From Both Ends
This has been a wonderful, unplugged holiday week. It all unfolded at a comfortable pace - from grocery shopping, to food prep, to numerous phone calls and brief get-togethers with friends leading up to Christmas. Christmas morning was super fun and carefree, untethered to the clock. After the gifts were opened, I mostly cooked and cleaned in the kitchen, but it felt unhurried. It felt luxurious to have the time to really focus on executing the meal. I cooked far too much food for just the four of us, but we’ve been enjoying the leftovers ever since.
The day after Christmas was consumed by an efficient but demanding trip to Cleveland to reclaim our youngest’s furniture and finalize his exit from the Cleveland Heights apartment that served him well these past two years. I pulled out in the U-Haul truck from Newark at 7:20am and returned it prior to 6pm. Our ability to repatriate our boy without his possessions filling the house with clutter was a testament to our earlier work done this Fall to clean the basement and garage. It felt nice to tuck him so easily back into the “mothership.” However easy it looked, it still required a large amount of energy. We crashed hard Friday night. Thankfully, Saturday was a leisurely gathering with my sister and sister-in-law, where we exchanged Christmas gifts and continued to eat through the reheated Christmas menu. (The Swedish meatballs have only gotten better with time.)
With the exception of New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, my time between now and January 5th will be focused on reflection and goal setting for the year ahead. I feel really good about how this year played out, and want to continue the momentum in 2026. Lots of factors (including luck) played into how things went, but this year confirms that I have become better at planning, setting smart goals, and maintaining focus on their execution.
The traditional approach (the one I use to coach my clients as they implement EOS tools and disciplines into their businesses) is to look out into the future (10+ years, typically), and clarify what exactly we are trying to make happen, and then reverse engineer ourselves back into a 3-year picture, a 1-year plan, and quarterly priorities called “Rocks.” Visualizing our desired future, and then getting very specific about what needs to happen at these different intervals along the way allows us to create a very clear picture of the future we are building. And directly ties today’s actions to making that vision a reality. This approach is highly effective - I’ve seen it work for my clients, and heard many anecdotes from my fellow EOS Implementers supporting it.
But during the quiet of these next few days, it will also be helpful to take the opposite approach - to consider my present habits, routines and rituals and extrapolate out into the future, to honestly assess whether they can support the types of outcomes I am trying to generate. To a large degree, I feel like I’ve done a solid job of “controlling the controllables,” especially in terms of getting good sleep, exercising, eating well, and reading. Accomplishing large goals only happens through the accumulation of thousands of smaller actions.
All we can do is to act with focus, regularly reflect to evaluate our progress, adjust our plans and keep going. Whether or not I achieve exactly what I am picturing in my mind’s eye is less important to me than it is to be highly intentional with how I use my precious time and energy. This is what is meant by “enjoying the journey,” I think. I have truly enjoyed the process of pursuing my vision, and I want to be able to say it again this time next year.
Sunday Supper
These Red Curry Chicken & Rice Bowls look like a nice change of pace. This Cabbage Salad would be good, especially if paired with some roasted chicken thighs. Here’s a bunch of ideas for New Year’s Eve nibbles, if you re looking for inspiration.
Sunday Music
Here is a full concert featuring Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, a Baltimore funk jam band. Rick Beato is a person whose views I value in the word of music - here are his Top Ten Songs of 2025. Here is Chet Baker, Live at Ronnie Scott’s. Lastly, this recent winter solstice performance by Ólafur Arnalds and friends in Reykjavik might be a nice way to ring in the New Year. Enjoy!
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Have a great week ahead! You can do anything you set your mind to. Let me know how I can help.
Peace & Love,