Three Subjects, One Steady Practice
Every year begins with a familiar temptation: do more, learn more, consume more. And every year I remind myself that meaningful learning doesn’t come from piling things on—it comes from staying with a few good ideas long enough for them to change you.
For the first 90 days of 2026, I’m committing to three subjects. Not because they’re trendy. Not because they promise quick wins. But because they support the kind of life I want to keep building—curious, capable, and grounded.
All three will be studied through The Great Courses, a platform I’ve returned to for years. Long before streaming, before apps and dashboards, I was learning from their lectures on DVDs—pausing, rewinding, taking notes by hand. That slower pace shaped how I still like to learn today.
Here’s what I’ll be studying—and why.
1. Financial Literacy: Understanding the Language of Everyday Life
Money touches nearly every decision we make, yet many of us were never taught how it actually works. Not in a practical, human way.
This first subject isn’t about chasing wealth or mastering complex investing strategies. It’s about clarity:
- How money flows in and out of our lives
- How decisions compound over time
- How understanding the basics reduces anxiety and increases agency
Financial literacy, at its core, is about confidence. When you understand the rules of the game, you stop feeling like life is happening to you—and start making choices with intention.
Over these 90 days, my goal is simple:
To feel more grounded in everyday financial decisions and more thoughtful about long-term ones.
2. How Our Brains Work: Learning About the Learner
If I’m going to spend my life learning, it makes sense to understand the tool doing the learning.
This subject sits at the intersection of curiosity and humility. The more we learn about the brain, the more we realize:
- Why habits are hard to change
- Why attention is fragile
- Why rest, repetition, and emotion matter
Understanding how our brains work reshapes how we approach everything—learning, relationships, creativity, even frustration. It encourages patience. With ourselves and with others.
I’m especially interested in how knowledge sticks (or doesn’t), and how small adjustments—spacing, reflection, retrieval—can make learning feel less like effort and more like discovery.
3. Outdoor Fundamentals: Skills That Still Matter
In a world that’s increasingly digital, there’s something grounding about learning skills that require your hands, your awareness, and your presence.
This third subject—outdoor fundamentals like camping, navigation, and basic survival skills—isn’t about extremes. It’s about self-reliance and respect for the natural world.
These are skills that remind us:
- We are still physical beings
- Simplicity has value
- Comfort often comes from competence
There’s also a quiet confidence that comes from knowing you can take care of yourself outside the walls of modern convenience. Even if you never need those skills in a serious way, the learning itself reconnects you to something older and steadier.
Why These Three—Together
At first glance, these topics may seem unrelated. But together, they form a balanced triangle:
- Financial literacy supports stability
- Brain science supports growth
- Outdoor fundamentals support grounding
Mind. Money. Movement through the world.
This isn’t about mastering anything in 90 days. It’s about beginning well—laying thoughtful foundations and letting learning remain a lifelong companion rather than a seasonal project.
A Note on Pace
I won’t rush through these courses. I’ll pause lectures. Revisit ideas. Let some concepts sit longer than others. That’s always been my approach, going all the way back to those early DVD days.
Learning doesn’t need to be optimized to be meaningful. It needs to be attended to.
As the year unfolds, I’ll share reflections—not summaries, not reviews—but notes on what stayed with me, what challenged me, and how these ideas quietly reshaped how I think and live.
That, to me, is the real curriculum.