🚨If you’d rather WATCH or LISTEN TO this, you can! (And you probably should watch, because I’m wearing a pretty badass jacket. 😎)

📺 YouTube: www.youtube.com/@joshallandykstra

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7s3I6mTIu7pLrctNUrybVn?si=8a20434f04cc45b0

🍏 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hello-tomorrow-podcast/id1838862170

---

What a year! Do I basically say that every year? Probably!

But this “life” thing… it really is amazing, isn’t it? What a frickin’ ride.

This update marks the 15-year anniversary of me writing these year-end / year-forward articles. Seriously! My first one was in 2010 (with a forever hat-tip to Seth Godin). Since then, I’ve gotten considerably… wordier…!? 🙃 Also, hopefully, a bit wiser.

Invariably, sometime in December, as the darkness descends early and the cold settles in, I start feeling reflective. My all-day-long Pandora background music changes from “film scores” to “holiday instrumentals.” The colored lights go up inside my house and the space heater gets focused on my feet. In my more pensive moments, I realize I’ve grown a little older, grown a little sadder… but somehow I’ve become a little happier and more content, too.

I’ve been thinking and writing and speaking a lot lately about seasons, and for me, 2025 was a very “seasons change” kind of year. The juxtaposition of death and rebirth was a consistent presence throughout most of the year — but I should specify I mean this in relation to my work-life; I’m very grateful to report good health among family and friends!

The big “death-related” item at work was a bankruptcy. Due to the debts of #lovework (and my desire to keep my house), I had to file a personal Chapter 7. After getting the copious amounts of paperwork together, I met with my bankruptcy attorney on my birthday in mid-June. People often look at me like I’m insane when I say that’s what I wanted to do on my birthday, but I want you to understand: bankruptcy is a gift. It’s a fresh start, a chance to rebuild. I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to start new without the weight of debt.

Once a bankruptcy is filed, it still takes many months to get through the payment plan and get the official discharge back from the court. I was hoping to get officially discharged by Christmas, but ended up receiving an early present as it came through in mid-October!

I mention all of this just to give you a sense of the strange concurrent down-ramp / up-ramp nature of my 2025. It was just so emotionally whiplash-y to experience my old work-life dying and my “new life” growing at the same time. The last time I experienced a juxtaposition resembling this intensity involved a dying friend and the birth of my first baby. My sense is this probably happens more than we consciously reflect on: where life hands us pain and joy, one in each hand. Last year was such a vivid example of this kind of odd overlap in my life.

It’s hard to believe it’s taken almost two full years just to close the #lovework chapter of my life. But I can say now, finally, that I am feeling grounded and excited about what comes next.

But before we get to 2026 (and beyond, ooh-la-la!), I want to take a deeper look at 2025.

//

2025 Goals + Reflections

As you may or may not recall, last year I started a new reflection format, encapsulating my goals under the banner of “aspirational identities.” If you’re curious how I put this into practice through the year, I put my identity statements in an Apple Note called Morning Intentions and did my best to read it — and maybe more importantly: visualize and feel the positive outcomes of each identity — every morning.

I found this whole practice to be quite rewarding throughout the year. Here’s what this section of my note looks like if you’re curious.

Below are my 2025 identity statements and related goals, along with a quick reflection on each. I’ll also do a star rating on the effectiveness of each particular identity frame. Note to future self: my rating is NOT how I did on the goal, but on how regularly I utilized the identity-frame throughout the year.

1) Be a health guy

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5/5 stars) This identify-frame came up VERY regularly in my mind throughout the year. Very effective.

1. A couple surgeries to fix my left knee and to fix the deviated septum in my nose — knee surgery happened on January 16 (almost a whole year ago!) and feels almost “back to normal” now. My septum surgery ended up getting cancelled last minute because I got a freakin’ cold! I guess I’ve lived with this septum for a while… will try for that again next year.
2. An anti-inflammatory lifestyle — only barely scratched the surface of this. After my surgery we discovered my iron was pretty low (still not sure why! has it always been this way? who knows!), so I ended up on an iron + vitamin C supplement. My iron levels a year later seem better, but they’re still not amazing, so I’m thinking of swapping the iron pill for a beef liver supplement for a few months to test that. I did an experiment with a grounding blanket: tried it for at least three months, but I didn’t really feel any different… and it kept getting bunched up. (Ick.) I got a great routine going with the fabulous folks at the 100% Chiropractic down the street for chiro 2x/month and massage 1x/month! Would like to increase my focus on an anti-inflammation lifestyle moving forward.
3. A consistent workout routine — the knee surgery took my plan out… well, at the knees. Post-surgery, I will say I did a GREAT job with consistent physical therapy (my PT doc was amazing, and right down the street, both of which helped a lot). Summer was a bit of a #fail workout-wise. But this fall I started doing a 10-minute Apple Fitness+ kickboxing workout every morning, and that’s been a solid win!
4. Daily care routines — As mentioned above, the Morning Intentions note became an almost-daily practice. I ended up using this daily face lotion and I’ve only been so-so about the “daily” part. Electric toothbrushing and flossing also got messed up because I’m now often awake very early (a couple hours before my partner) so my bathroom things aren’t accessible until later in the morning, which totally effs my routine. NOTE: This seems very simple, but seriously, only now as I type this, am I realizing that I could fix my whole routine by just moving my freakin’ toothbrush to a different bathroom…! I guess that’s why I do this review, eh!?

