2025 Reflections — Fusing Habits For a Growth Future
It’s the time of year when I reflect on the year, before entering my annual content creation and social media break. This annual reflection point blog post is my last post for 2025.
One of the ideas of the sabbath is that we remove our burden of making the world better and doing our good, productive work.
Sabbath is about laying this burden of responsibility down for a time, and by doing so, we trust God to make things better and do the good work without (and beyond) us.
We are trusting him ultimately to do those things.
It's recognizing that he is God and we are not.
We are limited, and he is unlimited.
So, the sabbath is a way for us to practice our dependence on God while also embracing and refueling what limits humans.
In a world of 24/7 work, constant noise information, and widespread tragedy, the sabbath is needed now more than ever. It's a ritual that helps us operate in the world but not be consumed by it.
Sabbath's practical benefits are worthwhile even if you're not a Christian or Jew.
As I start my sabbath month of rest and release, this idea is front and center for me.
The shift is also an opportunity for productive change.
The same is true for us, and the sabbath cycle helps facilitate our growth. It also gives us opportunities to see God do his awesome work without us (a reassuring dynamic).
Some Lessons Learned
As part of this break, I look back at this year to see what happened and emphasize some key ideas and events. Here are several lessons learned that have come to mind as I've been reflecting lately.
Refine, Focus, & Launch: This year has been a year of sorting out the kinks, so in 2026, I can hit the ground running by simply doing those worked-out actions, repeating them, and adjusting for better results. It's less about understanding for its own sake, but rather to understand it for the specific actions that matter to my vision and goals.
Habitual Action Unlocks Strategic Leverage: I've also discovered that when I repeatedly do something that matters but doesn't have a clear outcome in the habit, consistently doing the thing over time opens up opportunities that quickly provide focus and leverage to channel that idea in a more strategic aim. For example, you can develop a writing habit even if you don't have a book idea to write. Ideas will come, but the habit is required. The following quote powerfully captures this idea: "First, forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice." - Octavia Butler
Fuse Habits for Maximum Benefit: Having a series of habits and activities that shape a way of doing things, and then integrating new things, creates a more comprehensive and cross-benefit set of dynamics. When we do two things in isolation and then discover how they can be integrated, we can now find a way to maximize the benefits of both by fusing them together. In some cases, there is not enough benefit to do something unless it is effectively fused. The habit of blogging and the habit of making YouTube videos are two things I can crossover, using my blog posts as video scripts, as an example.
Axiomatic Bridge-Building: I'm trying two new things to facilitate better conversations with my aggressive disagreers: Letting go of my way (telling someone that wants to change my mind, why I can't accept their argument) and surfacing assumptions (axioms) for people to see them and evaluate them. When we're in an intractable conflict, the dynamics can lock up the conversation. But we can choose to see these dynamics and adapt. This apatation also involves living with people who are hostile to us, in a way that we don't react to them as they react to us, but instead embody the values and example of which we've committed, while staying in that relationship. It's hard not to react to someone who is misrepresenting you in front of you, while not allowing you to correct them. But there are situations where this is how you reach that person. // "Let them misrepresent you. Let them judge and condemn you, let them slay you. Rather let the truth of God itself suffer than that love suffer.” - Alexander Whyte // Shifting to an advisor type of interaction, where they become your advisor, is one way to change the dynamic into a more productive one. It allows us to follow the curiosity pathway towards productive understanding. Instead of simply sharing your conclusions, share how you arrived at them. Think out loud.
Multi-Model Synthesis: Holding a collection of mental models (principles for understanding what's going on) is a better way to navigate reality. When we're dealing with a bigger, more complex situation, it's not ideal to engage with reality using a single mental model. We should hold multiple ways of making sense of a problem while shoring them all up so that our models provide a range of solid options that allow us to make the best decisions possible. One model example I shared on my YouTube channel was Jim Collins' model for How The Mighty Fall. It's a five-stage framework for why successful companies die. This partially overlaps with another model, Ray Dalio's model for the changing world order. These two models are better than only one for evaluating unfolding events in a business or society.
Act Deeply, Check-In Broadly: When we focus on doing something, we can forget about other things going on around us. We have to make sure we keep checking in on those other things, so we can keep our thoughts and emotions up to date. This allows us to engage and be present with those developments and be more involved in the new ones. Often, when others fill the gap, we can look back in retrospect on what we missed and also appreciate those who filled the gaps when we were not noticing. It's a local example of standing on the shoulders of giants. My wife's family trips to Oak Island are an example for me, where I discovered how much she drives these trips and how important they are to our kids' development. It was creating the following YouTube video that revealed this to me.
Those are a handful of the lessons learned this past year. Many more are strung out in other places, some of which I'll highlight throughout this post.
But First... I'm Taking a Break. Will You Join Me?
