Public Commitment 2026 – Update 1
Theme: Metamorphosis
It’s been a bit longer than expected. At the end of the first quarter, I was busy, and some of the big items on the list weren’t done, so I decided to continue without an update. Now, at the end of Q2, let’s do a full update of the 2026 goal and a reflection on the last six months.
In some ways, things are going great: I’m transforming my body (losing some weight, going to the gym on schedule, etc.), Blossom fully relaunched, and the Queal new dashboard is about to go live. In other ways, some things have stalled for much longer than expected. Blossom isn’t bringing in substantial revenue yet, Delphi consultancy work is still quite uncertain, and the cabin project expanded in scope.
But enough preamble, let’s get into my updates and reflections.
Objective (O): Transform our house whilst compounding our finances
KR1: Finish the full cabin remodel (M1-7)
KR2: Make the big chicken enclosure (M7)
KR3: Full remodel of the first floor (M8-12)
KR4: Keep track of family finances every month
KR5: Donate 10% of our income (M12)
Pillars covers our core foundations: home, garden, and everyday finances.
Starting with the ‘setback’. I have built the toilet part of the cabin, and that is just about finished (just need to make the door look nicer and do some painting). So in a way, it is nearly done and has been for quite a while. But whilst working on the toilet, I decided to fully remodel the cabin’s latter half. I removed the floor, added back a floor that is now watertight (condensation was crawling up between the stone floor tiles), fully insulated the walls and ceiling, added light reflection to the front side of the cabin, added a large inside window, and made many other smaller upgrades. Now what remains is ‘closing’ the ceiling, painting the walls, putting in the PVC floor, and then decorating the cabin.
The latter half of the cabin will then also be available for the coaching sessions, and I plan to turn it into a working space (but for that, I would first need to run the internet cable through there). It’s a lot of work, but also has been a lot of fun to do. So expect the update in three months to say that the cabin is now fully remodelled.
I’ve also moved the enclosing of the chicken area to next month as I don’t want to be working on two house/remodel projects at the same time. It will likely take no more than a few hours and isn’t too important, so it will happen after the cabin work is done.
Similarly, for the work on the first floor, I have all the plans (and even some of the materials), but we will actually do the work once the outside projects are done.
Not tracked as goals – but fun to note for myself – is that the vegetable garden is already underway (with a bit of a slow/failed start, but now we have everything from carrots to tomatoes growing throughout the garden).
People
Objective (O): Take good care of our relationships and community ties
KR1: Help Lotte’s family with moving houses (Q1)
KR2: Deepen our relationship with weekly dedicated time
KR3: Celebrate 10 years together (M12)
V: Help Lotte’s family with moving houses (Q1)
People covers all our important relationships – our marriage, friendships, family, and community connections.
Everything is going well in our personal life. We spent quite a bit of time driving around the country to help Lotte’s family move houses (mother, sister, brother – though only one day for the last one). It was good to do together, and we enjoyed helping them all.
Currently, I don’t have any new goals/key-results in this area. Lotte and I will have our second (paper, it’s called) anniversary, and we will celebrate together somewhere in the Netherlands (Lotte doesn’t know yet). Next to that, very content with how things are going. Well, maybe on a final note, I really enjoy it when Rens calls, and I know that we men are not so good at maintaining friendships over time, so it’s great that we have regular chats. I also spend enough time going around the country to see friends, so think all good in that area.
Pursuits
Objective (O): Go from uncertainty to a renewed sense of stability
KR1: Make Blossom into a revenue-generating business (Q3: €10k)
KR2: Post daily progress updates for Blossom
KR3: Support Lotte in getting consistent clients for FLO
KR4: Revitalise Queal (M8-9)
V: Relaunch Blossom
Pursuits covers my business and creative projects, where I focus on building reliable companies and making steady improvements.
I guess I had envisioned relaunching Blossom as a sub-goal of the revenue goal, but for completeness, I’m adding a checked KR for the relaunch. Everything went well (but of course took longer than expected to get going). Currently, I’m adding a lot of useful resources to the site and continuing to work on moving from the research database to the implementation layer.
