As I approach 30 I keep thinking about how little time we actually have. This is not the first time the thought has crossed my mind. I remember reading On the Shortness of Life by Seneca years ago and feeling that same punch in the chest. But now it feels different. Every year moves faster than the one before it.
In the past I was reckless with my time. Not wasted, but spent without intention. Now the one thing I want more than anything is time itself.
Two months into 2026 I am trying to take some of it back.
Gym
I used to spend hours in the gym every day. In college I bounced between bodybuilding routines packed with isolation work and cardio. Later I shifted to powerlifting which was more efficient. After graduation work had me training in hotel gyms and I slowly regressed.
When I moved to Austin I was training two to three hours a day. I was on a Muay Thai fight team so it made sense at the time. But when my wife and I started dating I realized how much of my day was being consumed by training.
Now I care less about aesthetics and more about function. High school and college me was too influenced by looking good for other people. Later I found out many of the physiques I admired were built with PEDs.
Today my goal is simple. I want to lift heavy and still breathe easy walking up a flight of stairs. Strength that feels usable. Conditioning that carries into real life.
Reading
This one surprised me. I realized I was forcing myself to finish books that were not adding anything new. Most of them were highly recommended and I convinced myself there was some hidden insight I would miss if I stopped reading.
A lot of these were business, entrepreneurship, or self help books. Some were great. But over time the returns started to diminish. The same case studies. The same frameworks.
Now I am leaning into scifi, math, philosophy, and anything that feels fun or expansive. Time is too short to grind through material that feels repetitive just because it looks productive.
People
This might be the most controversial shift.
I used to care deeply about how I was perceived. I would ask a wide circle of people for advice on decisions I was facing. The more I asked the more I realized most people are speaking hypothetically.
Very few are operating from lived experience.
Now I try to filter advice. Either I value the person’s opinion deeply or they have done the thing I want to do. Otherwise it is just noise.
I want to spend less time debating and more time doing. Less time seeking reassurance and more time building the life I actually want.
Time is short. I would rather be in motion than stuck in analysis.