2) Be a time-traveler

⭐️⭐️ (2/5 stars) This identify-frame, surprisingly, did NOT come up much in my memory throughout the year. I still love the language and the idea, but it just turned out to not be a particularly useful daily frame for what I was doing for my business throughout the year.

1. Re-grow my company — my 2025 income was 250% higher than my 2024 income, which sounds astoundingly good (and I am deeply grateful!) but I made so little income in 2024, in actual numbers, this isn’t really as amazing as it sounds. Still, I am very thankful!
2. Create cool sh*t — last year my intention was to publish one new article every week, and I almost did it, and more — I ended up publishing 39 new articles AND started releasing these articles as YouTube videos and podcast episodes everywhere in September!
3. Give freely, in multiple ways — I joined the board for a fabulous Denver-based nonprofit called Community Impact Fund and also served as a Mentor for SEA Change’s fall cohort, working with the amazing founder of a brilliant startup called Mahalo.

3) Be an ally

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5 stars) This identity-frame did in fact help me make more courageous choices throughout the year. Highly effective.

1. Be more vocal in the moment — I have specific memories of when the phrase “Be an ally!” would appear in my mind and help me be more vocal. I would like to do this even more in coming years. I really believe: if a guy who looks like me can’t speak up, who can?
2. Continue to clarify my civic and political thoughts — I struggled with how to do this a good part of the year. It wasn’t until my 2ND complete website rebuild/rebrand in August when everything finally started coalescing, and it was another identity-based frame that helped. By unleashing my inner “optimistic futurist” I finally felt free, and able, to converge the systems thinking observations I want to be making in this next chapter of my life. More about this in my 2026 musings, below.
3. Support the marginalized and underrepresented — I attended multiple gatherings/protests this year, including Bernie’s “Fight Oligarchy” event in Greeley, Colorado and one with my 12-year-old future dragon-slaying daughter. My work with CIF and the SEA Change startup also does this. I think I also did this well in a couple podcast episodes (one in particular about SNAP/EBT got a lot of haters in the comments!). I will keep seeking ways to do this more and better.

4) Be an experience-bringer

⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3/5 stars) This identity frame came up for me throughout the year as well, although not as frequent as #1 or #3.

Last year, this identity didn’t have “goals” attached, but “reminders” of why being an experience-bringer is so important to me, namely:

1. It helps me be a more supportive partner,
2. It helps me bring better content to you all through my speaking and writing, and
3. It helps me be a better dad.

In general, this was a fitting and incredibly important identity for me. It helped my fiery enneagram 8 personality move toward a healthy and integrated 2 and filled my life with more wholeness through service.

//

One more section before we get to my 2026 goals… here are the most notable things that happened for me in 2025!