My biggest obstacle is myself. Ok, that might be a bit too crass, but rephrasing it could be something like “my own lack of outreach to stakeholders who might pay for Blossom is leading to me not generating substantial revenue”. Something like that. So that is the biggest thing I want to work on in the coming months: actually doing the outreach. I have spoken with some of the early (individual) paying customers, and that has been great, but now I want to learn and see what company-level customers want and need (what are their pain points/JTBD-s/painkillers). Another avenue I’ve started thinking about more is the non-profit/grants side of things, so that is also an area I’m looking to learn more about (and see if I can sustain Blossom in that way and open up more resources to everyone).
I’ve been providing regular updates on Blossom’s progress. I can say daily if we count the website updates, and regularly if we count the LinkedIn posts. So that is generally going well. I would love to become even better on the promotional/marketing side, but think that sales is the better avenue to focus on for now.
I’m also adding the revitalisation of Queal on here. Everything is going all right (but don’t ask me about the ‘sugar’ tax), and we have revamped the dashboard, but the website itself can use a lot of upgrading. For a project I got through Blossom, I worked on updating a WordPress website using coding agents, and that is definitely something we can do with Queal too. Generally, I have some ideas for our website improvements and for restarting our social media. More to come in a month (don’t want to put too much on my plate right now).
Physique
Objective (O): Transform into a ‘hybrid’ athlete
KR1: Do sports 6 out of 7 days
KR4: Continue my physical transformation
KR5: Incorporate spear hand training
V: Research food and supplements to support the transformation (Q1)
V: Pause drinking alcohol until after Styrekx
Physique encompasses my attitude toward sports, nutrition, and overall health.
Since the start of the year, I’ve lost about 11 kg. My scale isn’t the most expensive one, so I don’t know exactly how much is fat vs water (and maybe muscle, but I still have about the same strength and have kept weight training, so likely not much). I’m really happy with the progress here, and I’m about 2 kg away from the weight I had when I did a photoshoot some years ago. So for Q3 it will be the continuation of the metamorphosis and settling at a lower weight.
At the start of the year, I also researched supplements and now have a good stack to take each morning (zinc, B12, D3, creatine, etc.). I’m happy where this is at and feel good about food and supplements currently.
I ran the Hyrox (ok, the Styrex, a version that was 90% the same) together with my brother, and it was a lot of fun (or as much fun as you can have with an average heart rate of 180 or so). The event itself was not that special: no free T-shirt (still Dutch) and no showers. So from that angle, I don’t see myself doing something like this again. But I continue with the hybrid training, doing some weightlifting, cardio at the gym, and running (now that it’s summer, I plan to run more outside again).
Another new goal is to add spear hand training. This might not be the perfect way to call it, but I would like to challenge myself again with new training and have the basic setup for this (bucket of rice), now just have to find/develop a routine/program.
Presence
Objective (O): Become undistractable
KR1: Make a weekly plan with concrete goals
KR2: End the workday with a shutdown ritual and time block planning for the next
KR3: Stop the scroll (block distracting sites on PC and phone)
KR4: Do mental workouts just like physical training
Presence is about being more aware and making my life experience better.
I wouldn’t rate my ‘progress’ in this area particularly well. I had X unblocked on my phone for quite a while (of course now blocked it – and paid for the blocking app) and then you do end up scrolling for quite some time in the evening and morning. It wasn’t unpleasant, but I (planning me) would rather read a book or an in-depth article. So, the blocking is back on the phone.
The goals are going all right; the daily ritual is there, though mostly at the start vs the end. For the weekly goal setting, I plan to write these out in a bit more detail than before (in a sentence or two rather than just keywords), and I have already done so for this week.
What I’ve added is the concept of mental workouts. I’m taking this directly from Cal Newport, and it’s an idea he recently started discussing on his podcast. Just as we have to work out our bodies (since ‘nature’ doesn’t demand it of us anymore), the same can be said for our minds (even pre-LLMs, but definitely since). Just like the spear hand training, this goal is still unpolished, but I will take the coming months to deepen this.
Notes
Alright, two months after starting the first draft of this post, it is up. I’m updating my PC wallpapers (so I can always see these goals) and then I’m all set for the coming months.