The first day of the year is behind us, but what remains in its wake is the insidious pressure to start fresh and commit to change.
Yet, according to recent statistics, only 9% of Americans follow through on their New Year’s resolutions.
If one week into the first month of the year, you’ve already fallen short on your 2026 commitments, fear not.
Energy experts maintain that the issue is not a lack of motivation or can-do, but the cultural impetus to reset for the future before we’ve fully processed the past.
In essence, how can we set resolutions when so much is yet unresolved?
January 2026 manifestation portal
Blessedly, and with breathing room, this weekend brings the 1/11 portal, a potent time to manifest.
Coming in mid-month, the days leading up to this day of days are considered a psychological integration phase where intentions become clearer and more realistic.
“January 1 is aspirational while January 11 is honest. By then, the adrenaline of the holidays has faded, and you’re no longer setting goals based on who you think you should be. You’re responding to what your energy can actually sustain,” tarot reader Echo of Tarotap told the Post.
To add to the substantial and sustaining power of this portal, in 2026, the lunar nodes are switching signs from the Pisces/Virgo axis to the Aquarius/Leo axis on January 11.
In astrology, the lunar nodes represent our karmic past and destined future, between which our personal and collective evolution transpires. These points shift signs every 18 months, ushering in a fresh era for all.
Translation? This year’s 1/11 portal is even more of a paradigm shift, restructuring our lived reality and paving the way for the new-new and the good-good to come through.
Numerology of angel number 111
Bolstered by and through these forces, this day is an opportunity for us to make a quantum leap into our own becoming.
111 is considered an angel number, and its appearance is a harbinger of creation, divine alignment, change, growth, and the support of cosmic forces in your endeavors.
Can dig.
Further, the 1/11 portal falls on a Sunday, the day of the week ruled by the sun and belonging to Leo, the play-forward, heart-centric core of our inner child and soon-to-be ruler of the south node.
The sun, and by extension Sunday, is about self-expression and the growth of the literal and metaphorical variety, encouraging us to bow to the powers beyond us and to honor our responsibility to operate as benevolent gods in our own right and in our own lives.
Echo shared that tarot cards can be a useful divination tool for tapping into the raw power of the 1/11 portal, not to predict outcomes but to reveal how or why our resolutions may have failed or faltered.
“During this period, tarot readings focus on what keeps getting postponed, and what people say they want versus what their lives actually allow.”
According to Echo, people don’t fail because they lack discipline; they fail because their goals contradict their real lives.
“Tarot helps surface where there’s friction between desire and capacity.”
To better understand that friction, Echo highlighted three common patterns that emerge and hobble during the first weeks of January.
- Energy leaks: commitments, habits, or relationships that quietly drain focus and make long-term goals unrealistic
- False urgency: goals driven by comparison or pressure rather than personal meaning
- Misaligned timelines: expecting immediate results from changes that require months of consistency.
“If you’re setting an intention around 1/11, don’t focus on or ask what you want to achieve. Set your sights on what needs to feel easier by the end of the year. The best intentions you can set are those that reduce pressure and do not add to it.”
Rather than writing traditional resolutions, Echo recommends using the 1/11 portal to set what she calls a “through-line intention” for the year:
Manifesting on the 1/11 portal
“Ask yourself, ‘What needs to be true by December for this year to feel successful?’ Then work backward. If your goal doesn’t survive that question, it wasn’t meant to carry you through the year.”
To help guide this through-line creation, she recommends the following strategies, and because we are in winter, a season that does not rush, take your damn time and use the entirety of the weekend to set your course.
- Choose one core intention that removes friction across your life, rather than adding another goal to manage. If an intention doesn’t make multiple areas easier, it’s unlikely to last.
- Name the internal habit that needs to change before the external outcome can, whether that’s people-pleasing, avoidance, or overcommitting. Without this step, goals stay aspirational.
- Identify the first moment of resistance the intention will trigger, and decide in advance how you’ll respond. Most resolutions fail at the first discomfort, not the first setback.
- Set a 30-day check-in that measures follow-through, not progress, because consistency is a better predictor of success than early results.
“Manifestation is about coherence,” says Echo. “When your actions, expectations, and energy align, progress becomes inevitable.”
Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports back on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture, and personal experience. To book a reading, visit her website.
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