Short letters, sent a few times a week, on mindset, psychology, and how high-caliber people think. If you're into that, it's free to subscribe.
Did it go the way you thought?
From the Desk of Calvin TrieuUnexplored Letters What I've Been Reflecting On I've been sitting with something this week. Q1 is over. And I've been asking myself honestly, did it go the way I thought it would? January 1st I came in swinging. New state, new city, rebuilding my business from scratch, starting my PhD, training for a marathon, signed up for my first ultra. The ambition was there. The hunger was there. But so was the crack in the system. What I didn't account for was that I was measuring my capacity against people who are 5 to 10 years ahead of me. Already rooted. Already supported. Already built. I forgot I just moved states. I forgot my business is just me right now. I forgot I'm at the beginning of all of it. And here's the part that's hard to admit. I coach this. I know the framework. Process over results. Systems over willpower. I talk about it every week. And I still tried to brute force my way through sheer volume. The body was the first thing to tell the truth. Sleep dropped from around 7 hours a night down to 1 to 3. When sleep goes, everything goes with it. Logical thinking. Emotional regulation. Output quality. I was spread so thin I was getting nothing meaningful done, but I kept pushing anyway. Convinced I could outlast it. One of the harder decisions I made this quarter was pulling the marathon and the ultra off the table for 2026. That was a genuine internal wrestle. I'm building a performance-forward brand. Walking the talk matters to me. But the load was more than my current capacity could carry. And the way I was operating had nothing to do with long-term sustainability. I'm telling you this because I know I'm not the only one who started this year with a full plate and a cracked foundation. So where did I land? I wanted peace. I wanted space to breathe. Not to lower the quality of my work or shrink my ambitions, but to create more room between stepping on the gas and downshifting. I got narrower. I let different things belong to different seasons. And I started asking a different question. What's the best way I can show up right now with the resources, time, and energy I actually have? Not the version of me I'm building toward. The version that exists today. That shift from wishing I had more to being grateful for what I've already built. That's where things started to breathe again. Journaling Prompt Q2 starts today. Before you step into it, I want you to be brutally honest with yourself. What do you actually want? Not what you said in January, not what looks good, not what you think you should want. What are you actually willing to give up to get it? And can you honestly maintain the pace you're running before something breaks? Because if you can't answer those clearly, the problem was never your work ethic. It was what you put into the system before it started. Sit with that. Talk soon. Calvin PS - If any of this hit home, reply and tell me where you're at. I read every one. Follow me on social: |
Unexplored Letters
Short letters, sent a few times a week, on mindset, psychology, and how high-caliber people think. If you're into that, it's free to subscribe.
From the Desk of Calvin Trieu Unexplored Letters What I've Been Reflecting On Nothing Is Impossible. Your Doubts Are. Somewhere between the alarm and the first cup of coffee this morning, a thought crept in. Maybe it was about the week ahead. Maybe it was about the thing you keep saying you're going to do. Maybe it was that quiet voice that said "you're already behind." That voice isn't telling you the truth. It's just loud. I was watching a Navy SEAL talk about how he made it through BUD/S,...
From the Desk of Calvin Trieu Unexplored Letters What I've Been Reflecting On What you avoid grows teeth There’s something I need to admit. I haven’t been writing these letters. The last one went out at the end of January. Before that, I had built an eight-week streak I was genuinely proud of. Every week I showed up, wrote, reflected, and sent something into the world. Then the rhythm broke. And the strange thing about avoidance is that it doesn’t sit quietly. It grows teeth. For the past few...
From the Desk of Calvin Trieu Unexplored Letters Internal Memo A quick reminder for the middle of the week. Standards aren't something you set once and move on from. They're something you either reinforce daily or quietly negotiate away. Early in the week, it's easy to feel inspired and clear. You reflect, you recommit, and you tell yourself that this time is different. That clarity feels good on a Monday. Almost automatic. Midweek is where that clarity gets tested. This is usually where...