2025 in review
Well, that was fast - where did 2025 go?
Aspirations of Excellence is reaching the end of its 2nd full year, and in 2025, I published 50 posts.
Here’s what I’ve learned this year in the process
Getting clear on what I want to write about. I’m grateful to you readers as the focus and purpose of this newsletter has emerged and evolved. I’ve spent the fall working closely with Dan Blank, a wonderful marketing yoda to further refine and focus this newsletter.
Aspirations of Excellence is about how we move towards purposeful alignment by anchoring our lives in service, elevate our efforts through craft, and refocusing our days through wise stewardship of time.
I’m working to focus further each post on this - and welcome your thoughts and feedback along the wayFinding my voice. The act of writing is not necessarily hard. Pen to paper, and words come out. But, learning how to say something worth writing, is a whole different animal.
Creating out of fullness rather than absence. So often the actions we take are a result of perceived lack in our lives. Learning to rest, practice gratitude, and then engage from a perspective of fullness is a practice that I’m seeing a lot of blessing in.
Here are the top 5 posts of the year:
The pain of delay - A problem avoided today accrues interest like a payday loan. Avoidance is never free.
10 thoughts on time - “Time is a storm in which we are all lost.” ― William Carlos Williams
The assessment of worthiness When a beloved leader is gone, the eventual successor will inevitably hear about having ‘big shoes to fill.’
It may take 20 years to start your vocation. Regardless of where you think you are heading, here is the reality: None of you know what is coming.
Here were a few others favorites of mine in case you missed one
Making space In filling emptiness, we miss a deeper truth. Space can be deeply soothing and therapeutic.
You don’t know anything until you’ve had 100 meetings The first time I looked for a job I accidentally learned one of the most important lessons of my entire career.
The lost art of waiting “Everything comes in time to him who knows how to wait.” — Leo Tolstoy
Embracing mundanity through focus and practice “The little moments of life are profoundly important precisely because they are the little moments that we live in and that form us.” Paul David Tripp
How to build a meaningful life Who we are becoming matters. It offers hope to those sad about who they are. It offers direction and purpose for those whose delight in themselves rivals that of Dorian Gray.
Best wishes for your 2026,
David