It is currently 11:07 PM on July 8th, 2026. I've put off writing this for a week, using the excuse that I need to think it through more before I commit. I get more out of this just brain-dumping and writing things as they come to mind without edits, so here we are. I have not written since January so there is a lot to cover. Hopefully when I say I plan to write every month now, I actually follow through with that. A lot has happened this year, some good, some bad. Let's start with the good.

I started a new job in March. I stayed at ESI just long enough to get the bonus that paid for the laptop that I'm writing on, then bounced. It pays $85k a year and has decent benefits, as well as employee stock. The downside is the work can be boring and the HR manager sucks. Hope for yours sake that she's been fired by the time you read this.

I moved to Eagle at the end of May, in a new apartment basically across the street from work. The area is nice, Greenbelt access has made it my favorite place to walk, and my commute going from 40+ minutes each way daily to less than 5 minutes total has been wonderful. It hasn't really filled out yet, at least in my building. I only have one neighbor on the third floor with two units still sitting empty.

Finances have been doing very well, in part to living at home for five months and keeping expenses low and in part to a nice ESI bonus and new job with raise. My net worth is in the $115K range, give or take a thousand or two. I don't have the data in front of me, but I believe that is 25K more than I started the year with. I would love to be over $200K by the time I turn 30, but that will depend a lot on the stock market.

And now the not so good. I am near the same weight and body fat % that I started the year at. Last I checked that was the high 260's at about 33% fat. I have not added much, if any muscle. My VO2 max and resting heart rates are not at good levels for my age, or any age really. My nutrition is poor most of the time. There is a lot of work to do there to get healthy, and the best way forward might be to just pick one and make the steps so small that they feel manageable until I build the momentum necessary to take on more.

I have not been on a date yet, and don't feel any closer to that than I was on 1/1. I downloaded a few dating apps just to see what they're like, and it is rough out there. I don't have a great profile by any means, but the dating pool is rough. My best bet probably is to meet a girl in person at church or through friends.

Speaking of church, my attendance has not been stellar. I listen to the podcasts as they come out and have gone through a decent amount of old messages, but I won't make the connections I want to doing that. I also don't have the relationship I want with Jesus and don't spend nearly enough time with Him.

With all that out of the way, it's time to figure out a plan of attack for the rest of the year. I have 176 full days left of this year to work with, and a lot of change can happen in that span if I work on it. In order, my top three priorities are faith, fitness, and career. Finance mostly takes care of itself at this point with the habits I have, so I don't need to expend too much energy on that.

Faith: I want to be a stronger Christian. I won't make heavenly heavyweight in this time span, but I can build a foundation of daily time in my Bible and in prayer, and let that influence the rest of my life. I want to kill the bad habits I have of swearing and PMO and I believe that building the best way to stop both these.

I need to be in church at minimum every Sunday, and ideally most Wednesdays too. I work from home that day and really have no good excuse to not go. I get more out of it being in person, even with Mom being a distraction. I say I want Christian friends and connection but then don't do anything about it. Here is my opportunity.

Fitness: I am out of shape in every metric. I am obese, have a high body fat, do not have strong cardio, do not have much muscle, get winded easily, and have poor nutrition. Cutting weight fixes a few other problems and is my top priority. One pound a week is absolutely manageable and will be my goal. That is roughly 25 pounds by the end of the year and gives me a springboard for 2027 to get the rest of the way there. Aiming to close all three rings on my watch every day will help me get there while also helping my cardio stamina and VO2 max numbers a bit and will be my other goal.

I need to add muscle at some point but think I will do basic abs workouts and stuff with dumbbells for now. Ideally I get in a house someday and can build out a home gym, but that is at least a year away with my current lease.

Career: I moved jobs like I hoped I would at the start of the year, but I feel less fulfilled than I did then. I like the pay and the team I work with more, but I wish I did something I had passion and excitement for rather than dread and boredom. I need to position myself to move into accounting or finance from my current role at HC, or figure out what education or certificates I need to get to jump to one of those roles elsewhere. I would like to stay at HC as I can see myself being in a high role in one of those fields within a few years, but if there is a hard ceiling I want to know now.

So let's sum up the goals I have:

Bible - one OT chapter a day, should put me in Deuteronomy by the end of the year. One NT chapter a day, should put me in or just past Philippians by the end of the year

Church - two in person misses the rest of the year on Sundays, better than 50% attendance on Wednesdays

Bad habits - eradicated. Maybe a money jar where I pay in $10 each time I swear or PMO to make it hurt a bit more? I'll think on that one a bit.

Body weight - lose 25 pounds from whatever my starting weight is tomorrow. Body fat should drop into the 25-30% range as well from this

Apple Watch rings - all three closed every day, with 7 misses allowed the rest of the year. This feels reasonable as I walk everyday at work. I will simply need to build in some more movement on weekends

Career - hard to write a goal here as things are so ambiguous. I guess I control my education in this area, so I will research the different certificates for finance and accounting and decide which, if any, I pursue

Misc - buy a truck. I'm going back and forth between a Tacoma and a Maverick right now, but I need to make a decision in the next two months or so to have it worn in for the AZ trip in October.


Final thoughts: I feel ok at the moment about how things are going. Changing jobs and moving recently was a lot of shake-up all at once, but I have settled in somewhat to my role and new team at work and am pretty much fully moved in at the apartment, pending a few boxes I need to go through for storage. I know that I am not living up to my full potential though and that has caused some pain. That's not necessarily a bad thing though. I think feeling that and having to battle those thoughts shows that I care enough to make the fixes I need to, now the battle is doing the work necessary.

This is scheduled to be delivered on New Years Eve. I hope you get out of work early to read this, have a good grasp of goals for 2027, and can look back over the previous 176 days and see how hard you worked towards these goals.

- Trey from 7/8/26