You know, I’ve never really been into zodiac stuff.
But, a few days ago I saw a post about transitioning from the Year of the Snake to the Year of the Horse, and it hit me harder than I expected. It said:
Snake represents “shedding old patterns.”
Horse represents “embodiment and action.”
And suddenly, 2025 snapped into focus. Last year didn’t feel like steady progress. It felt like being dragged through a series of doors I didn’t choose… and realizing I could walk through them anyway.
In 2025:
- I got laid off from my job.
- My marriage almost ended.
- We did intense emotional work in couples therapy.
- I plastered my face all over Instagram (for the podcast).
- I finally started working out and changed my relationship with my body.
- I launched Fully Five and showed up 100% despite all the chaos in my life.
If you’d told me that list in 2024, I would’ve assumed I’d break somewhere in the middle. Because I had a whole library of “facts” about myself, like:
I can’t handle the volatility.
I shut down under too much pressure.
I don’t have the energy to build something real.
However, 2025 forced a different kind of proof. Not proof in my head. Proof in my actual life.
And the thing I’m most grateful for is this:
I proved that a lot of the “truth” I believed about myself was just old storytelling.
Today we’re talking about what it looks like when an old version of you gets interrupted, how that creates a strange identity gap for a Five, and how to start embodying a truer you that shows up fully and consistently.
When your identity is built from “evidence”
As Fives, we don’t just have stories.
We have internal documentation.
We have case studies.
We have reasons.
A lot of our identity is built from conclusions we made during seasons when we were just trying to survive.
The problem is, survival conclusions don’t automatically expire.
They stick around as default settings.
So even when life changes, we keep operating from an older version of ourselves.
The shedding phase feels like subtraction
Shedding isn’t a clean “new me” moment. It’s more like losing the role you were hiding inside, and realizing you don’t get to immediately replace it with a better one.
For a while, there’s this weird gap.
The old pattern is cracked (or gone), but the new way of being hasn’t stabilized yet.
That gap can feel like emptiness. And for a Five, emptiness often reads as danger. So, we do what we always do...
We rush to fill it with thinking.
More theory.
More planning.
More inner simulation.
More “once I understand this, I’ll be okay.”
But the shift we actually need isn’t more clarity.
It’s rehearsal.
The embodiment phase is rehearsal, not reinvention
If 2025 was about shedding, 2026 feels like the next question:
Okay, what does the truer version of me do on an ordinary day?
Not on my best day, just a normal Tuesday.
Embodiment doesn't simply mean “take action.” It’s letting your nervous system practice a new response in the exact moments where it usually reaches for the old one.
When uncertainty shows up, do you disappear into research… or do you stay in contact with your body for ten seconds and take one small step?
When relational tension shows up, do you withdraw… or do you name one honest sentence and remain present?
When your energy dips, do you shame yourself… or do you work with your actual system and find a way to refill your tank?
That’s the shift I want in 2026.
Not a reinvention, a repetition.
A truer me, practiced enough times that it becomes automatic.
The trap: waiting to feel ready before you live true
Fives want the new self to be fully installed before we act like it.
We want internal certainty first.
But your mind doesn’t get convinced by declarations. It gets convinced by evidence. And evidence only comes from experience.
So if you’re looking at 2026 and thinking, “I’m ready to be different now,” I’m with you.
Just don’t turn that readiness into another private identity project.
Make it physical. Make it repeatable. Make it small enough that you’ll actually do it.
Your experiment: the new default rehearsal
Pick one old default you’re done living from. Just one.
Examples:
- Withdrawing when things get intense
- Waiting for clarity before taking action
- Over-researching when you feel exposed
- Treating your body like an inconvenience instead of an ally
Now design a rehearsal that is:
- Small (2–10 minutes)
- Repeatable (3–7 times per week)
- Mildly uncomfortable (but not overwhelming)
- Visible in your life (not only in your head)
Then track one simple data point each time:
After I did the rehearsal, did I feel more open or more closed?
Not “did it work.” Not “did I do it perfectly.” Just: did it move me toward expansion, or toward contraction?
Because this is how the Horse year happens.
Not through hype.
Through repetition.
Through lived proof.
Through a truer you, embodied one small rehearsal at a time.
If you want, hit reply and tell me the old default you’re shedding, and what rehearsal you’re choosing for January.
I read every response.