This is my favourite newsletter every year.

For two reasons:
1 - I know how much it meant to me when I first learnt it

and

2 - We always receive at least one response from someone who needed to have this mail hit their inbox, and if that’s all we receive, that is enough.

I do it every year and update it as I go. This may be my fourth consecutive year now.

2026 is upon us, and I want to share my perspective on how perspective has shaped my view of how well previous years have gone. Operating in the creative space is hard, you all know that. But I promise you, no matter what challenges (and hopefully triumphs) 2025 threw at you and 2026 is about to throw at you, you are not going to go round in circles.

Do you see it? YOU ARE NOT GOING IN CIRCLES! 

YOU ARE SPIRALLING UP!

Many of us may come to this time of year and feel we are exactly where we were last year.

Going around in a circle. I know I often do, almost every year. Then, undoubtedly, the negative thoughts creep in "what am I doing", "is it worth it", "am I seen", "(insert crippling thought here)".

Trust me, it's taken Kate and me six hard years to get We Are Makers to the point we are now, and we still have A LOT of work to do.

Let me repeat that: No matter what you tell yourself, YOU ARE NOT GOING IN CIRCLES! 

If you think you're going around in circles, you are looking at it wrong. 

For what is a circle but a planimetric (top-down / birds-eye view) spiral? After all, we are 3-dimensional, not 2-dimensional creatures. 

Try taking that top down 2d going around in circles view and transpose it to an isometric (3d view) where you can see your progress, because you have made some, that I know!

Further thinking: The pitch of the spiral (distance between each consecutive spiral) is a stack of the things you have learned in the past year.

The steeper the pitch, the more you have "learned", i.e. the more distance between you and where you were last year. 

I don't believe anyone reading this newsletter has not learned something in the last year; you cannot be going in circles, as the pitch of your spiral has increased.

In Summary, you are not going around in circles. The fact that you are reading this is proof that you have added knowledge, learnt lessons, and maybe even set or achieved goals. By doing so, you created distance between where you were this time last year and where you are now. 

So here is to 2026, another year where we have the opportunity to take back another slice of the market from mass-manufactured rubbish that floods it.

And of course, A Happy New Year and Slàinte Mhath to every one of you who welcome Kate and me into your inbox every week.

Your biggest fans
K&J

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