New Year, New Opportunities, and Resolutions

It’s a little surreal how quickly time flies and how much everyday life consumes, well, everything. I’m a little blown away that is my first post not just of 2025, but in a little over a month. Sorry about that-in addition to the holidays, I’ve been sicker than a dog.

Looking back at the year, this blog more than tripled in readership, something I am absolutely blown away by and do not take for granted. I am genuinely appreciative and humbled by all of you, especially newcomers during the election year and those who support this enterprise financially.

I’m one of those people who make New Year’s Resolutions. While one shouldn’t necessarily wait to change things, I like the symbolism. January 1st feels like a natural point to wipe the slate clean and take advantage of the opportunity to start fresh. It only makes sense, then, that I make resolutions for the blog, too.

Resolution 1: Discipline and Predictability

I really got away from my predictable Monday/Thursday schedule. Part of that was due to the election, but I also took on far too many football and baseball games to officiate, given my schedule. I burnt myself out at both ends and in the middle, just for good measure.

In 2025 and going forward, I am going to do everything in my power to post every Monday, every other Thursday, and have a special “Week in Review” article on Sundays for paid subscribers, covering the big things from the prior week. The first Thursday article will be next week.

Resolution 2: Keep True to the Mission

I originally started this as a labor-progressive publication. While I still maintain that mission, it was easy to get swept away on election news in 2024. It’s the thing that usually gets a lot of attention. I think you do value my political analysis, but I’m also going to re-emphasize the labor side of why I’m writing, too.

My cat, Delano, is very surprised at the activity in the apartment. Rest assured, I am properly supervised.

Resolution 3: Better Engage with All of You

I’ve slapped on “Leave A Comment” or “Share Post” at some point in most of my posts, but I rarely deliberately invite commenting or asking all of you for feedback. I want to change that. I want this to be more of a dialogue than a one-way conversation.

One idea I got from another Substack author was to post daily and create a conversation thread within the app. While I probably can’t do it daily, given working multiple jobs, I will do my best to do it every other day. I want to know your successes, what keeps you up at night, and what you want/expect out of me.

Resolution 4: Don’t Compete for Clicks

As some of you may know, I’m a pretty competitive guy. I played sports in high school, earned my Eagle rank in Boy Scouts, and seek to excel at everything I do. The back half of 2024 brought on a new wave of people with massive audiences onto the site. I’m glad to have them on because it helps to grow Substack, but if I have to see another “I gained 78,000 subscribers in 14 and 1/2 minutes” type article, my eyes may remain permanently rolled in the back of my head.

Some of the negative aspects of my competitiveness want me to rise above, post more, do multimedia formatting, etc. but that’s not feasible right now. I don’t want to be a full-time content creator of any sort (yes, I did shudder referring to myself as a content creator) and if I did, it would pull me away from other things I love.

What I will do instead is focus on delivering timely, quality articles on a consistent and predictable basis.

I’m going to be reworking the paid subscriber perks, too. Outside of the Sunday “Week in Review” article, I’m going to be giving paid subscribers full access to my archives. Free subscribers can get anything in the last year. I definitely bit off more than I could chew in 2024 and have no desire to repeat the same mistake in 2025.

I can’t wait to grow with you this year.