Notable Things From 2025

• Knee Surgery — It seemed to take a really long time to get back to normal (like, all year) but I am very grateful to have had this done! Feels so much better than before.
• Conferences & Gatherings — I attended Workhuman for the first time, Boulder Startup Week (hadn’t been there since before the pandemic), Denver Startup Week (a little), Conscious Entrepreneur Summit, and a wonderful private retreat (with Fight Club Rules 1 & 2 so I can’t tell you more, except that it was not about fighting), too.
• No Mo’ Medicaid — I started making money again, which was great, but this meant I not longer qualified for Medicaid, which was very, very bad. There are few things that anger me more than the U.S. “healthcare” system — I truly believe it is a type of violence and is likely to be at the center of the coming Crisis.
• Quality Time With Partner — Bridgerton chamber music by candlelight, Book of Mormon (front row!), Shen Yun (astonishing)… all amazing experiences.
• Podcast Guesting — I did 13 guest interviews on various podcasts this year; most of them are right here. (I still have a few to add!)
• Impact Eleven — In one of the more dramatic and unexpected moments of my year, the beautiful speaker community I loved dearly completely imploded, basically overnight, due to some massive fraudulent criminal activity perpetrated by the CEO. Truly heartbreaking.
• Bankruptcy Filed & Discharged — Already mentioned, but worth mentioning again here in the list. One of the defining “fulcrum” moments of my life, most likely.
• Community Impact Fund & SEA Change — When I set my goals to be on a Board and become a startup mentor I had absolutely zero idea how either of those things would happen. These are both perfect examples of how I need to A) remember to keep working to manifest what I want, and B) trust that the universe will bring something awesome when the time is right.
• Garage Sale — my little fam has been wanting to do a garage sale for quite a few years, and we made it happen this summer!
• A Mile-Long Table — We did it! What a ton of work, what a phenomenal adventure. If you’re in Denver, please consider joining this project in 2026 when we celebrate Colorado’s 150th birthday with another mile long table!
• Launch Podcast! — After many years of threatening to start a podcast, I finally got it going in September. If you’ve missed it until now, I’d be honored if you checked it out — it’s called Hello Tomorrow and is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and many other places as well. Right now, I describe the podcast as “the clearest expression of where I’m going in the next chapter of my life.”
• D.C. Trip — I didn’t believe it when my oldest daughter said she wanted to be my assistant on a work trip. “No, that would be so boring for you!” I replied. “No I really want to, Dad!” she insisted. So I brought her with me on a trip to Washington D.C. — and it became one of the most memorable experiences of my life so far.
• Middle School Tours (again) — Yup, it’s that time again, now for my youngest daughter. Goodness… what is time!?
• Kiddo Events — SO many awesome things this year. I got to be a middle school dance chaperone. The girls performed in amazing shows like Aladdin Jr., Wonka Jr., Frozen Jr., Beetlejuice Jr., James & The Giant Peach, and Guys & Dolls Jr. — many times with leading roles. Titanic: The Exhibition. Rock climbing with my youngest (older one = not crazy about heights). Casa Bonita for summer birthdays. Camping and Royal Gorge in Colorado Springs. 7th Generation Farm. DMNS Magical Winter Nights (a delightful new offering that just started this year). A Great Wolf Lodge Holiday again. I cherish these times with my kids so very much.

//

Goals & Intentions For 2026

For 2026, I’m going to continue an “aspirational identity”-based framing of goals.

Last year, I found this approach to be really useful, as it helped my goals “stick” in my head throughout the day. And even if I didn’t always live up to my aspirational desires, it helped me keep trying because, you know, that’s just what a “health guy” or an “ally” does… they keep trying!

Here’s what I’m trying for 2026.

1) I AM A HEALTH GUY (AGAIN)

In August, I got a ping on my Apple Watch: “Low Cardio Fitness.” I was aghast, and frankly quite disturbed. I worry about a lot of health things, but “heart stuff” has never really been among them (yippee, let’s add it to the list). I checked my VO2 max and it was “below average” (though to my eyes I thought the word they used should be “abysmal”). But then… my Oura ring says I’m my heart health is “thriving!” I wear my watch and ring pretty much all day, every day, so I get a lot of data.

Honestly, I am still trying to figure out exactly what’s going on, because I’ve been doing doing a cardio workout almost every day since The Notification, and I’ve only improved my VO2 max slightly according to my watch, but my ring still says my cardiovascular age is 7.5 years below my actual age… an ongoing mystery!

Did you hear about the research that came out this year about certain “biological cliffs?” Supposedly, our bodies experience a kind of “health drop-off” at a couple points in our lives… one of them being my age this year, 44. Great timing; thanks article! There’s a thoughtful, well-balanced piece on the research here.

I hope we get to see more data on this with a broader study, but until then, all I can tell you is my lived experience. I swear this is true: one day, earlier this year, I woke up and felt fatter. Seriously, it’s like my belly just popped out. It was one of the more disturbing parts of my year, honestly. I’ve been able to correct this a bit through posture work, but well… I am realizing I’ve now got to do something about this area of my body.

So, my first aspirational identity for 2026 is: I’m officially A Health Guy… again!

Here are my specific goals:

1. A short cardio workout every morning — I am really committed to getting my VO2 max UP, and I’m currently prioritizing “short and more regular” workouts versus “longer and more irregular.” I’m counting on the adage “the best practice is the one you do” to work in my favor here.
2. Once a week yoga — I love the yoga studio near my house, and I love what yoga does for my body. I’m going to schedule a recurring early morning time on Wednesdays, which means I should almost always be able to make it.
3. A kettle bell exercise to combat the belly — I despise sit-ups (hard to do with slight kyphosis, and always feels mean to my neck) and I’ve heard about kettle bell exercises that are back-friendly and belly-killers.
4. Cook more with my kiddos — In my ongoing battle to eat better, I am setting a goal to do more home-cooked food with my girls. (No specifics needed as I do practically zero of this now.) P.S. This goal might actually happen, as my 12-year-old really enjoys cooking… I’m not saying I’m going to totally outsource this goal, but this is why you have kids, right?? 😉
5. Better management of digital devices — I want to practice better digital habits for myself and those around me. I will: not look at my phone at red lights, help my kids build good habits with their Apple Watches, encourage a phone basket for family gatherings, and start emotionally prepping my kiddos for the inevitable screen-free bedrooms (coming soon).

