My Goals for 2026
Because I don't believe in resolutions
I don’t believe in resolutions for the simple reason that resolutions smell like temperance to me. There’s an implicit morality in resolutions that I don’t like. A self-imposed prohibition that feels too preachy for my personal values. Like telling yourself to stop drinking or forbidding yourself from swearing or eating chocolate or doing online shopping or playing Call of Duty until 3 AM or celebrating pagan holidays or watching Japanese porn or eating red meat or falling in love with lunatics. With resolutions, it just feels like The Baptist Council has entered the chat. And there’s a cut-and-dry metric of failure and success that I find unhelpful for someone searching for the motivation, the discipline, & the self-forgiveness necessary to make meaningful changes in one’s own life for no other reason than the passing of time.
I prefer goals. They’re less judgmental and more understanding. They have more doors and windows to enter and leave as necessary. They’re vaguely Machiavellian and open to surprises. What’s great about goals is that they also allow for perseverance and creativity. They let you fall down and get back up and they don’t judge you for falling the way resolutions do. They don’t judge you for walking in circles before reaching your destination. Resolutions do. You’re either on the narrow path or you’re not. You’re on the wagon or you’re not. But making progress towards a goal is still progress even if it’s not fulfilled and that’s not a spiritual participation trophy, by the way.
My goals, like all goals, are hyper-individualistic, and for that I apologize if this MIXTAPE lacks some of the cultural universality I strive for when I normally write a newsletter. I have a feeling that few things will be as subjective as this but here I am in 2026 looking for new goals for a new year.
My 2026 Goals
Find a home for my linked, sophomore short story collection, The Miseducation of Jessie Hayashi & His Cosmic Dictionary of Loss
Find a home for my literary/science fiction novella, Dukkha, My Love
Find a home (or at least an agent) for my Salingersque/Andersonian novel, Dizzie & Moto
Travel at least once domestically and at least once internationally
After binging on books on finance, investing, & well, Marxism, start reading fiction again. First I want to read more Elena Ferrante and then more books by talented friends
Meditate more
Protect my running, weight-lifting, & sleep schedule from doom scrolling and PS5 escapades
Get promoted at Fidelity
Reach $100k in my investment portfolio (might not be possible this year, but it’s worth striving for)
After saving enough money in my emergency fund, buy or lease a new car because sometimes you’ve just gotta drive around LA listening to Bad Bunny
Lose 3-4 pounds or gain more muscle
Publish a new electronic album in 2026
Maybe this will be the next electronic album by MIZU Buy a navy suit and a nice khaki trench on sale for work because you can never have enough of these staples in the financial space
Get work done on Lower Wacker (Chicago reference), otherwise known as the bottom half of my sleeve
Do more yoga
Not your dad’s yoga in Los Angeles Spend more time in the East Side of LA
Finish The Ghost of Yosei, Red Dead Redemption 2, and The Outer Worlds 2
Finish my Wharton Certificate in Asset and Profile Management
My Future Wharton Certificate in Asset Management Start my Harvard Business School Certificate program
Start studying for the Certified Financial Planner certificate
Spend more time with LB and our babies on the couch together
AI’s interpretation of my family Have more picnics
Take road trips to Malibu, Santa Barbara, or Ojai
Watch the 2026 Men’s World Cup
2026 World Cup in Los Angeles Cut out social media on work days
Get out of the house more and take more photos of world around me
I love goals too!