2026 — Blog — Healy Chen

17 percent remaining

I was watching a YouTube channel based in Britain when a surprise ad-read popped open promoting Black Friday. Upon closer inspection, I was like, “Wait a minute. Black Friday. In England?!” Is the consumer spending fervor on the day after our uniquely American holiday - Thanksgiving - so financially fruitful that the curse has spread to other English-speaking countries? Hello, Australia: how about Black Friday sales during the beginning of Summer?

Now I’m sure it was just targeted ads. The purveyors of the channel might be British, but I bet the primary audience is of these United States. We do love our mindless entertainment, don’t we.

We’ve hit the final two months of 2026, and I’ve a public service announcement to make: please do not treat as if the year is over. A coworker said to me today, “Wow, 2026 is almost gone.” To which I replied, “No it is not! There are two entire whole months left to the year! 17% of 2026 still remains.

What I am urging is that we should make November and December count for something. Disrespect Thanksgiving and bring out the holiday decorations right now if you want, but don’t act like it’s Christmas already. There’s still much to do, much to see. Phoning it in into hibernation until the turn of the new year is time management malpractice. No you do not have permission to shut it down with two months to go. You have not earned it.

Don’t talk to me about the 2026 being over until at least the final week of December. That's when I’ll allow myself a slight break. For the time being, the foot is still on the pedal. Workouts need to be done, cars need to be worked on, and days to live fully and presently. 2027 can kiss my ass.

Half of it is gone

Surprise! Half of 2026 is already gone. I hope you are able to look back and say the past six months has been time well spent. And if you cannot say that for yourself, then it’s time to get off your ass!

I would say my first half of the year has been rather uneventful. But that’s good, right? Boring is good. It is suppose to be boring. Novelty is great, but too much of it means a lack of focus. You pick something to do for a long time and there are for sure going to be dog days.

Much of my weekends in 2026 was focused on getting my new-to-me 2019 VW Golf GTI up to shape. It was exhilarating to wake up on Saturdays with the lastest thing to fix, or the latest item to install. If fairy godparents somehow bestowed upon me the endless money glitch, buying used cars and fixing them up would be something I genuine would do everyday.

Obviously that’s not how reality works. People speak of following passions, but as someone with an entrepreneurial business degree, passion is only the spark. The fuel to sustain the burn is where the proverbial rubber meets the road. Often times people are unwilling to marinate in the minutiae of it all. How are you going to sell your talents? Putting down “it will work out” for the marketing section would have gotten you an F in class.

Or perhaps there isn't fuel to burn at all - the thing you’re passionate about is not financially viable. For me, there’s very little business in fixing up used cars to then not sell. So a hobby it remains. That means for five days out of the week, I have to put in time at a place I’m not nearly as enthused about, in order to be able to do the thing I am super motivated for. And honestly, that in between time can get mighty frustrating. Never mind the other parts of human living that gets in the way, like eating and self care.

Those afflicted with passion can attest to the times when you’re so into doing something, sleep is a mere suggestion. You just want to keep going. And you do!

I think I’ll spend rest of 2026 coming to terms with that fact that my ability to follow my passions is predicated on accepting that it will be cyclical. And that the days without will be way more numerous than the day with. No wonder artists of pre-modern times had moneyed patrons!