When I last wrote in November 2025 I spoke of the changing priorities in my life. I hadn’t quite determined new priorities, I just knew that the old ones were not meaningful to me any longer.
Right after finishing that post I took a few weeks to inventory my life and what was important to me. I came away with two objectives for 2026; to rediscover my fitness level and get in the best shape of my life in my 60th year, and to start motorcycling again after a very long extended absence.
I’m not inclined to post new year resolutions publicly, and if I’m being honest, it’s because my success with keeping them is rather poor. It’s not that I haven’t found accomplishment, by most standards I’d be considered reasonably successful in life with a stable family, employment and a child who exceeds me in moral character, ethics and integrity. But yet, my resolutions record has been poor. What I did excel at was work, improving my skills through distance learning classes and applying myself to new skills. My resolutions, the resolutions that mattered to me personally, went ignored and underfunded, dedicating not enough time towards my personal life while endlessly working towards professional advancement.
I was wired that way, sad but true.
It took until the eve of retirement, until I reached the pinnacle of my business career, before I realized the folly in this approach and started to make amends. On my business trip to Hong Kong last November, a 13 hour flight from Toronto, I journaled, and through the cathartic process of confronting my failures in writing, unpacked my most honest and unspoken wants and needs, the full inventory of what was possible while considering mortality, the ticking clock.
I settled on two resolutions. To get in shape, functional strength to keep me active int my 80’s (God willing!) and to return to motorcycling. I can say as we approach October that I succeeded in both. My fitness level and overall strength is the best its been in years and I feel good in my clothes, while I also became a student of safe and technically proficient motorcycling.
Change is hard, especially for a creature of habit like myself. Perhaps my third, unwritten resolution, was to cross the Rubicon and embrace the next chapter of my life, retirement. There really is no definition of that word, its vague enough to mean just about anything. My father for example was retired but drove a school bus around the University of Buffalo Campus for nearly 20 years after retiring. I have no intention of becoming a potted plant , I just don’t feel the need to care about stakeholder value or KPIs anymore and I will fill the hours with my simple pursuits. Vi
So yes, I got in shape. I joined a men’s kettlebell workout group and learned how to exercise in my home, four days per week, getting functionally strong and confident again. I also learned to ride the motorcycle again. I signed up for skills development, became a student of riding. 1,000 miles of practice and skill building 30-50 miles at a time.
I’ve cleared out my past. The Alfa Romeo has left the shop, I’ve trimmed down my projects, put blinders on and narrowed my focus. 20 summers. 60 years old until 80. Again, God willing, but my focus for the next twenty resolution setting sessions is an obsessive pursuit of craftsmanship quality in my writing, reading and hobby crafts. 20 years of annual two week motorcycle trips, family time, and being in the best shape I can be in to put off the inevitable march of mortality.
Satori!
