The start of a new year is a convenient marker for reassessing habits, priorities, and direction, and this note is mainly to record where my head is at right now. As the year turns, I find myself thinking about reading more consistently, exploring topics I have avoided or postponed, and paying closer attention to how my running, swimming, and daily work at Edzy fit together. This is less about ambition and more about alignment, making sure that time spent across learning, physical effort, and professional focus feels deliberate rather than accidental. Writing this down is a way to make the intent explicit, even if the execution remains imperfect.
Reading has been the clearest unresolved gap in recent years. I read in fragments, mostly around what is immediately useful for work, and rarely with the patience required to stay with a difficult or unfamiliar subject. This year I want to reverse that pattern by reading more regularly and by choosing material that does not directly solve a problem I already have. The intention is to read across disciplines, including areas that feel uncomfortable or slow, because that friction is often where understanding develops. I do not expect this to translate into quick insights or visible outcomes, but I do expect it to change how I think over time. Reading, in this sense, is not a productivity tool but a long-term investment in attention and depth, and I want to treat it with that seriousness rather than squeezing it into leftover minutes.
Alongside reading, I want to be more thoughtful about how I explore new topics in general. Curiosity has been reactive lately, driven by links, recommendations, and short-term demands. This year, I want exploration to be more intentional, choosing a few themes and staying with them long enough to build context. That may include subjects adjacent to my work, but also areas that have no immediate application. The goal is not breadth for its own sake, but a slower accumulation of understanding. This approach requires accepting that progress will feel less visible, and that is something I need to be comfortable with. Learning that does not announce itself can still be meaningful, and I want to allow space for that kind of quiet growth.
My running and swimming sit in a different but related category. They are already part of my routine, but I often treat them as obligations to be completed rather than practices to be refined. This year, I want to pay closer attention to how these activities actually feel, how effort, recovery, and consistency interact, and how small adjustments accumulate over months. There is also an opportunity to learn more about the mechanics, physiology, and mental aspects of endurance, not to optimize aggressively but to understand better what I am doing and why. Running and swimming offer a form of structure that reading and learning sometimes lack, and I want to use that structure to reinforce patience and discipline rather than just ticking off sessions.
Work at Edzy remains a central focus, and the challenge this year is to integrate it more cleanly with these personal goals instead of letting it crowd them out. I want my work to benefit from broader reading, clearer thinking, and a more stable physical routine, rather than existing in competition with them. That means being more deliberate about how I allocate energy, not just time, and recognizing when busyness is masking a lack of direction. The new year does not promise change by itself, but it does provide a natural pause to reset assumptions. This note is simply a marker of that pause, a reminder that the goals are modest, the timeline is long, and the value lies in showing up consistently rather than making dramatic shifts.