2) I SHARE

I’ve never really been a “word of the year” person, but as I got quiet about what I feel called to do in 2026, one word kept coming up: “share.” I mean this in all contexts, but perhaps mostly in a business one.

As I’ve gotten a little distance from my “Tech CEO Era,” I’ve been feeling more and more like I was “cooped up” by the particular demands of that role. With a little more space, I’m noticing there are a LOT of things I want to make sense of, synthesize, and share with all of you. Feels a little like getting let out of a cage.

So, next year I am going to share! Here’s how:

1. Release Book #2 — I am so incredibly excited to share this with you. Somehow, it’s been 14 years since I published a book (!?), which feels insane. Much like my last book defined the work I set out to do for the next decade and a half, I hope this next book similarly defines the work that I want to do for the next decade+. Curious? Want to be involved as an early reader/patron? I would be so honored to have your support with this project! If you’d like more info, click the link… you’ll also get to see the world-premiere of the working title AND possible cover! CLICK HERE
2. Make this update available as a video and a podcast episode — I have all sorts of crappy inner monologue about doing this: “Will any one watch or listen?” “It’s going to be too long for that format!” But then I remember my word — SHARE! — and I realize I have to do it, if mostly for the reason that it scares me. NOTE: You may want to ​watch​ as I’m wearing a pretty badass jacket. 😎
3. With my calendar: get strict to find freedom — I want to try more strict time-blocking next year. (I am quite convinced I will not be able to share the amount of content I want to share if I don’t do this.) Right now, the plan is: Monday: Podcast, Tuesday: Book 2, Wednesday: Podcast Clips & Social, Thursday: Client Calls & Meetings, Friday: Flex Time. This will start the week of January 19.
4. Keep my email closed most of the day — I already keep my computer on DND all day, but it’s not enough; I am still constantly being distracted by email (I see you, little red badges!). So, next year I’m also going to keep my damn email closed at ALL times except during my email time block. I tried keeping email closed over the holiday break and it was quite magical (after the detox of missing the constant mini-dopamine hits, which was quite real). My exact experiment: I’ll only check email between 12p-1p (I’ll read while eating lunch and then respond), and I’ll put an auto-responder on my email letting people know how to text me for urgent requests like speaking inquiries. This will start on January 5.
5. More unfiltered video online — I’ve been sharing content online for a long time, but mostly via written text. Next year, I am going to run some major experiments in sharing more video, some of it being much more unfiltered. If you want to follow along with this journey, join me on your favorite social short-video channel: Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok.
6. Keep quality and value super high by always saying something helpful or interesting — I think there’s a temptation with a goal of “sharing more” to focus on quantity with a detriment to quality. I don’t want to do this. I am pretty sure we’re about to enter a time where we’ll be even more inundated with online slop, so my commitment is to say something helpful or interesting every time I post.

3) I AM IN SERVICE TO OTHERS

I am going to combine my “ally-focused” goal of last year with my “experience-bringing” goal of last year and try out this slightly-new identity. This aspirational identity is also deeply connected to me having a constant practice of focusing my Enneagram 8 energy into that of a healthy Enneagram 2.

1. Support the marginalized and underprivileged — I’m very happy with the causes I joined last year, so instead of looking for new or additional, I’d like to keep helping the organizations I currently work with (assuming they want that from me!): CIF and Mahalo.
2. Speak up for the marginalized and underprivileged — I intend to do this in multiple ways: in the moment during live conversations, and also through my sharing online and my upcoming book. (Did you miss it before? Check it out HERE!)
3. Serve my family by creating experiences — This is so deeply important to me. I am a true believer in “experiences over things” and do my best to schedule my life around these priorities (as many as I can afford!).

//

Closing

OK, that’s it! (As if it weren’t enough!)

If you stuck with me… just, thank you. These look-back / look-forward posts literally take me about three weeks to write and put together, because they involve all the calendar review to help me remember and then a ton of reflection and thought time to ponder how I want next year to be different. It’s my sincere hope that my sharing of this crazy project brings some inspiration or entertainment or hope or… something constructive into your life!

Thanks for being with me on this crazy ride. And Happy New Year to you! 🥂