FEBRUARY 17, 2026

Where are you making bold bets this year?

I'm in San Francisco celebrating the start of the Lunar New Year with my family. We're entering the Year of the Fire Horse, a year associated with boldness, innovation, and taking action.

When I ran cross country and track in college, we regularly did what's known as a fartlek workout (Swedish for "playing with speed"), a continuous run that mixes fast bursts with slower recovery jogs. We'd go mile after mile around the track, sprinting the straights, floating the curves. That kind of active recovery did so much for our speed, endurance, and mental toughness throughout the season.

I've come to think of "floating the curves" as the leadership skill of building the capacity to perform when it counts. And I think the Fire Horse is a reminder of exactly that - bold action combined with active recovery and discernment. Knowing when to charge forward and when to hold steady. When to blaze and when to breathe. It's also a great reminder that a trot isn't a halt. We can catch our breath while still moving forward.

Oliver Burkeman calls this strategic underachievement, which I love because along with all of the other gems in his book Four Thousand Weeks, it's brutally honest about the math. We can't go full intensity on everything (as I've been humbly stumbling through this past year as a dual first-time founder of a business and a baby!). The skill is knowing where we're making our energy bets, where we're keeping things going with just enough effort, and what we're intentionally easing off our plates. Cal Newport talks about something similar with what he calls maintenance mode, the idea that some areas of our life and work simply need to tick along at a sustainable level so we can pour ourselves into chosen efforts.

So let's take big leaps this year. Let's double down on getting our ideas out there. Let's sprint the straights and float the curves, so to speak. And also (perhaps as always), let's be thoughtful about where we put our very wild and precious attention.

Alright, let's get to it. Hope you have a great week.

Mallory

P.S. One of the straights I'm sprinting this year is the launch of Thoughtful - a group coaching program for coaches who want to bring more care, intention, and quality into their coaching and business practices. We get started March 18. Join us? You're welcome to apply with a fellow coach, and if you both join, you'll have the option to split the cost of the program.