2026 - Q3 Goals and H1 Reflections

One would think that after resolving a quarter-life crisis 2 years ago, a smooth ride would exist until the mid-life crisis, but no– it seems like I've run into a mid-career crisis. The way I define this is by realizing that I'm at a point where from a corporate perspective, I'm just past naivety and not qualified to make any real decisions. My life isn't constrained by business decisions for any specific company, yet I am just starting to be accountable for more responsibilities and have a taste of ownership.

I think my friends are getting annoyed at how often I think and talk about work because I've been wrestling with myself on what I want to get out of my time in the next 5 years, and why I spend the time the way I do. I live my life with the philosophy that I must make a living doing something I enjoy because if I'm spending approximately 8 hours a day doing it, I have to be doing it with people I enjoy working with and solving problems that align with things I want to solve.

In my last quarter reflection, I focused my goals in 2 ways, one was on "getting stuff done". Rather than sitting with my ideas, I would go execute them. This could mean elaborating on what it would take to make these ideas come to fruition, or it could literally mean building the idea to make it come to life. Looking back, I do feel as though this was accomplished through the progress I made on my handwritten digital notes tablet app. Although I rarely take tablet notes these days, the app is in a place where I am able to use it as a replacement. It doesn't have all the features I want in terms of connecting it to AI tools, but it does at the very minimum let me take and save notes.

On the language learning goal, I had made some progress across all 5 languages, though a lot of these were written as milestones to be achieved by end of the year. In that respect, I can say that progress was made and things are on track.

What Do I Want Out of Q3?

I published a blog recently about how I was "Jaded by Job Security". I don't feel resentment towards jobs in general, but it was written more as an acceptance and truth piece about how I view work in relation to my overall life. It's a trade between time and services for money.

Building Relationships

From a career perspective, I think I'm at an interesting junction where I've just hit the ability to influence decision makers. I'll talk to the concept of "Influence" in the next section. Outside of my corporate job, I'm starting to explore volunteering at local musical theatre communities to learn more about what it takes to create a musical production and to connect with more folks in the community. Access to people who can help and building those relationships before help is needed has become a very important thing to making ambitious projects succeed.

Influence

When it comes to how I feel about corporate work, I realized that the way I think about products causes me to think about innovation and changing the way things are. The difficulty with shifting an entire ecosystem is the coordination required among different industries and incentive structures. This takes a lot more time and relationships than one would assume. I've recently looked into startups that solve a problem for my own life and have considered the reasons for why they didn't gain traction or failed, and a lot of it was due to a dependence on process changes that were out of their own direct control. In that sense, I've grown to appreciate the power that conferences, media, and larger firms have at connecting people and ideas so that changes can happen throughout an ecosystem that spans industries.

Anything that requires convincing a lot of people to coordinate together to change a way of doing things requires influence and aligning incentives. In the next quarter, I want to explore the ways in which this currently happens and where I'm able to get involved in increasing momentum towards outcomes I'd like to see.

Achieving Healthy Mental Balance

I've recently realized that thinking about strategic concepts that impact the future on a long timescale puts me in a flight or fight state. Adrenaline is high, and I sometimes fill with pent up energy to release. With that, I've realized I need to engage in complex cardio workouts to counterbalance the mental energy I spend on work. I needed to be put in a situation where my brain would be forced to focus on whatever it was in front of me in order to intentionally detach from thinking about work.

I tried badminton with a friend, which helped, but in the long-run would make my arms feel unbalanced. I'm deciding to step back into Taekwondo (TKD), a sport I started in undergrad by taking a class for one semester but wasn't able to commit to. I've found a studio close enough to me that I'd like to spend the next 5 years of my life training. It'll give me a balance of flexibility, strength, power, and a lifestyle to work around (and the ability to scream – some days need a good scream).

So yes, I do require flexibility in my work location and hours, so I can possibly go from SF to South Bay in a single day.

Creative Output

Whether it'll be practicing guitar, ear training, singing, or other non-music forms of creativity, this continues to be a key feature in my life. Blogging in itself is also a form of creativity. I've realized that strategy work is also creative, but strategy doesn't have immediate output. Hence, I imagine my days the next 3 months to largely be split by TKD, work that pays me, and my ability to find opportunities to soak in the world, reflect on it, and express myself in whatever form that may be.

So what is the outcome of this mid-career crisis? It's realizing that there are so many things that are exciting to me and struggling to pick one to full commit to. Parts of this decision are affected by money, but I think I've realized that since taking a step back from execution, "getting something done" isn't as trivial as one would think. There's so much time and so little time in life that I've realized that for a lot of things I want to try, I'll have the time and energy to try later – like working with animals one day. I don't have to do everything, all at once, right now.