When Confidence Seems Certain (But Isn’t)
We made our first expensive mistake of the year and learned this.
It’s just the third of January, but we committed our first expensive mistake of the year.
And it was an honest, but highly unlikely mistake, so I beg you not to judge us for this, but…
We missed our flight. (boo!)
And we didn’t know until we checked in. lol!
My husband confidently knew that we were flying back home at 3 PM, but unfortunately, he booked an AM flight.
I knew it was an honest mistake because:
My husband would never book a flight at an ungodly hour.
He never committed this booking mistake.
And yes, this is a collaborative failure as husband and wife. Because as the self-appointed Travel Princess, I’ve never felt the need to double-check my husband’s plans.
Hotels? Covered.
Itineraries? Planned down to the hour.
Flights? Booked months in advance.
By him.
Our trips usually go smoothly, each and every time.
He’s done this perfectly so many times that certainty took over. For both of us.
And that reliability, my friends, became the risk.
So what happened?
When his brain saw “3”, it auto-completed the rest based on his identity and habit.
“I don’t book 3 AM flights,” therefore, “This must be 3 PM.”
It was a certainty error, and according to AI, it’s called Confabulated Certainty.
It’s a mistake where the brain isn’t unsure. It’s convinced.
A normal mistake sounds like:
“I thought it was 3pm but I wasn’t sure.”
Confabulated certainty is:
“I knew it was 3pm, so there was no reason to check.”
That difference matters.
Once the brain decides something fits, it stops checking.
What surprised me most was how familiar this felt.
Not just in travel, but in work. In routines. In areas of life that have been running smoothly for a long time. On email onboarding flows that have been running for quite a long time.
My brain doesn’t need chaos to make mistakes
My brain doesn’t fail under chaos.
It can fail under comfort.
I’ve said before that you can have a calm nervous system and still operate in survival mode.
So with 8+ hours to kill at the airport, I went back to my 2026 planning. As I worked through my 2026 Habits and Principles, and with Steward as my word of the year, I paused on this:
A steward doesn’t assume things are fine just because they’ve always worked.
They check. They tend. They build margins for human limits.
So instead of asking what I wanted to improve, I asked one question: Where am I most likely to be confidently wrong?
My 2026 operating code
I came up with these habits/rules under my 4 life pillars (more about my pillars here):
Clarity
Clarity helps me choose what to pursue without guilt or second-guessing. It’s how I follow the right glimmers without getting sidetracked or forcing myself into paths that don’t fit.
2 active projects, 1 unconsumed course at a time
Daily night journal reflection with my Hobo cousin
Bible daily plan
Dedicate 1+ hours for learning/upskilling every workday (especially AI for workflows) -
Get rid of 1 thing I don’t need online/offline weekly
Content
Content is how I explain what I do so my people and future clients get it. This is about creating useful, honest work that points somewhere, not just posting to stay visible.
Turn 1 answer/comment into a post weekly
Work on one past leggy idea per month (pick at least one “legacy” piece that’s performed well in the past and give it a refresh.)
Build 1 internal asset per month
Translate 90% of my content and sync publish on my platforms
Every piece points somewhere (goal: sell)
Creativity
Creativity works better when friction is designed out. It’s about protecting momentum and turning ideas into finished work I am truly proud of without burning out.
Monthly content impact report
Close 1 open loop a week (unfinished task, strategy, etc)
Improve 1 simple online/offline system weekly
Refine content publishing/repurposing delegation every 2 weeks, then as needed
Do 1-minute things ASAP (replying to emails, checking something, replying to clients, comments, etc)
Connection
Connection is how the right people find and trust your work, while prioritizing the most important connections offline. This is about growing through real relationships, not constant self-promotion.
Leave no comment unreplied to
1 SaaS email/lifecycle problem suggestion a week
1 meaningful offline hangout per week
2 meaningful reachouts per week
Stop working after 7pm or when Jezz gets home and walk the pets (except for night meetings)
Making this $500 mistake worth it
If I had to underline anything from this:
Mistakes don’t only happen when things are messy. They happen when things feel settled.
Confidence can skip checks faster than carelessness ever will.
Systems that “always work” still need tending. Like my onboarding flows.
Calm doesn’t automatically mean conscious.
Stewardship looks less like fixing and more like not leaving things on autopilot.
These are the takeaways I’m carrying with me.
So this year, I’m not trying to build more stuff.
I’m continuing where I left off last year. It’s about tending what already exists and making it work better. Growing my following. Helping my clients hit their next milestones. And making more $$$ not just for me, but for the people who work with me.
That’s the stewardship I’m committing to.
They’re calling our boarding group soon, so I’m going to get on this plane, accept the $500 lesson fee we paid for, and get back home…
Excited to start working this 2026!
Expect more posts about planning in the next few weeks.