Following in the footsteps of my post for last year, here are my Ins and Outs for 2026.
But first, how did I do with my Ins and Outs for 2025?
2025 Recap
I’ve love to say that I did incredibly well with everything mentioned in my 2025 post but the truth is, it was a mixed bag. I immediately joined the gym and lost almost a stone before March, which was excellent and gave me a lot of hope for my weight loss journey. However, hitting the gym 5-times a week became unsustainable fairly quickly, for a few reasons. Namely:
- 5-days a week is a lot on your body, especially if you haven’t done intense exercise in a while.
- It didn’t give room for other forms of exercise, such as 2+ hour long walks, which my wife and I love to do once a week.
- It was an all-or-nothing approach.
As such, after Spring, my visits to the gym slowed and by the second half of the year, they were very infrequent, picking up slightly in the Autumn after the kids went back to school but slowing again before Christmas.
In my experience, the first half of the school year from Jan to July is always easier for any goal as there’s not a lot going on in the school year but with a long summer holiday from July to September, and then a short run up to Christmas with lots of school events in the mix, finding time for the gym can be challenging, especially when balanced with work (which I’ll get onto in a bit).
I wasn’t able to focus as much on my business as I’d like however, that’s becuase I picked up a few more clients this year, which I’ve really enjoyed working with.
I’ve continued to add fun to my house. I’ve added some artwork to my walls, started collecting and dotting around a few Studio 86 series Transformers, and began planning our big bathroom rennovation, which is happening very shortly. After much pondering, discussions with my wife, and a fair bit of inspiration from various sources, I’m starting to get a feel of what I what to be surrounded by in my house for the first time, which is a wonderful thing.
Cutting down on Alcohol has been a mixed bag too. I lean on it a bit too much during times of stress (which seems to coincide with less time spent exercising), but I did manage to stop reading the news, not opening a single news website in 2025. The exception to this was whatever was being show on the front page of Reddit (mostly political, mostly US-based).
Ins and Outs for 2026
Ins
Balance
This should have been on my list for 2025 but in reality, some of the results of my Ins and Outs for 2025 allowed for this to become a real feature on my 2026 list.
Prior to having kids, I had decent balance more-or-less everywhere in my life. This really changed after my daughter turned a particular age (maybe two?) – my priorites shifted and I found less enjoyment in lots of things outside of my family life. I suspect this may be normal but since then, I’ve had this niggling feeling that I’ve been unbalanced. It also signals, as it does for many parents, a shift away from non-home, non-family related activities, such as seeing friends. I’m not a social butterfly, but I like doing social things. Factor in the inconsistancies in weight, exercising, etc. etc. it all adds to the niggle that almost everything in my life is off kilter, out of balance, and overall leading to a feeling of me not feeling like myself. I don’t like this, and so 2026 needs to be about restoring balance everywhere.
Recognising a Lesson from a Failure
This leads on perfectly to recognising when something is a lesson to be learned from and not seen as some kind of a failure. Taking the gym, for example – I saw not going 5-days a week as a failure. If I didn’t go for some reason, I had failed, lost. In reality, this wasn’t the case. I had, somewhere in my mind, adjusted things to work better for me, but because it wasn’t part of my “plan”, I had failed at it and I might as well give it up. This all-or-nothing approach isn’t helpful, nor is it conducive to long-term goals. The lesson I was trying to teach myself was 5-days a week was too much right now, that it doesn’t provide me with balance, or spontaneity. I’ve learned that I need to dial things down a bit to acheive things long term. Recognising the lesson is a big step for me and I’m hoping to carry this mentality through 2026.
Outs
Scrolling
I’ve spent *a lot* of time scrolling on my phone this year. Instagram and Reddit are my two vices. I’ve deleted Reddit (as of today), and am looking to cull my list of people I follow to reduce the clutter on Instagram. The sheer increase in the number of ads on Instagram is problematic so I’ll see how this goes. I do get a lot of inspiration and enjoyment from the people I do follow on Instagram though.
Work Stress
I wouldn’t say I really get stressed outside of work but this year has been quite stressful from a work standpoint. New clients, old clients, new roles/tasks/requirements all added up in 2025 and whilst I’ve loved most of it, it has resulted in some later nights working, and subsequent issues with work-life balance, which then has a knock on affect to exercise, alcohol consumption, stress levels, and that’s all not good.
I was feeling pretty burnt out by work at the end of 2025, and whilst I find it sad, possibly even upsetting, to know that I can now recognise the signs of burn out, it is a bit of a super power, especially if you catch those signs early. I didn’t, but it has encouraged me to check in with myself more frequently in 2026.
I ended 2025 on a somber note – a long term family friend passed away after a short illness. His funeral was yesterday, and I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of people who attended, from so many facets of his life that I never knew he had. The stories, conversations, messages, and photos were a rich and warm rememberance of him and, as funerals often do, helped me put some things into perspective. A sad and happy day, but I hope it helps me carry this warmth and perspective into 2026. Rest in peace, Kerry x