Blog / Life
January 18, 2026
We're just over halfway through the first month of 2026. What a whirlwind. This is going to be an interesting year of growth, transition, perspective, and balance.
There's a forward-driving capitalist pressure that young men and a lot of people feel in America. Pressure to perform, create, and generate output that's enticing to the market. There's such an attachment to financial success. It's status-rewarding in this comparison culture we live in.
It's really hard not to pull in external examples of highly successful outcomes from people you know and not feel defeated.
This ties into an idea I keep coming back to: the best measure of success is whether you get what you want from your life. And I don't think you can get there without deep reflection. Without understanding who you are, what your skills are, and how to best pursue them to benefit both yourself and the market.
There's an interesting tension in my personality. The comforts that come with financial stability are hard to achieve right now. The pressure is forced upon us to perform, provide, create, succeed.
A lot of the time, this pressure is good. It forces you to make hard decisions that influence your trajectory. But part of me wonders if a more balanced, less work-centric experience would grant more clarity and peace of mind.
I think both can be achieved with excellent time management and dedicated time for reflection. Observation of your position in space and time among the billions of other trajectories you're interacting with. Personalities, decisions, people.
What game are you playing? What's your strategy? What actions are you taking?
I do feel content with where I'm at. There are areas of my life that make me feel uncomfortable and unstable. Financially, I feel more strapped than I want to be. I'm working on developing skill sets to escape this feeling of living paycheck to paycheck.
It's hard. It's hard when you really have to consider a two-day $300 vacation for Valentine's Day. I'd love to book that stuff with less consideration. But this is where I am.
These are good problems to have. I'm grateful for my situation. Grateful for the support in my life. Grateful for the people in my life.
I have some big decisions to make this week. Potential job opportunities have been presented to me. I'm glad to have this moment to reflect on these decisions and gather insight from my state of mind when considering these options.
The overwhelming feeling is excitement. I'm getting out of a situation I felt stuck in and have an opportunity to prove my value to a cause I'm more supportive of and more interested in.
There are no hard feelings. No sadness. Not a lot of emotion. Just an opportunity that, based on my analysis, looks much better. I think I'm going to take it, depending on how things go this week.
Dry January has been no problem. It's been a good reset. It's important to do things like this intermittently to gather perspective and insight into what's going on in your life.
This reflection carries alongside it exhausted tiredness and optimism for the future. I'm dedicated to bettering my situation and balancing the relationships, projects, work, and passion to figure out what kind of life I can best design for what I want.
I'll conclude with the question I'll let resonate until the next time I write:
What do I want from my life?
I show up every day with warmth, optimism, and curiosity, driven to create, discover, and grow.
I value my time above all else. I am dedicated to the people I love and the pursuit of meaningful progress.
I earn my place through effort and creating value. I embrace failure as a teacher. I expand my capacity at the edge of understanding.
Humor connects. Reflection deepens. Action shapes evolution.
Above all, I aim to build a legacy of growth, impact, and love, one day at a time.
Keeping that in my foresight as I travel through this moment of consciousness, in this combination of organic material highly unique to who I am, is an experience I don't take for granted. The awe of life excites me and leaves me curious.