Seven years of compounding
I asked Arc to read through all my old blog posts. I was curious what patterns it would find. What came back surprised me.
In May 2018, I crashed a friend’s car into a guardrail. Late nights, stress, fatigue. I thought I saw something on the road and swerved. Wasn’t hurt, but it was a wake-up call I couldn’t ignore.
That year I discovered reading as stress relief - the research says six minutes of reading reduces stress by 60%. I burned through 35 books. Most were about Stoicism. I was looking for a way to cope with a life that felt out of control.
I started meditating. Journaling. Cold showers at 5:30am. The Daily Stoic every morning. I was optimising myself like a system, trying to become someone who could handle the load.
In 2019 I wrote a post called “Being is enough.” I’d realised I couldn’t do everything. Finite time, finite energy. It felt like wisdom at the time. Looking back, I think I was exhausted and calling it philosophy.
Then things went quiet. A few technical posts. An Alan Watts quote. A cryptic “life update” in 2023 - new job, new community, new outlook.
What actually happened: I moved internally. New role, more autonomy, remote work. For a while, that scratched the itch. I built Redlands Garden Share. Got the finances sorted. Settled into something sustainable.
Two and a half years later, I’m restless again. Different this time. Not escaping something - reaching for something. The pull toward building, creating, putting things out into the world.
So I’m writing again. Being more public. Building a body of work, even if I don’t know where it leads.
Eight months ago I started BJJ. It wasn’t part of some grand plan. But it’s become the thing that ties everything else together.
Stoicism on the page is concepts. Stoicism on the mats is physical. Someone’s attacking and you have to choose: panic or breathe. Respond, don’t react. You can’t think your way through it. You have to practice until the pause becomes instinct.
I’d read about the space between stimulus and response for years. BJJ is making me live in it.
Seven years later, the pieces have rearranged.
The stress-fueled reading habit became genuine curiosity. The finances that were spiralling are now building something for my kids. The burnout job became remote work that lets me do the school runs.
I didn’t plan this arc. I was just trying to survive 2018. But the choices compounded.
That’s what I’m taking into 2026. Not resolutions. Not optimisation. Just: what compounds?
BJJ compounds. Every session builds on the last. The lessons bleed into parenting, work, hard conversations.
Growing food compounds. Syntropic agroforestry is literally about building soil - each season makes the next one more productive.
Creating compounds. Writing, sharing, building artifacts of expertise. Input without output is just entertainment.
Being there compounds. My kids won’t remember every school run. But they’ll remember that I was there.
Arc reading my old posts found a through-line I hadn’t seen clearly: a slow shift from coping to building. From surviving to compounding.
I don’t know what the next seven years look like. But I know the question I’m asking now: does this compound?
If not, why am I doing it?