🏆 goals for 2026
Last year was pretty chill. I let myself decompress while dealing with a job transition by focusing a lot on family and video games. This year it's time to get back on the horse and build some stuff.
🎯 marriage
I love starting my goals with marriage because my wife is the center of my life.
This year I'd like to deepen our connection. We definitely have our usual patterns, and that can sometimes lead us into the same surface level conversations.
I plan to bring back monthly marriage checkins, and to bring some specific questions or conversation topics to each one. Some questions explore how we interact, how we support each other, and our satisfaction levels. Other questions ask about future goals, dreams and desires, and fears.
These types of intentional conversations should stop us from just watching TV in the evenings and allow us to get closer each night we spend on the couch.
🥗 fitness
I had two successful mini cuts last year, both bringing me down under 180. This year I want to continue hybrid training with three lifting days and two running days. My typical week should look like this, with optional weekend training.
| Day | Training | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Lift | Push |
| Tuesday | Run | Distance |
| Wednesday | Lift | Pull |
| Thursday | Run | Speed |
| Friday | Lift | Legs |
| Weekend | Circuit | Kettlebell |
Probably the biggest challenge for me this year is to limit my cheat meals. Not the number of cheat meals, but the quantity at each meal. Instead of a whole pizza, only half. Instead of two burgers, only one. I've just noticed that my body isn't digesting and utilizing the extra calories the way it used to, so it's time to cut back.
I'm really good about drinking water, typically one gallon a day. I've recently noticed that drinking a whole Yeti right after I wake up feels really good, like it's flushing my body. I want to continue this throughout the year.
And now that I'm getting closer to 40, I think it's time I started getting regular blood work done. Don't get me wrong, I feel very healthy, but it's always nice to know if anything is off.
📈 finance
This is an area that I've been focusing on a lot more over the past few years. Not necessarily making more money, but just managing what we have more effectively. I established a nice strategy for budgeting, saving, and investing as well as a spreadsheet to manage it all.
This year I'd like to see our total assets reach $1,000,000. I know that sounds crazy, but we're on track to get there. In order to reach that goal, I plan on maxing out our pre-tax savings contributions to our 401k and HSA. I'll also be investing 75% and saving 25% of any extra funds we have at the end of each month.
🇲🇽 spanish
This year I still plan on doing my Duolingo each day, but it's starting to reach the limit of what it can teach me. Therefore, my goal is to read one real book in Spanish. Gaby got me El Futuro es Imperfecto for Christmas, and I'll work my way through that over the course of the year.
I think this is a great first step to immersing myself in the language, which will teach me more than any application could in the long run.
🛠️ physical not digital
I want to spend less time strictly in software, and more time following my interests with physical things.
As the kids continue to take piano lessons, I want to keep practicing myself. It would be really cool to get back into something musical, and the piano is nice and quiet to practice with headphones in the house.
I picked up a Raspberry Pi over the holiday break, and I want to do at least two electronics projects with it. I used to do a bunch of microcontroller programming in college, but I'll have to start with a basic LED project to refresh my memory. I'd like to do something that involves a display or some more advanced sensors and see what I can put together. My creativity will be the limiting factor here, so maybe AI can help me come up with something cool to build. The goal is to complete at least two electronics projects in 2026.
And I know this section is about physical things, but I still want to build a piece of software this year. I briefly had an interest in iOS development, so maybe I can use AI to help me learn and develop that Farkle score keeper that I was thinking of.
🤠 dancing
Gaby and I have been dancing together for so long we have found our moves and stuck with them. But I've actually forgotten a few tricks we used to do! So this year I want to bring back two of the moves we used to do, one dip and one spin.
In addition, I want to add two new moves to our repertoire. We will decide together what looks cool, and then spend some time at home practicing before taking them out to the dance hall. It will be a fun activity that should help make our nights on the dance floor even better!
🏁 finish and share
While some of my goals have no real end, like practicing piano, others do. I want to make sure I'm taking my goals to completion so that I have something to share at the end. I used to be so much better at this, and I want to come back around to being someone who does things and posts about them online.
With that being said, I have some books and games that I've left unfinished and I want to complete them before moving on to new things.
🧭 themes
This year I've found two common themes that I want to keep top of mind.
-
Bias for action
All too often I catch myself saying "we should do that" and then never following through. So this year when I have an idea, I want to get it on the to do list and take steps towards completing it. -
Tinker time
I want to spend more time doing hands on things. Whether that be home improvements, electronics or software projects, playing piano, or just learning and exploring something I'm interested in.
And with those themes in mind, it's time to get 2026 started off right!