A fresh slate. A blank canvas. A new year.

There are 365 theoretically equal days in a year. Every day lasts the same 24 hours, yet slow days feel longer than they should, boring days crawl by, and busy days vanish faster than you’d expect. On January 1st, it’s like your life subscription has just been renewed – you go into it with refreshed enthusiasm and motivation, feeling like you can conquer anything. Invigorated by optimism, you write down a list of wishes you’d like to see come true.

At the start, time passes slowly. You feel like there’s still so much of it left to accomplish what you set out to do. And then somewhere in the middle, it picks up almost exponentially. Dreams go on hold, priorities shift, and new plans replace old ones.

Writing consistently was one of those goals that kept getting pushed to next year. I’ve wanted to do this for years now. Yet here I am in 2026, finally doing it because I couldn’t put it off any longer. Questions still nag: What should I write about? What value can I provide? Do people still consume long-form content? What if no one reads it? What if no one cares?

So many questions, so many reasons to say no. But the hardest part is always getting started.

Here goes nothing.

2025: The year of showing up

In hindsight, 2025 was one of my best years yet – even though the peaks were high and the troughs were really low.

It was the year I learned what consistency actually means. I set a movement goal: 365 days of activity – running, walking, gym sessions, home workouts. I mostly hit it. I got stronger, lifted heavier, surprised myself. I didn’t hit my 2,000km running goal, but I showed up anyway. Not everything panned out how I planned. Some days were a breeze, other days were simply a drag. But it turns out I had more in me than I realized.

Markets told a similar story of volatility and unexpected outcomes. Asset prices stayed mostly sideways from 2022 through 2024, until Trump got elected and things went berserk. Starting at 4.25%-4.5%, the Fed made three 25bps cuts to end the year at 3.5%-3.75% – a decidedly dovish stance.

Yet crypto struggled. Bitcoin dropped 7.3%, Ethereum fell 12%, and Solana plunged 36%. Meanwhile, precious metals had a breakout year: Gold surged 64%, Silver jumped 148%. All this against a weakening dollar backdrop, which typically propels asset prices higher.

Like my fitness journey, markets didn’t follow the expected script. Still, with Gold and Silver leading the charge, digital gold, aka Bitcoin, should be next in line. Volatility will always be part of the game, but I think we end 2026 higher than we started.

Time to keep showing up.