Out with the old: With 2026 nigh, here's some wide-ranging intel on managing transitions

NEW YORK — It's that time — December's waning days, when we prepare to turn the calendar page. Many Americans take stock, review goals accomplished and unmet, ponder hopes and plans. How's our health? What's up with our money? What about the country? Will the coming year look like the departing one year, or be something entirely different?

Are we ready?

It can be an overwhelming period. So The Associated Press reached out to professionals with varying expertises — home organization, risk management, personal training, personal finance, and political science — to talk about their perspectives on changes and transitions.

And for something a little different, we gave each interviewee a chance to ask a question of one of the others.

So let's talk endings and beginnings.

The change expert: Milestones stir emotions

Transitions are professional organizer Laura Olivares' working life. As co-founder of Silver Solutions, she works with senior adults and their families to help make sure they're in safe environments, whether that means decluttering a lifetime of possessions, downsizing to another home, or helping families clear a house after a loved one's passing.

''When you let go of something that was meaningful to you, it deserves a moment,'' she says. ''Whatever that moment is, could be a second, could just be an acknowledgement of it. Or maybe you set it on the on the mantle and you think about it for a while and when you're ready to let it go, you let it go.''

NEXT QUESTION: Certified personal trainer Keri Harvey asked: ''What small weekly habits can I build that will help me stay organized during the year?'' Olivares' tips: In December, do a brain dump of thoughts, ideas, and goals. Then, before Jan. 1, schedule out tasks that move those priorities forward over the course of 2026. Olivares suggests three tasks on each of three days, so nine tasks per week.

The actuary: Planning is important — but sometimes fickle

Probably no group of people think more about the future than actuaries. Using data, statistics and probabilities, they devise models on how probable it is that certain events happen, and what it could cost to recover from them. Their work is vital to organizations like insurance companies.

Listen to R. Dale Hall talk, though, and he sounds almost ... philosophical. He's managing director of research at the Society of Actuaries. Asked how the general public could think about a new year, he readily brings up strategies like mapping out risk scenarios and how to respond.

''It's the nature of taking risk, right? That yeah, there are going to be uncontrollable things," Hall says. ''There are ways to maybe diversify those risks or mitigate those risks, but no one has that perfect crystal ball that's going to see three, six, nine, 12 months into the future.''

NEXT QUESTION: From personal finance educator Dana Miranda: ''Thinking about the variables we consider when making decisions or plans, how might the juxtaposition of the holiday season with the new year affect the way people are evaluating their finances and setting goals at the beginning of each year? ... What do you recommend they do to ensure the holiday experience doesn't skew financial goal-setting?''

Hall's advice: Keep 'em separate. He recommends people enjoy the holidays and hold off on financial goals until January.

The personal finance authority: Be intentional about money

In her work as a financial writer and a personal finance educator, Miranda encourages people to make conscious choices around their spending and saving, and understand that there's no absolute rule.

''We tend to be not good at talking about the nuances and that leaves people with, ‘Here's the one right rule. It's not possible for me to achieve that perfection, so I'm just going to feel ashamed of every move that I make that is not moving toward that perfect goal.'"

NEXT QUESTION: From Jeanne Theoharis, a political science professor, who asked how Miranda gets people to look beyond the micro and consider the larger system of capitalism. ''How does she also get people to think about more collective solutions—like union organizing, pressing City Council or Congress for changes?''

Miranda is quick to make it clear she's not an organizer but says she tries to evoke larger systemic issues when discussing personal finance. ''The way that I try to move that needle just a little bit is to always bring in that political aspect to whatever conversation we're having ... to make the systemic and the cultural impact visible.''

The trainer: Make goals attainable

When it comes to changes and new years, one of the most popular areas is fitness, the subject of many a (failed) resolution. Personal trainer Harvey, of Form Fitness Brooklyn, says you can make positive, lasting change in fitness (and generally) with one philosophy: Start small and build.

NEXT QUESTION: From Hall: ''What advice do you have for me to transition to an even more robust workout schedule in 2026 without falling into the risk of injuring myself by doing too much too soon?''

Harvey emphasized warming up and having a mobility routine, and making the goal attainable by making it fun. ''Find things that you actually enjoy doing and try and fit those in as well so that the idea of starting something new or adding to it isn't one that comes with a negative like, ‘Oh, I don't want to have to do this,' where you're dragging yourself into it.''

The historian: Learn from your past

It's not just as individuals that we think about transitions. Nations and cultures have them, too.

We can learn from them if we look at our history honestly and not through the guise of trying to hide the ugly parts, says Theoharis, professor of political science and history at Brooklyn College and the City University of New York Graduate Center.

''A number of us would be willing to do something brave if we knew that it would work,'' Theoharis says. ''And we might even be willing to have some consequences. But part of what looking at the actual history of Rosa Parks or the actual history of the Montgomery bus boycott is in fact you have to make these stands with no sense that they will work.''

NEXT (AND LAST) QUESTION: From Olivares, who wanted Theoharis' thoughts on today's civil rights battles. Theoharis referenced voting rights, which have been eroded in recent years. At the same time, remembrances of the turmoil during the Civil Rights years have become glossed over by a mythology of America overcoming its injustices.