January Thoughts - 2026

I’m not usually a fan of new years resolutions, because they tend to come with a load of emotion or caffeine-induced confidence, without recognizing the inherent difficulties that inevitably arise as you immerse yourself into the process. And while the goal at the end of the rainbow is the catalyst that gets you moving at the start, it is rarely powerful enough to sustain you through these challenges. We need a more based approach if we want to sustain our momentum and truly achieve our goals.

For me, the one arm handstand wasn’t a New Year’s resolution, but it was a “New Me” resolution. It was a hard decision I made to succeed, period.

This goal drove me to suffer through setbacks and drove me to understand and investigate the details no one could tell me in a podcast or a YouTube tutorial - stuff you can’t read in a book. It was true immersion - living the process.

It drove me to accept, learn from, and eventually fall in love with the process. This was the true value in the original goal.

Now I care less and less about advancing to harder hand balancing skills or new strength feats. However, I am more motivated than ever to train, create programs, deepen my understanding of movement, and become a better coach. I want to truly be a guide who can help those who are interested navigate this strange world of fitness and skill development from a place of personal experience. I still love training, but I recognize better where the real value comes from.

So, if you have a goal, pursue it. At the first sign of difficulty, be excited. This is where you are going to learn. The harder these roadblocks seem, the more you are going to grow. Maybe you need to get tougher, maybe you need to become more organized with your schedule, or maybe you need to give yourself a break and show yourself some compassion. This is all part of the journey of working on something difficult and rewarding.

All goals are different and demand something different from each of us. Every time we work through an obstacle, we advance further on our personal journey and learn more about the intangibles that are essential to progress in any endeavor - patience, fortitude, consistency, keeping an open mind, etc.

I don’t wish you luck on your journey into 2026. I wish you many challenges - the harder the better. Rise to them and become the person you want to look eye to eye with in the mirror each day.