“ I think at the end of the day, the way you measure your life is by how you react to struggles and how you persevere. It’s not the end result. It’s the journey ” — Ian Gillespie There’s a draft I’ve had sitting for nearly two years now that I never finished. It dates back to another ominous “can we meet” message from HR, two weeks after finding out my wife was expecting our second baby.…
“ We cannot become what we want by remaining what we are ” — Max DePree Transitioning into another year, I took some time in December to reflect on all that happened in 2025. For me, a lot of this year was about increasing capacity and patience. Becoming more of what Dr. Becky calls “ sturdy ”- a sturdy parent, leader, partner. Building resilience. Here’s a snapshot of what 2025 brought: The…
The Books of 2025 “ Books are, I find, the best provisions a man can take with him on life’s journey ” — Michel de Montaigne Nearing the end of another year, I find it satisfying to go thorough and reflect on all that I read. Not in a “ look at this stack of books ” kind of way, but more considering what I discovered, what I actually learned, how my behaviour was impacted. How did I choose…
“ Enthusiastically build an extraordinary reality day after day ” — Brunello Cucinelli I’ve just wrapped up my annual review and planning , and for the past few years I’ve made it a point to share some of the highs and lows here. To help me remember things throughout the year, I use the one line a day notebook that lets you accumulate one thought about each day over 5 years. I just reached…
“ I don’t wanna be a product of my environment; I want my environment to be a product of me. ” — from the Departed via Wes Lang (A User Guide to Me) Last updated: Jan 2026 For years, I’ve thought it would be a useful exercise to try to take everything I've learned in different aspects of life and distill it down to the essentials. To question and examine where it might be time for an update.…
“ And on I read. Until the day was gone... ” — Audioslave When I spend time reflecting at the end of each year, one of the things I enjoy most is looking over everything I've read and considering how the books have quietly reshaped the way I see things. In a world full of distractions and demands, carving out time for long-form reading feels increasingly rare, but there are few better…
It all started with a casual conversation in early January, fresh off of thinking about my goals and vision for the year. A friend mentioned they had signed up for an Ironman triathlon, and my wife’s off-hand comment “oh Mark, you could do that no problem!” started the wheels turning. There was no going back once the idea had been planted. For those unfamiliar, an Ironman 70.3, also known as a…
“ I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is ” — Kurt Vonnegut It’s that time of year again- time to reflect on the past year, as well as plan for the year ahead. The things that stand out most when I look back on the past 12 months are the little everyday moments. The coffee and brewery dates with…
The Books of 2023 “ The sea gets deeper as you go further into it... The more you know, the more you realize how much there is to know ” Dopamine and Discovery As I reflect on this 8th collection of books I’ve read throughout the year, one recent insight I heard on a podcast stands out- the concept of a " Nerdy Dopamine Pathway, " or the reward value of information (ironically, discovered as I was…
“ My system has allowed me to write 4 books in the last few years. I’ve proven that it works, that it’s produced results. Your system may be more elegant, more perfected. But what has it allowed you to produce? ” — Ryan Holiday I’ve always felt the need for a consistent way to remember (and make use of) everything I read. Information comes at us from so many different places- books,…
I’ve come to recognize that I’m really hard on myself. My inner critic has developed into an expert in what Steven Pressfield would label "resistance"- that voice whispering “you're not good enough, you need to be doing more”. There’s almost a twisted sense of pride that I feel in admitting that, but it’s honestly just debilitating. I was at a live podcast recently where Andrew Wilkinson mentioned…
“ We do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience ” As we move into the new year, it's a time for reflection and contemplation. This year, I’ve decided to add a more public component to my annual review process , and I'm excited to share my reflections with you. I look forward to it each year, and I still count it as one of the most valuable things I do after 10 years of…
The Books of 2022 “ The great thing about reading is you can use that to pick up any new skill. So if you learn how to learn, it’s the ultimate meta skill and I believe you can learn how to be healthy, you can learn how to be fit, you can learn how to be happy, you can learn how to have good relationships, you can learn how to be successful….You can trade it for any other skill. And that all…
The Books of 2021 “ In the end, we’ll all become stories. ” — Margaret Atwood Looking over everything I’ve read this past year, I’m as inspired as ever to keep seeking out great books. Sometimes, the right book at the right time can completely change your life. Charlie Munger once said “there are answers worth billions of dollars in a $30 history book.” I think of this often when I look at…
The Books of 2020 “ Develop into a lifelong self-learner through voracious reading; cultivate curiosity and strive to become a little wiser every day. ” — Charlie Munger 2020 marks the 5th year of this annual reading roundup. Putting it together has been a great addition to my year end reflections , and will inform my reading choices for the year to come. Although 2020 has been a challenging…
I love finding simple, effective ways to change my state, things that can be easily incorporated into a weekly routine. With this extra time at home, I wanted to share a few resources that have stood the test of time for me after much experimenting. The first thing I wanted to mention is developing “triggers” attached to things done daily. Each morning when I put my socks on, I use that…
The Books of 2019 BookMark is a project that began in November 2016, and it's something I've put out every single month since. Condensing all that I've read and thinking carefully about what each book meant to me is something I always look forward to. In many ways, this monthly practice began out of gratitude and admiration for others who took the time to put their own reading suggestions out into…
The Books of 2018 Looking over the books from 2018, I realize the variety of learning and reading one can accomplish over the course of a year. My relationship to reading felt like it changed and developed. I feel an increasing anxiety surrounding books, a sense that I'm potentially missing out or choosing to spend limited time with unnecessary reading. I have difficulty committing to one book at…
I arrived into the world 29 years ago today. Leading up to my birthday each year, I usually find myself in a state of thought and reflection. I think about where I've been and the direction life is taking. I think about the choices I’ve made so far, the ways of thinking that brought me to this moment. I know a year from now I will be turning 30. That knowledge is there in the back of my mind, as…
“ What you do is more important than how you do it and doing something well does not make it important ” — Tim Ferriss There is always so much we want to do. Sometimes, looking for the non-obvious solution helps: How could doing less with more focus allow for increased output? If you are headed in too many directions, you won't end up with much progress in any. Attention and focus are the…