Radical acceptance got me through 2025. I share what that means and how we use it to get through 2026.
This is My New Year’s Post. Really.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that I have not been able to fully process living through 2025 as a federal worker until just now. My initial end of year thoughts back in December are below:
I’m sharing this as a reminder that I’m not coming to you from a place of having everything figured out. I’m coming to you from a place of learning, forgetting, and relearning.
Remaining human in a work ecosystem that wants to dehumanize you is a process. I love sharing lessons from my process. I hope that it creates a bit more ease in yours.
2025: Flood the Zone
Steve Bannon revealed the Trump administration’s plan for their second term. Flood the zone.
STEVE BANNON: All we have to do is flood the zone. Every day, we hit them with three things. They’ll bite on one, and we’ll get all of our stuff done, bang, bang, bang. These guys will never be able to recover, but we got to start with muzzle velocities.
– quote taken from transcript of Trumps Terms from NPR
Every single day after the inauguration felt like an onslaught of news events that, normally, should have claimed airtime for weeks. In 2025, the advice to simply cut off the news fell flat for me as a federal worker. We became the news.
I would see headlines pop up on my social media and then head to work to see an email with the same news item playing out in real life. Yes, we really were told to snitch on our coworkers. Yes, we did have to search our files to pick out words like climate change. Yes, we were called unproductive while being asked to pick up the work of all of the coworkers who were fired or forced out.
The flood the zone strategy counts on the fact that you will try to keep up with every single thing happening. That you will be so disoriented and angry about one thing they can get away with another. Flood the zone depends on our reaction. Flood the zone believes we do not know how to respond.
Radical Acceptance
In 2025 I saw my dream job dissolve before my eyes and become something unrecognizable to me. I accepted this.
How could I accept the horrible things happening? Did that mean I approved of the destruction being brought about by this administration?
Absolutely not. I understood that to respond rather than react, I needed to see the situation clearly. That can only come from accepting what is.
From a place of acceptance, I could finally allow my anger to be a guide and a source of creative energy. I could see clearly that this administration relies on dehumanization, separation, and fear. I could see clearly that this is all they have.
I used the energy of my anger and the clarity of accepting what is to understand my role in resisting. From that understanding, I created Remote Work for Humans.
Lesson for 2026: Remember to Accept
Radical acceptance allowed me to understand the actions I could take to counteract what I was seeing, but this is an ongoing process.
During the month-long government shutdown in 2025, I had a break from commuting and was spending more time with my family. I became fixated on how pointless the destruction of this administration was.
When the shutdown ended, I did not accept my return to office and I was consumed by cynicism. My commute and office work environment were the same as before but they became so much worse because of my cynical thoughts. I had forgotten how radical acceptance had gotten me through the sudden call back to the office (yes, even workers whose roles were fully remote like me had to “go back”) and everything felt so much harder.
2025 was hard for so many people for so many different reasons. Everyone just wanted it to be over. We had hope that 2026 might bring some reprieve, or at least the same level of madness as 2025. Unfortunately, the flood the zone strategy continues, is terrible, and feels so much worse because the reprieve we had been hoping for, never came.
It’s ok to react rather than respond.
It’s ok to get caught up doomscrolling.
It’s ok to feel overwhelmed.
It happens to all of us, we’re human.
In 2026, I’m reminding you to accept (not approve) of what is. I invite you to clarity about the reality of our situation. I also invite you to sit with the emotions that come up for you when you confront that reality.
Emotions are just energy. They are our guides. They will reveal to you your role in undoing the very real harm of this administration.
We all have a role to play. You may feel your role is too small to matter, but it is needed. You are needed.
Together, we will build a more beautiful, more humane reality.
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