In 2025, I wanted to reset. “Reset” as in “start over,” of course. It was my first year of working a full-time job, and I would have to not just invent that version of me but also reinvent the entrepreneur and artist. But I also meant it as “re-set.” I knew I’d have to adjust the many small parts that would be pushed out of place as I was making bigger changes.

Here’s how I described my plan:

My work will be reset. I’ve picked up a full-time job, and everything else will have to fit in around the edges. Four Minute Books will be reset. No more ads, affiliate revenue, or any form of monetization that is not me selling my own creations. Perhaps it’ll have to be merged into this blog or disappear altogether. My writing will be re-set. I’ll get a chance to realign on what I really want to write, but I’ll also have to adjust to make time to then do that writing.

So, how did it go? At the end of 2025, is everything back in place? Ha! You must be new here, kiddo. If only that were how life works, eh? But all things considered, I can’t complain.

First and foremost, I did my job, and I believe I did it well. I’m happy with my work, and so is my team. I even shipped some stuff I’m genuinely proud of, and I’ve learned a lot of lessons that’ll help me elsewhere. Even in my personal writing. Cool!

I’m also content to say I didn’t compromise on my art. I didn’t get pulled into any partnerships I knew from the get-go did not align with my long-term goals. I didn’t publish any work I didn’t care to publish. And while the business side took a big hit—I’m not sure it’ll even be profitable for the year—every dollar I’ve made came from me selling stuff I created with my own hands, heart, and mind.

All of this was both hard and easy at the same time. Easy because I had the job to carry me financially. Hard because I want the business to not lose money and, ideally, get paid meaningfully for making art I know can touch people in their hearts. Still, I’m happy, and I 100% intend to carry this attitude forward.

For all the progress, however, I’m far from done with re-setting. As it turns out, you can’t completely restructure a portfolio of online assets you’ve built up over a decade in a day. Apparently not even in a year, even when you throw time at it on the regular.

Granted, finding that time to begin with was hard. I start work at 9 AM on most days. For most of the year, I woke up at 7 AM. That gave me time for my morning routine and anywhere from an hour to 30 minutes to write and work on the blog. Recently, I started waking up at 6 AM Monday through Wednesday. It really helps to have two focused hours in one block.

Of course, none of this frees me from my day-job obligations. So I’ve put in many 10-hour days, plus time on weekends, and so on. It does get physically tiring at times, but thankfully, I have infinite energy for my personal writing, and that makes it much easier. I care a lot, and it barely feels like work. I don’t think I could maintain a purely financially driven side hustle with the same fervor. I’d probably fizzle out after a few weeks. Pick your battles wisely!

Regardless, when you want to write books, essays, newsletters, review books from friends on occasion, and clean up your massive digital footprint of writings, products, and websites, even an hour a day won’t get you too far.

One part of my big re-set, for example, was to get all of the posts I had written elsewhere over the years back onto my blog. Between a handful of guest posts, Medium, Quora, Substack, and a bunch of other places, we’re talking well over 1,000 pieces. And while you could pay someone to do this quickly and poorly, you can also do it properly. Upload all the visuals to your site. Make sure the piece links well to the rest of your catalog. And so on. Guess which route I chose? As a result, I spent many summer afternoons importing work from Medium—until I was done. With a few exceptions, you can now read all 700+ articles I’ve published on the platform right here on this blog. Woo! Alas, now I’m stuck on the Quora section. I’m closing in on the end, but boy, we’re far from finished here. And that’s just one area to clean up.

What else is not re-set? Four Minute Books is still a standalone website. New book reviews and summaries are going into Nik’s Book Notes on here, but it still has traffic, email collection, and its own newsletter. I need to move summaries to this site (another 500+ posts, yay!), reconfigure the email collection on every single post, merge the newsletters, update the store and products—most notably the lifetime membership—and that’s to say nothing of the design for either site, which hasn’t been updated since launch in 2014. Clearly, there’ll be a lot more re-setting in 2026, and that’s okay.

2024 was the year my old work life fell apart. The most important part of 2025 was to feel the ground beneath my feet again. In that regard, I have reset. I’m moving forward, and I have some momentum.

This is the point of setting a theme for your year. It’s not about accomplishing some arbitrary goal but deliberately choosing a direction for your life. Then, the best you can do is start walking. Only the universe knows where you’ll arrive in the end, but movement, movement is what counts—and of course that also means moving on to a new theme each year. May yours carry you on the right path in 2026.

Oh, and me? My theme for 2026 will be “Make”—but that’s a story for another day.