What 2026 Taught Me? The Luxury of Letting Go

Looking back on everything I wrote and experienced, if there were a single thread tying it all together, I’d say it was this, which was actually more of a question than a lesson: What would I need to let go of to make room for what truly mattered?

My first letter of 2026 came from Hawaii, a place that is never anything less than magical for me and where my travel journey began so many years ago. Something about the new year and waking up to the sound of the ocean each morning brought a moment of clarity.

You don’t have to take 2025 with you, but you must learn from it

As one of our local friends shared, in the Chinese calendar, the Year of the Snake was coming to an end. We were shedding our skin. These are the moments when we transform into something new.

I asked our advisors to find their magic, the thing living inside them that brings joy and connects them to something bigger, and to invest in it now, because now is the only time we have. I would soon learn that underneath this idea was something quieter but more powerful. Shedding skin was really about letting go so that something new could have room to grow.

January found me globetrotting from Hawaii to California to New York, then back to California for only a few hours before heading unexpectedly to Australia, after receiving news that my brother was terminally ill.

During that time, we also lost a close friend and one of our most remarkable travel advisors.

After Australia, my husband Harold and I touched down in Hawaii once again and found ourselves grounded in the most meaningful and beautiful way. I spent a week at the legendary Halekulani. It was the best setting for self-care I could have imagined. After all, Halekulani means “house befitting Heaven.”

We must enjoy the journey—and take the trip

Our lives and circumstances can change in a moment. We must enjoy the journey. Take the trip. Take in the moments, big and small. Make the meaningful memories that become the stories of our lives.

For me, that was the first thing I let go of this year: the idea that there would always be a later. Soon after, spring asked me to let go of something else: control. From weather to world news, our industry felt it all once again this year. And yet, travel did not slow down for a single moment.

In March, I had the privilege of spending three days aboard the newly launched Four Seasons yacht. I attended the ceremony introducing the ship’s godparents for Four Seasons I and met the ship’s captain, Kate, whose reputation precedes her. It was a genuine “pinch-me” moment.

And then, from the luxury of a Four Seasons yacht, I returned to one of the worst storms Hawaii had seen in years. Back in our Honolulu apartment, I was quickly pivoting from yachts and sails to mops and pails.

“Embrace the journey” is a value deeply ingrained in our culture. Life is about learning how to ride the waves, always with a smile. Because no routine is without disruption, and no joy comes without understanding the depths of what’s hard.

The next thing I let go of was speed. By May, I had completed another travel triathlon, and I learned once again that if you want to run a marathon, you have to plan for rest days.

Back in Hawaii, I found myself deeply grateful for a quiet moment of presence. It was much-needed white space, a big exhale, and in that moment, I permitted myself to just be. Presence is such a privilege, but only if we allow it. And allowing it is a choice.

Every time we pause instead of pushing on to the next place, we’re choosing this moment over the next one. Presence may be the purest form of selectivity: saying yes to where you are and no to everything pulling you somewhere else. (The irony, at least for me, is that I often find my presence through travel.)

I love travel! I choose it over everything else. I love being with our people, celebrating them and experiencing new adventures together. From hotel to cruise ship to resort and back.

I love foreign foods around foreign tables with familiar friends, old and new. I love sharing laughs and looking forward to being together, building new relationships and deepening existing ones.

It’s the essential, indispensable face time. In a world where nearly everything happens on a screen, we choose to gather because some things still require presence.

The people over the itinerary. The table over the screen. Without quite realizing it, I had reached the point where the year truly turned for me. I started 2026 asking who I would become. I’m ending it asking what I will choose.

Learning to be selective: My mother told me that’s a sign of growing up. We can’t live by saying yes to everything that comes our way. No is a full sentence.

Selectivity is my superpower. It’s about choosing the right things and then putting all your effort into them. It’s doing less and being more.

The service industry makes us want to do everything and be everything to everyone, all the time. But as the saying goes, if everything is important, then nothing is.

Do more but achieve less; be selective

We choose, we curate, and then we focus. And when we choose well, the result is rarely about us.

When you remember the anniversary, find the table with the view, or pick up the phone when a flight is canceled, your clients feel the magic you create. From travel advisors to hoteliers to tour guides, that’s what we do: we help others find the magic.

So this is what 2026 taught me: I let go of later. I let go of control. I let go of speed. I let go of saying yes to everything.

And every time I let something go, I found more room for what matters most: the relationships we build along the way and the experiences we get to have. The meaningful memories that become the stories of our lives. That, to me, is luxury. It’s not more. It’s less, but better.

Luxury has never really been about the thread count or the view from the suite, wonderful as those are. It’s the freedom to choose where your time and attention go, and the presence to be fully there when you arrive.

The most luxurious thing any of us can give ourselves is that kind of room. So, as you close out your own year, I’ll leave you with the questions I keep asking myself:

What no longer serves you? What could you let go of to make room for what truly matters? And once you’ve made that room, what will you choose to fill it with?

Choose well. Then take what you choose and turn it into a magical moment that will keep fulfilling you and those around you.

Wendy Burk is the founder and CEO of Cadence.