The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

Sure, it’s been around for almost 2 weeks, but that’s the magic of NZ.

As I’ve written before, the whole country closes down over this period and the benefit of that is not just that you get a long break, it’s the knowledge ‘everyone’ is away so your entire body can chill, safe in the knowledge you’re not missing anything or being left behind by any shifts.

It may seem a small thing, but I can tell you – the reality of the experience is very big.

Because of my eye situation, we didn’t do much.

Trips overseas were not allowed.
Driving too far was not allowed.
Doing work was not possible.

The result being I actually feel refreshed and a bit excited for the year ahead – albeit that it took quite a long time before I started to to actually feel I was relaxing. And while we’re not even 2 weeks into the new year, I know there’s a bunch of good things that will be happening. I don’t mean that theoretically, but already booked-in … which feels almost unfair given last year was pretty good for me, admittedly with a couple of tough bumps in the road along the way.

Of course, how I’ll review 2026 will only become clear in December … and while no one wants the shitty bits, they do help you appreciate the good. What’s interesting is that as I’ve got older, what equates to ‘good’ has evolved.

Underpinning my evaluation is a much greater emphasis on fulfilment rather than achievement. That doesn’t mean I don’t want the things I am a part of to be successful …. it just means I place greater importance on what and how I do things rather than simply what they enable me to get out of them.

Or said another way, I play to be proud, not simply for the win.

Now, if truth be told, that’s a trait that was drilled into me by my parents who told me to live a life of fulfilment, not contentment. But as I’ve written many times in the past – I didn’t really work out what that meant until I was about 35, so there have definitely been times where I took a short cut here or was performative there.

I guess we all do to some point … but what I realized a while back, is success – at least for me – is not about titles or popularity, but the feeling you lived up to who you hope you are. Again and again and again.

But what I’ve also learned along the way is that it’s not just what you do, but what you stop doing … and that’s something I spent a bunch of time over the holidays thinking about, resulting in me letting go of some things that I realized I’d been doing more out of financial regularity rather than emotional reward.

Now I totally appreciate the privilege/stupidity of being able to do that – especially when you’re the main breadwinner and never want to put your family at risk – but as you get older, you value time far more than you ever did because you see it is something you need to get the most out of rather than something that just tells you how long you’ve been engaged in something … and it’s that shift that has led me to making some choices and decisions over the last few weeks that will set the direction of 2026 and beyond.

And while I still have a way to go to see how it all turns out, I feel I’m now at a new starting point for the future – rather than just something I hope I can get to – which is why I’m approaching 2026 with the goal to spend most of my time focused on the things that truly interest and intrigue me and if there’s anything life has told me, it’s when you’re open to everything, anything can happen.

Now I/we see if I’m full of shit …

Before I go, I can tell you one brilliant thing about 2026, it’s this.

Yep, it’s Bonnie’s first birthday.

I’ve written a bunch about her over the past 12 months.

How she helped us get over the loss of our dear Rosie.
The incredible impact she has had on Otis’ confidence.
The life she has brought into the house.

It may explain why I thought it would be cute to get a Lego version of her made, when I saw an ad on insta promoting this product.

All you had to do was send them a photo of your pet and a stupid amount of money and they would send you the finished article.

So I did it.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And then, eventually I received a package containing some brown and white bricks WITH NO INSTRUCTIONS!!!

None. Nada. Zilch.

I then spent 4 fucking hours trying to recreate our dog – albeit, not remembering which photo I sent them to base it on – and created this.

I know, I know, it’s utterly shit … and that’s when I came to the conclusion the photo was immaterial because all the evil geniuses did was send me some fake Lego bricks that just correspond to the main color of whatever pic you send them.

I’m more angry at how brilliant their business model is, than my stupidity … but I do want to say sorry to our beloved Bonnie. It’s not representative of how much we love her, but it is representative of the standard of blog post you’re going to get. Not that you should be surprised, given this is the 20th year [TWENTIETH] of this shit, so at this point you’re going to have to accept you’re somewhat responsible for your pain too.

See you tomorrow. Hopefully.