As I mentioned above, this post is my annual reflection point, where I look back at this year and figure out what happened, what I learn, what worked (and didn't), and it helps me pivot for a better future.
The anticipation of this post and the act of writing it both play a part in growing into a better version of me. In December, I take a break from blogging, podcasting, YouTube, and social media until sometime in January. I talk more about this in the following video.
I've been publishing content for years, but this was the first year to channel that into a viable business. My abundance of freelance marketing work allows me to work more hours to earn more, but it takes away my time from creating and publishing. As my content creation generates an income, it gives this side gig a financial upside, and this creates an incentivized financial flywheel to keep creating content.
I saw YouTube as one of my primary vehicles to my end game of a financially viable content publishing business. But there are others support vehicles too. Let me talk about one of them.
An Unexpected Win: Facebook Monetization
For those of you who follow me on social media, you'll know I consume and share a lot of online content (articles, news, videos, podcasts, etc).
How do I channel this activity into helping me accomplish my financial goal? I had two developments recently that I believe will allow me to do this.
The second development is getting monetized on Facebook. This means I now get paid to post. And this means I get paid to promote my own content (it's not much right now, based on my reach, but probably $15 per month).
I was not aiming for or expecting to get monetized on Facebook, but it happened after posting regularly.
This is an awesome development that changes the dynamics for me.
With this achievement, I'm now able to spend more time and effort with Facebook because of the actual small return and the possibility of a bigger one.
This unexpected development gives me extra leverage going forward. Now that I know it's possible, I'd like to get my page monetized too (as it has more potential to go viral).
The Road to YouTube Monetization
Many of these content creation business puzzle pieces (blog, podcast, books, etc.) have been in place, and this year, I added YouTube.
I've been creating a variety of videos on my channel, figuring out the best way to create, publish, and distribute content. Now, I've figured out how I want to approach 2026. I'm excited for what's ahead.
Looking back, I started the year with 68 subscribers and am now up to 395 subscribers 11 months later. I'd like to hit 400 by year's end, so if you're on YouTube and want to follow along, subscribe to my channel.
Channel growth, sponsorship opportunities, and learning the ropes have been positive developments from my YouTube journey. Like anything worth doing, it's not easy or automatic, but it's a path I've chosen and will arrive at (hopefully sometime in 2026).
We bought a Ram Promaster, and she's been transforming it, a project at a time, into a Disney-esque themed reading experience for kids. That lighting video, among others, was one of many that got me thinking of fusing these two activities.
I've read through my first proof, marked up all the changes I want to make, and rolled out most of the changes into my manuscript file. I've still got more changes to roll out, but I consider myself 92% finished with the project.
Throughout this year, I've taken the manuscript to church on Sundays since we're usually there for two services and used the second service time to work through these things.
This book is not just a book I'm writing, but also a transformational experience I'm going through to become the person who can write the book while sharing the message I have to share. I'd like it to have been done years ago, but it's taking longer than I expected.
I love spicy things. My mom brought me a haul of ghost peppers, and the best way to use them without them going bad is to turn them into a hot sauce. The video above is me making that sauce happen.
I want to integrate older videos into my YouTube channel. In the case of the Alaska video above, it was already fully edited, and past me did a pretty good job. So, expect to see more next year as I want to figure out a way to communicate a message that people care about, using my old video footage as part of the story.
“But I'm doing a little better than my father did… When it's your turn, I hope you do a little better than me.” - Officer Miller, Last of Us, Season 2, Episode 6
That scene and quote stuck out to me when I was watching the latest season of The Last of Us. It's a mission of most parents who recognize their shortcomings as parents, and also our desire to make things better.
Changing generational trajectories is very difficult and usually requires many generations to make it happen. I talk about that in the following video.
Some more family updates...
David started wrestling this year. My dad wrestled in high school until he broke his wrist. My cousin Tanner was also a wrestler in school.
Madison started driving now that she turned 16. At the beginning of the year, I took her to a high-intensity driving program to better equip and protect her for one of the most dangerous activities we humans do. I made a video about this here.
Our Boys did flag football for the first time. David and Judah were on the same team, and Eli was in a separate level of play.
Madison went to a high school dance with her boyfriend. She was also in her second year of marching band, playing the saxophone.
We continued and expanded our tradition of the kids spending a week with my parents one-on-one. All but Madison also went to North Carolina with my father-in-law to Oak Island.
The boys and I went on a father-son camping trip to Lake Lanier at Don Carter State Park for three days and two nights.
You can see photos of these developments in the pictures below.
