Do Fewer Things Better
My 2025 theme is “Fewer/Better”. Well, that’s the working title anyway; I’m trying to do fewer things and do things better. I’m trying to distil, coalesce, concentrate some combination of my draft themes:
- Focusing one one thing at a time, avoiding unnecessary secondary efforts or dividing/diverting my efforts
- Going deeper and building real roots/real depth and grounding myself, as a tree, instead of spreading wings and flying everywhere.
- Doing things well such that that which has been done well is done quickly enough, festina lente.
Rather than chasing the new skills or the shiny things, now it’s time to become expert and adept at what I already know.
🟢 Physical Health: Balance the Ins and the Outs ⚖
- Out: Use up those calories with workouts in the gym and running. Also, stretch more, stretch every day if possible. Have standards and a body people would envy.
- In: Continue to experiment with cooking; watch what I eat, and guard against sugar/processed foods.
- All About: Sleep hygiene. Control my emotions/worrying, and aim for good sleep every day.
🔴Relationships: Nurture the important relationships 🌱
- Daily: Be kinder to family. Be sweeter, be calmer, be slower to react.
- Weekly: Deepen connection with Cat. Invest and re-invest in the relationship.
- Monthly: Be proactive and organise friend lunches and gatherings where possible.
🔵 Career: Slightly overdeliver 🎯
- Show Up: Always deliver on what is asked for. Meet the minimums, at least.
- Stand Out: I’m aiming for “above average” or “a note of impressed surprised”. I may not be able to deliver at the 99th percentile, but 2-sigma or 80th or above-average is good enough.
- Always Be Hustling: I commit to the grind to look for new jobs and opportunities.
🟠 Wealth: Ignore others and focus on my own goals 🏠
- Save: Maintain the saving/investment patterns
- Stop: Stop comparison, stop woeing over money, stop acting penniless and poverty. Just focus on my own game.
- House: Buy a house
🟣 Spirit: Festina Lente 🐬⚓
- Stillness is the key: Slow down my reactions and interpretations and actions. Slow movements are indicators of high status, so I can practice moving slow so I can be a surprise when I move fast.
- Be like water: Go along with things, read more, write more, absorb more. Be like the water that absorbs blows but does not move (and hits back hard).
- Curate my mental hygiene: I heard an excellent podcast about a dopamine map; curate what makes me happy, what I derive joy from rather than letting distractions, easy hits, YouTube algorithms define what makes me happy
🟡 Mental: Choose myself, know myself🙋♂️
- Reflect: Learn about myself and understand
- Integrity: Establish personal values and try to live by them
- Curate my mental hygiene: As above, but I would like to think about more important things and be less distracted. Fewer better.
It’s been two years, and the sign is a little dirtier and a little aged (and Ted Lasso Season 3 wasn’t great). It actually fell off and needed to be fixed; but it’s still up on my wall.
I still believe.