan on waiting for the right time, the result will be never.