Why SOVEREIGNTY is my Word of the Year

Your life belongs to you. That should be obvious. But we forget sometimes.

The modern world is designed to fracture your attention, drain your nervous system, and convince you that your worth lives somewhere outside of you. In your output, your productivity, your desirability, your discipline, or your image.

And if you’re not careful, you start living like your life belongs to everyone but you.

That is why my word for 2026 is: SOVEREIGNTY.

Defining personal sovereignty

To me, sovereignty is self-ownership. It’s the decision to live like your life belongs to you again. To become the final authority over your body, your mind, your time, your attention, your energy, and the choices you make.

This year, I’m done outsourcing that authority to fear, productivity, the algorithm, other people’s expectations, or systems that aren’t built to support me.

Pressures and distractions

Lately it feels like everything is asking for something from us. The news cycle is insane. Social media is a comparison trap. Everything is an ad. Companies are shoving AI down our throats. People are divided. We’re becoming more and more desensitized to violence.

And I don’t think we talk enough about what existing in a world like this can do to a person. It messes with your ability to focus. It messes with your sense of safety. It messes with your nervous system. It makes it harder to create, harder to rest, and harder to be present in your own life.

If you’re not careful, you start reacting to everything. Reacting to your feed. Reacting to panic. Reacting to the constant sense that everything is on fire and you’re behind and you’re failing and you’re supposed to keep up anyway.

It’s hard to live when you’re constantly bracing for impact. It’s hard to create when your nervous system is stuck in survival mode. And it’s hard to feel like a person when the system wants you to be a consumer.

Millennials were promised a different world

I think this hits millennials in a specific way because we were promised one world if we just followed the rules. Go to college. Get the degree. Get the steady job. Work hard. Be responsible. Stay busy. Stay impressive. Build a life.

A lot of us did exactly that. We chose the practical path. We did what we were told to do.

And now we’re looking around like… okay. Why does it feel like we’re living through yet another once-in-a-lifetime unprecedented event? Why does it feel like we can’t keep up, even though we did exactly what we were told to do?

That gap between what we were promised and what reality is can feel exhausting.

The old game I was playing

I built my entire life around expectations I inherited without really questioning them. Stay available. Be productive. Prove yourself. Earn your stripes.

I played that game so well that I started to believe my worth was the amount of output I could produce. I started to believe I had to earn love by being useful. That other people’s approval mattered more than my own. And I hate admitting that, but it’s true.

I waited for permission to rest. I waited for permission to want something different. And no one is coming to give you that permission. You have to take it.

For a long time, I outsourced my authority in so many areas. I wanted other people’s approval on the decisions I was making. I wanted confirmation I was on the right path. I wanted people to approve of my career choices, my relationships, who I loved, my timeline, my personality. It was like I needed someone else to co-sign my life.

Sovereignty is my answer

Sovereignty is my word because I want my life back. I want my attention back. I want my body back. I want to be the one steering my life.

To me, sovereignty means: I belong to myself. I approve of my life. I’m the final authority.

Not the algorithm. Not the expectations I inherited from my parents. Not the need to be liked. Not the need to prove something. Not all the fear living inside me.

One way I’ve started moving toward sovereignty is by stepping away from corporate work. I’ve been working toward that for years. And I finally stopped negotiating on my values. I started taking responsibility for the fact that this is my life, and I don’t get to sleepwalk through it.

The autonomy and freedom have been real. And it feels good to take ownership of my time.

What sovereignty looks like in 2026

Sovereignty looks like deciding how I work, what I build, who gets my energy, and what I no longer tolerate. It looks like letting my values lead. It looks like not being endlessly available to anyone any time.

It looks like not abandoning myself in relationships. It looks like letting myself feel what I feel instead of numbing it out. Anger, sadness, fear, joy, relief, grief. All of it.

It looks like building a life I don’t need to escape from.

Sovereignty is self-trust. Sovereignty is self-respect.

A closing thought

The premise of Art is the New Wall Street is that our culture worships the wrong things. We worship money, productivity, status, and being chosen. And I’m done outsourcing my power to them.

I choose me. I approve of my life.

And that’s what I want for you too.

If you’ve been losing your sense of authorship, your sense of power, or your sense of self, I hope this gives you something to think about.

Keep creating.