My 2026 resolutions

Sat Jan 03 2026

tags: review

  1. What is a good life?
  2. What do I want to work on to move myself closer toward the good life?
  3. And what specific actions will I take to move myself closer to the good life?

What is a good life?

  • A good life is to be well: to be strong, fit, and flexible; and free from aches, injuries, and sickness (or, as Stephanie points out, to be able to quickly recover from the inevitable aches, injuries, and sickness). It also means being mentally well and happy (mens sana in corpore sano and all that, you know).
  • A good life is to give and receive love: to be surrounded by people who love and care about me, and likewise, to be surrounded by people whom I admire, love, and care about deeply. To help the people around me fulfil their goals, and vice versa.
  • A good life is to be fulfilled. For me, this has two components: firstly, to be working towards something that matters deeply to me and that makes the world a better place. - Secondly, to self-actualise: to become the most formidable version of myself, to grow every day as a founder, learning the very many skills I need to become competent at my job.
  • Hygiene factors:
    • dwelling in a place that comforts and rejuvenates me
    • having enough money to do fun stuff and be psychologically secure so I can pursue the above things without reservation

What do I want to work on to move myself closer to the good life?

To be well

To be well: Going into 30, I want to be the fittest I've ever been. This has the following components:

  • Strength
  • Cardio
  • Flexibility
  • Mental wellness

Strength:

Cardio:

Flexibility: My shoulders and hips are very, very tight. My tight shoulders directly affect my posture and puts my shoulders/back in constant tightness. I'm constantly in internal shoulder rotation due to my posture.

Mental wellness: I suffer from anxiety: a need to check phone, messages, constantly being "turned on" all the time, 24/7, thinking about work, having "dreams"/intrusive thoughts when I sleep about work). I want to be able to truly disconnect when I'm on break, and when I'm not on break, be fully focused. I want to have a good balance of relaxation vs. urgency: not too slothful, but not full tilt all the time, either

To be happy: I tend to be very harsh on myself and others, especially myself. I want to learn to be kind to myself, to recognise my strengths, and not just fixate on my weaknesses and mistakes. Shina was kind enough to point out that as I am today, I do inspire people: with my work-life balance, with my healthy body, with my breadth and depth of knowledge, with my sophistication/erudition. I am very able to see Soju's strengths and Proph3t's strengths, can I try to see my own strengths, and yes of course I have weaknesses, try to fix them as much I can?

  • What are actionable things I can do to try and recognise my strengths better?

To give and receive love

To give and receive love: I have been unapproachable and introverted/distant to the people in my field, particularly given how long I've been in this space, because I don't really like "crypto people". I don't like how money-obsessed, how nihilistic/fatalistic, and I don't share the same interest of trading at all, because I prefer to make money slowly and steadily.

But that does not define these people. People are not one-dimensional. Everyone has good in them, and they deserve to succeed, even if they have different values from me. I want to be less judgemental and actually start liking the people in my space. I see the analogy as, Christians often think that atheists are lost. I should be a less judgemental type of Christian because i) nobody likes the judgy Christians, and ii) people can change if they've been shown the light, right? Don't be a Christian who hates non-Christians and only wants to hang out with other Christians.

Instead, open my heart. Don't dislike people. See the good in them. Go and meet everybody in the crypto space with an open mind with no judgement and just be genuinely myself, show them my way.

Secondly, I want to do more for my friends. I want to do more nice things for them. I want to celebrate my friendships with intentional celebrations.

To be fulfilled

To be fulfilled: A large component of my mental wellbeing is to be building something that matters deeply to me and that makes the world a better place. I've realised that I cannot build something that I don't believe is "good", that helps people become better.

Secondly, I want to see progress every day as a person, as a founder. I want to learn the skills (primarily management and capital allocation) to be a good founder, to become competent at my job. I want to be able to see myself becoming more and more formidable.

What specific actions will I take to move myself closer to the good life?

To be well

  • Actionable 1 (Strength): I won't focus too much on this as I generally do a good job of this already. Goal: do at least two sessions of strength-focused training per week, and do at least one tiny strength thing a day to grease the groove (one set of push ups is sufficient)
  • Actionable 2 (Cardio): Improve my cardio to such an extent that I can run a half-marathon in two hours. (It's probably better to have a VO2max goal?)
    • Stephanie will sign me up for the half-marathon on April 5th, and she's kindly offered to help me train for it.
  • Actionable 3 (Flexibility): create and follow a ten minute nightly stretching routine, with the following components:
    • Hamstring stretch
    • External shoulder rotation (wall angels)
    • Hip opening (90-90s, maybe find some other one)

To give and receive love

  • Actionable 1: Set up weekly coffee 1-1 chat with one crypto person in the Superteam office, talk to more people in the ecosystem
  • Actionable 2: Host a dinner every two months at my place (or some other suitable place) to meet people, learn about them. Care about others more, understand what they're doing, genuinely try to help other people succeed wherever I can.

To be fulfilled

  • Actionable 1: write one essay a month, with a view towards compiling them into a manifesto, a coherent personal worldview. I am writing these essays primarily to codify and build conviction in my own beliefs, and secondarily to find and meet people who think similarly. The first essay in the series will be Build for people's good wants. I am inspired by Stephen King, who honed his craft by writing six pages a day.
    • Subactionable 1: organise and run "Essay Sundays", where I invite people to write together with me.

Summary

Daily Habits

  1. Daily one small strength thing a day to grease the groove
  2. Nightly short stretching routine
  3. Nightly + morning journaling habit to be more mindful of what I have done and to help me continue my resolutions

Weekly Habits

  1. Weekly coffee 1-1 chat with one crypto person in the Superteam office or the broader ecosystem
  2. Weekly run to train for the half-marathon
  3. Organise and run "Essay Sundays", where I invite people to write together with me.

Monthly Habits

  1. Host a dinner every two months at my place (or some other suitable place) to meet people, and learn about them.

An aside: Discipline is not self-flagellation. Discipline is a tool one wields strategically to best fulfil one's good wants. "If I sleep late, I will wake up late, and my entire day will be weighed down by my low dopamine. Therefore, I have to sleep early." I want to figure out a way to deploy discipline without it seeming like self-flagellation: resolve that internal conflict and embrace discipline wholeheartedly. discipline & freedom