The Space Base Era has sadly ended. For the past few years, I've been playing Space Base with my neighbor, his son, and my wife (sometimes with my kids). Other friends and family members also play this incredible game (my mom and dad carry on this vital nightly tradition). Life has changed so much for us in the past several months that we don't get to play Space Base as we used to (sometimes my neighbor and I would play a dozen games in a row until well after midnight). Instead of multiple times each day now, we might get a handful of games each month. It was a fun run, but now it has to be integrated into the chaos of our lives.
With all my time back from playing less Space Base, I'm now back on AMC A-List, which lets me see multiple movies each week for only $25 per month. I'm also planning to get back into computer gaming because Space Base took up most of my gaming time and energy!
I don't have a lot of new stuff to share on the freelancing front. Flourishing as a freelancer continues, and I'm grateful for this ongoing success as clients work with me month after month.
One other big milestone for Cait and me is that we've been married for 20 years! Kinda wild because we're 41 and 40, and because we got married so young, we've been married for so long! Because people are getting married older in life, those who reach 20 years tend to be much older. Below is the video of our wedding!
And, I looked through all my photos of the year, and here is a random sampling of interesting ones throughout 2025.
Published Content
This year, I have published the most content I've ever put out. This includes blog posts, YouTube videos, and podcast episodes. It was high gear all year long.
Here's a showcase of that content, starting with what landed on the podcast.
Share Life Podcast
As you can see in the list below, there was a ton of new podcast episodes!
I've written a ton of blog posts this year. Usually, when I go heavy on some other medium (like podcasting), I tend to do less blog writing. Not so with this year, where I podcasted, wrote blogs, and did YouTube videos.
The list below includes many of these articles as well as my YouTube videos. Some are both, where I wrote the article and then did a video, or I did the video and turned it into a blog.
If you'd like to join this list of clients and work with me next year, contact me here.
Closing Thoughts
“You can’t heal something unless you’re brave enough to say it out loud. I’m scared though. I’m scared to which is why I have to say it.” - Gail, The Last of Us, Season 2, Episode 1
At a recent men's retreat, the following three ideas came to me to share with that group and now you.
The first idea is being a proxy (incarnation). It's the idea of being vulnerable and placing ourselves as objects before other people to share something that may be difficult to discuss or work out, but that we want to share so we can help others. For example, if you want to talk to someone about addiction, you'd start by sharing about your own addiction struggles and how that played out. This helps pave the way for fostering a safe environment and allows us to communicate difficult messages to people who don't want to hear them.
The second idea that relates is the Cure of Souls, which you can explore in the video above. The main idea is that humans operate a certain way, and if we want to help people change for the better, we have to understand how people operate and meet them where they are in a way that will ACTUALLY help them. Simeon Zahl gives the example of how stories have a way of reaching people when other approaches fall short.
The last and third idea is how Christ moved towards those in the margins, particularly those who were forsaken by society. There is no form of alienation that Jesus does not move into through his life on earth and journey to the cross. The quote that captures this idea powerfully comes from GK Chesterton, who says that even for a moment, Jesus was an atheist, and he met fellow atheists in his moment of forsakenness on the cross. Here's the passage from his book, Orthodoxy.
“That a good man may have his back to the wall is no more than we knew already, but that God could have His back to the wall is a boast for all insurgents forever.
Christianity is the only religion on earth that has felt that omnipotence made God incomplete.
Christianity alone felt that God, to be wholly God, must have been a rebel as well as a king.
Alone of all creeds, Christianity has added courage to the virtues of the Creator. For the only courage worth calling courage must necessarily mean that the soul passes a breaking point -- and does not break.
In this indeed I approach a matter more dark and awful than it is easy to discuss; and I apologize in advance if any of my phrases fall wrong or seem irreverent touching a matter which the greatest saints and thinkers have justly feared to approach.
But in the terrific tale of the Passion there is a distinct emotional suggestion that the author of all things (in some unthinkable way) went not only through agony, but through doubt.
It is written, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." No; but the Lord thy God may tempt Himself; and it seems as if this was what happened in Gethsemane. In a garden Satan tempted man: and in a garden God tempted God. He passed in some superhuman manner through our human horror of pessimism.
When the world shook and the sun was wiped out of heaven, it was not at the crucifixion, but at the cry from the cross: the cry which confessed that God was forsaken of God. And now let the revolutionists choose a creed from all the creeds and a god from all the gods of the world, carefully weighing all the gods of inevitable recurrence and of unalterable power. They will not find another god who has himself been in revolt. Nay (the matter grows too difficult for human speech), but let the atheists themselves choose a god. They will find only one divinity who ever uttered their isolation; only one religion in which God seemed for an instant to be an atheist.” ― G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
As you move throughout the end of your year, and as we get closer to Christmas, may you remember that no matter how good or bad it gets, Jesus has met you and dwells with you in those places. Trust him first.
And may you be a conduit for God to step into the gap for those around you and those forgotten souls around us (including those we would consider the most unlike ourselves).
