Starting the year lighter
A year can feel different before anything “big” happens — sometimes just because you’re no longer carrying the same weight.
This year started well. Work feels steady, family life feels good, and that alone is a big change compared to last year.
A few days ago, I came across a diary entry I wrote on January 2nd last year. It was heavy to read. Heavy in a way that reminded me how much energy I was carrying around back then. I tore those pages out and threw them into the fireplace. I’ve seen enough of that version of myself, and I don’t feel the need to carry it forward.
What’s different now is not just work or circumstances — it’s how aligned things feel. Performing well, for me, has always been a combination of working hard and being healthy. Your head needs to be clear, and your body needs to cooperate. That alignment doesn’t happen automatically, and it’s rarely perfect, but when it’s there, you feel it.
Movement is a big part of that for me. Training, pushing myself a bit, reconnecting with that inner athlete. Two days before Christmas, I went on a trail run up a mountain. I took a call mid-run, got distracted, and sprained my ankle. All my plans for long walks and training over the holidays disappeared in one moment.
A year ago, that would have set me back for months — physically and mentally. This time, it didn’t. I adjusted, rested when needed, kept moving where possible, and didn’t spiral. Two weeks later, it’s already much better, and more importantly, it doesn’t feel like a blocker.
That’s the real difference.
I’m mentally present. I’m not stuck. Small setbacks don’t derail everything else anymore.
I’ll be honest — there were too many cookies and bottles of wine over the holidays. A bit of a sugar reset is definitely in order. But that’s part of the rhythm too: recalibrating without overcorrecting.
If you want to perform at a high level, you have to take care of both your body and your mind. I’ve known this for a long time, and it keeps proving itself to be true.
This year feels like a fresh start — not because everything is perfect, but because I’m meeting it from a different place.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How does personal alignment impact professional performance for an executive? Professional output is rarely higher than personal capacity. When your "head is clear and your body cooperates," decision-making becomes faster and more intuitive. Alignment reduces the mental friction that leads to burnout, allowing you to meet business challenges from a place of stability rather than reactivity.
2. You mention "recalibrating without overcorrecting." How does this apply to business leadership? In both health and business, the instinct after a setback—like a missed target or a sprained ankle—is to overcorrect with extreme measures. This usually leads to a secondary "injury." True leadership is about the "rhythm" of recalibration: making steady, intentional adjustments to return to your baseline without inducing further stress on the system.
3. What role does physical movement play in your work as a marketing executive? Movement is a forced mental reset. For anyone in a high-pressure role, training acts as a "clearing of the cache." It provides a space where you aren't an executive or a strategist, just an athlete focused on the task at hand. That clarity often leads to the most creative breakthroughs in my marketing projects.
4. Why is "resilience" more important than "perfection" when starting a new year? Perfection is a brittle strategy; it breaks the moment a "sprained ankle" or a market shift occurs. Resilience is the ability to adjust your plans without spiraling. Starting the year from a place of resilience means you aren't afraid of setbacks, which allows you to take bigger, more calculated risks in your professional life.
5. How do you maintain "mental presence" while managing multiple international projects? It’s about closing open loops. Whether it’s letting go of a heavy diary entry from the past or automating a technical workflow (as I’ve discussed in other notes), the goal is to reduce the "energy" you carry. When you aren't stuck in the past or worried about inefficient systems, you can be 100% present for the client or the challenge in front of you.