Health—I mean, it’s January. Did you expect me not to talk about it?

It’s everywhere. Everyone’s talking about it, reading about it, listening to podcasts about it. Every business expert, self-improvement author, keynote speaker, movie star, and lead singer has their own routine they’re posting somewhere.

And honestly, for good reason.

When you have your health, it just becomes part of your life. You barely notice it.

But when you lose it—even a little—it suddenly becomes the only thing you can think about.

And yet, for something that quietly affects everything—marriage, parenting, work, faith, patience—we tend to treat health like an optional side quest. Something we’ll “get back to” once everything else settles down.

It rarely does.

Health isn’t about abs, macros, or progress photos.

It’s about capacity.

The capacity to:

Health is the foundation everything else rests on. When it’s weak, everything above it wobbles—no matter how strong your intentions are.

You can’t out-discipline poor sleep.
You can’t out-hustle burnout.
You can’t be “present” on fumes.

Culturally, we’ve managed to make health both overcomplicated and performative at the same time.

On one side:

On the other:

Both miss the point.
Health isn’t about becoming someone else.

It’s about staying capable of being who you already are—as a husband, a father, a man with responsibilities and relationships that matter.

Most men I know don’t ignore health because they’re lazy.

They ignore it because:

So they make plans that are too ambitious, too fragile, too disconnected from real life—and too precious. When those plans collapse (as they almost always do), they quietly stop trying.

Nothing changes.

I know, because that’s exactly what happened to me last year. And the year before. And probably the year before that too.

Full disclosure: health was my top priority last year—and I fumbled it. Big time.

I gained five pounds.
My workouts were inconsistent.
Ben & Jerry’s became a larger and larger part of my diet.
Things did not go well.

So this year is Health: Take Two.

This year, I’m building achievable goals around durable systems—goals that fit inside a real life with kids, work, stress, and limited willpower.

Here are my 2026 Health goals—simple, specific, and intentionally boring:

Not through extremes.
Not through obsession.

Through consistency.

The goal isn’t speed.
It’s staying power.

Some days that’s lifting.
Some days it’s walking my dog at a local park.
Other days it’s walking the neighborhood with the kids.
A couple days it’s pickleball at a local church.
Some days it’s just showing up when I don’t feel like it.

Progress beats intensity.

This is the invisible one.
Probably the most important.
And undoubtedly the one I struggle with most.

Better sleep means:

Because everything gets harder when you’re tired—especially as you get older.

This isn’t a transformation plan.

It’s a foundation plan.

Over the next two weeks, I’ll talk about:

If health really is the base layer of a meaningful life, it deserves more than a burst of January motivation.

It deserves a plan you can still live with in February.

Next week: the friction—the excuses, the resistance, and the quiet ways this breaks down when life gets busy.

Until next time—
keep the fires burning.
– Clay

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