This year’s update arrives precisely two years after the completion of his ambitious "Foundations" project—a comprehensive personal development initiative aimed at building sustainable habits across multiple areas of his life. Looking back at the trajectory of that project, Young expressed satisfaction that the core habits he established have largely endured.
Despite the natural ebb and flow of daily routines, Young reports that he continues to exercise nearly every day. While he opted out of running a marathon over the past year, he successfully tackled a grueling local racing event known as "Seek the Peak," which challenges participants to ascend from sea level to the summit of a local mountain, covering a distance of 16 kilometers with an imposing 1,400 meters of elevation gain. Beyond physical fitness, he notes that he has maintained a high degree of consistency in his dietary habits, sleep schedule, reading volume, and efforts to stay connected with friends.
The only notable area where he admitted to backsliding was personal organization. However, given his historically low starting point in that specific category, Young remains philosophical, noting that it will likely take a few more systematic attempts before organization becomes a fully ingrained habit.
The most significant professional undertaking of the past year was the creation and launch of the inaugural session of his new educational course, titled "Everyday Energy." Designing the curriculum proved to be an intellectually stimulating venture that allowed him to lean heavily into his longstanding fascination with the intricate connections linking human motivation, productivity, physical health, and overall well-being. Developing more than 75 comprehensive lessons for the course provided Young with a structured excuse to dive deep into a vast body of scientific literature and psychological research—topics he might otherwise have bypassed in his standard writing routine.
Setting Sights on Video: Plans for the Coming Year
Looking ahead to the next twelve months, Young’s primary learning project centers on a major push into video production. Specifically, he aims to create more and substantially better educational videos for his YouTube channel.
Young has long held an appreciation for video content, particularly in the educational space, where complex subjects are brought to life through visual storytelling. He frequently draws inspiration from prominent channels such as 3Blue1Brown, Veritasium, and World War Two, praising their unique ability to produce content that is simultaneously entertaining and intellectually rigorous.
Despite this long-standing admiration, Young’s own historical commitment to video creation has been somewhat half-hearted. Because professional video production requires a significantly greater investment of time and technical skill compared to writing, he never fully dedicated himself to climbing the steep learning curve required to produce content that met his personal standards of quality. Consequently, although he has maintained a YouTube channel for over a decade, his output as a video creator has remained sporadic and inconsistent.
However, the broader structural shift of the online media ecosystem toward video has convinced him that the timing is right to make a serious commitment. He believes that investing the necessary time to learn the medium and produce the kind of videos he has always wanted to make is now fully justified by the landscape of digital publishing. While he plans to share his new video projects through his email newsletter, he reassures his longtime readership that his commitment to writing essays remains unchanged. Those who prefer the written word over video will still find his traditional long-form content published regularly.
Refining Personal Goals and Broadening Horizons
Outside of his professional endeavors and the upcoming push into video production, Young’s primary focus for the year ahead will be to continue deepening the foundational habits he established during his initial self-improvement initiative.
With his health and fitness routines running smoothly, he is considering registering for another competitive race in the near future. While time constraints may prevent him from undertaking the extensive training required for a full marathon this year, he views a half-distance endurance race or a triathlon as an appealing and achievable alternative.
In the realm of personal reading, Young plans to cast a wider net if his schedule permits. Much of his reading is typically dictated by the specific research needs of his current writing projects, which can severely narrow his reading list. He intends to use the coming year to explore books that fall outside his immediate writing topics. Naturally, given his pivot toward video creation, his reading list has already expanded to include several introductory and advanced texts on filmmaking to support his technical education.
Another area that Young evaluated critically was personal outreach. He realized that during his initial Foundations project, his efforts to maintain and nurture friendships had slipped. A key priority for the upcoming year is deliberately carving out time for friends, even on occasions when it might superficially feel less productive. He notes that the rapid rise of artificial intelligence has served as a timely reminder of the irreplaceable value that flows through genuine human relationships—connections that must be actively protected and never neglected.
Reflecting on the milestone of his birthday and his two decades as an online writer, Young emphasized the profound role that his readership plays in making his career possible. Expressing deep gratitude for the opportunity to spend the last twenty years sharing what he learns with an engaged audience, he thanked his supporters for sticking with him through another year of personal and professional evolution.
