Stop Measuring Your Year in Days
Estimated Read Time: ~4 minutes
I am "officially" starting my 2026 only about 12 days late!
I just spent 11 days in Japan. 7 of them snowboarding the best powder of my life in Niseko. Not a bad way to delay the start of the year.
Though, as I was on my flight home, I began to reflect on 2025. I had that familiar feeling that I didn't do enough. "I didn't workout like I said I would, I didn't work on my app every day, I didn't call my family enough." Then I stopped…
"You idiot! You did a bodybuilding competition. You launched your app Nuro to the App Store. You saw your family more than you have in 5 years."
And I realized in that moment that I was measuring myself in days. That I would do all the things I said I would each day. Every day for 365 days.
That is a game I was never going to win. It is a game that continually made me feel like shit and eroded my self-trust over time.
I needed permission to get done with work on a random Tuesday, not feel it, and order DoorDash without spiraling about wasting my time.
So I had to reframe how I looked at success in my year:
My Misogi for 2026
If you are not familiar with the concept: a Misogi is one big, audacious goal for the year. Something that genuinely challenges you. Something you might actually fail at.
Last year mine was a bodybuilding competition.
This year: biking the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) from San Francisco to San Diego.
Your Misogi doesn't have to be fitness related. It could be starting a business, learning a specific song on piano, performing the tango with your partner at an event.
The key is to pick a meaningful goal that pulls your life forward. Through this, habits come as byproducts, and not showing up every single day doesn't mean you will fail. You will see other parts of your life grow even without a direct goal tied to them.
Take my bodybuilding competition. It forced me to do several things:
Workout consistently
Eat a better diet (better is questionable when cutting)
Save money - I wasn't eating out much, drinking, etc.
Spend my time differently—this is when I built Nuro, my newsletter, read more, etc.
As a byproduct, I started doing all these other things I had on my "new year new me" goals for years.
It also means you don't have to be perfect every day. Hell, there were days during my bodybuilding prep that I didn't workout, overate, skipped posing practice. But I still reached my goal.
One New Experience Every Month
The last thing I'm committing to is at least one unique experience every month. Something I wouldn't normally do.
For me this is:
Trying out curling
Going to Grand Teton National Park and camping
Taking a dance class with my girlfriend
Going to Monterey Car Week
These experiences don't have to be expensive or extreme. It could be as simple as taking a run through a new park, going rollerskating, learning how to make a new food.
I recommend a new experience each month for a few reasons:
These unique experiences compound into a collection of mini-adventures you can look back on with satisfaction.
You might find a new hobby or something you didn't know you enjoyed. Even if you hate it, at least it makes you feel braver about trying new things.
It's a great way to meet people and discover things in common with friends you didn't know you had.
Wrapping up
The goal with this framework is to pick one big thing over a pile of daily habits and lofty goals. It is about giving yourself space to not be perfect every day and looking back on your year happy with what you did—not spiraling about what you didn't.
That is my simple framework for 2026. Pick a Misogi and try something new every month.
That's it! Here's to a good year.
See you next week.