Don Kowalewski
Writer. Ad Sales and Marketing. Social Media Content Creator. Aeropress Coffee. Makes the best salsa in the world.
Year of the ____________
Remember I already declared 2026 will be the Year of the Pen. Meaning, I switch from only using wood pencils for everything … work notes, journaling, sketching, etc … to using ONLY pens. Additionally, it’s going to be the “Year of” a few more things. These aren’t New Year’s Resolutions. These are themes. Total behavior change.
Allow me to explain the difference between “Resolutions” and “Year of the ___________”. Resolutions are activities I commit to doing or things I say I’ll stop.
- Workout 150 minutes per week
- Read 24 books
- Floss daily
- Don’t look at my phone before bed
“Year of the ____________” are things I already do and can’t avoid doing, but I’ll just do them differently and in a new way. These are declarations. As in, “I declare this year, 2026, the Year of the Pen,” and say if you say that aloud in a really exaggerated British accent, you’re getting it. Read More
The 2025 Kowalewski Christmas Card Letter
2025 marks the 6th annual Kowalewski Christmas Card Letter. I’ve now written five of them, and Ada wrote one (last year’s). I think I finally found my “audience” for these letters. My Mom. Why do I need an “audience” you ask? Because, if a letter-writer isn’t careful, they might talk about things no one cares about or their letter might sound like brag after brag after brag. The “bragging” has been the part I struggle with. I’ve always said, I love getting letters from others when they send me a Christmas Card and, personally, I don’t mind if they tell me about their 12 trips to Europe, their new Lamborghini, and include a picture that shows them with their arm around Jeff Bezos on Jeff Bezos largest-yacht-ever-built. Sure, that would be a little braggy, but if I have a close relationship with that person, and that person feels like my friendship is worth of getting their family Christmas card and letter, then there’s a pretty good possibility I’ll be happy to hear about their months in Europe, Lambo’, and their friendship with The Beez’ (which I assume is what Jeff Bezos’ friends call him). Read More
Resolutions Count-Down … 4-Days
Only 4-days until January 1st and another quest for the best-year-ever while pursuing the Best-Don-Ever.
Adding a few things to my list . . .
- Recommit to a strict Morning Routine
- Power Weekends (aka have a plan for each weekend and don’t just sleep in and do nothing … writing ths, it’s currently 9:52 a.m. on a Sunday and I haven’t even had breakfast or done anything)
- Work-Only while at Work (8:15 a.m. – 5:15 p.m. daily)
- Find a journal brand and make it my brand (you know I am big on “my brands” and I don’t have one for my journals … let alone pen and pencil brands, and boy oh boy do people have passion for journals and writing instruments)
- Restart my Journal Project
2026 Will be the Year of the Pen
Most of you know 2025 was “Year of the Pencil.” I journaled in pencil. Took work notes in pencil. I researched pencils and tried many brands, styles, and quality levels. I enjoyed the nuance of sharpening and shading. I liked it. It was a nice year. I’m not anti-pencil, but I think I need to revisit ink pens.
Do you think about your pens and pencils? Well… I do.
I like writing in my journal. I like making notes and sketching and doodling. But I didn’t like the bleed-through (or “bleeding” …which is the ink going through the paper and showing on the other side of the paper). Hence, the Year of the Pencil. Read More
More Resolutions
The list and brainstorm continues. Look at this list?!?!?! Can you imagine if I do all of this stuff how amazing I will be and how awesome my life will be? What if I do 50%? What if I do 25%? Still pretty good and 2026 will be better than 2025.
- Organize and clean-up my YouTube Channel: I have one consistent viewer … my daughter. Currently my YouTube is a mix of family-friend videos. Some Portfolio stuff (which should be a Playlist or Channel inside the Channel). Some performing stuff. Some … kinda old, embarrassing stuff that’s kinda for nothing (like my Push-Ups during the Push-Up challenge). If I’m a “brand” unto myself and/or I want to be a thought-leader, I think my YouTube channel can be better if it wasn’t just a massive hodge podge.
- Organize my Photos: I have photos on an external hard drive. Some on my PC’s harddrive. Some still in DropBox and still others in Google Photos. No rhyme or reason. So, I’m going to figure out a rhyme and a reason.
- Implement Walter Green’s “Say It Now” (video below) into my year: Maybe I’ll go with 26 people (for the year 2026). Or maybe I’ll go with 52 or 52 (because I’m 52-years-old and will be 53-years-old).
Time to Start *Thinking About* New Year’s Resolutions
Some people poo poo the idea of New Years Resolutions and point to all sorts of data that says “New Year’s Resolutions Don’t Work” and most people break their resolutions in less than a month. Well? I poo poo that. I love Resolutions. I love new beginnings. I love making improvements and adjustments. And if it happens to be January 1st that I turn a page and make a list and make myself some promises, I’m gonna do it (and you know I make resolutions often and not just once a year).
Over the years, *some* of my Resolutions have stuck . . .
- Get on stage and perform at The Moth (I’ve done this 6 times and won once)
- Floss daily (I never thought I’d be a flosser but I am)
- Cold showers (silly, but I’ve done it)
- Journal (not daily, but often)
- Clean my bathroom every morning (this is surprisingly satisfying and cathartic)
- Oatmeal for lunch (I can’t wait to see my cholesterol levels with next year’s annual physical)
My 2025 Christmas Wish-List
Click here for my full Stuff I Want List but read below for the latest additions.
For those new to my website and Blog, I have an ongoing wish-list for Father’s Day, my birthday, and Christmas. It’s not for me so much as it is for you. For my family, my friends, co-workers, and random admirers … it’s so they have an idea of what to give me as a gift if inspiration finds them.
My gift-getting has slowed recently. Probably my fault. I don’t hype-up and talk about my Stuff I Want List as much as I used to … well that’s gonna change. Also, maybe people are looking for new ideas. I get it. So here goes.
***NEW*** Mizzen+Main or Collars & Co. wrinkle-free dress shirts (white or blue only, Medium, relaxed or classic fit) …those are my favorite brands. Read More
Lawn Stuff: I Still Don’t Bag Leaves
Remember back in 2022 when I Blogged that I don’t bag leaves? Well, here we are 3 years later and my non-bagging mulch-the-leaves 100% techniqiue is better than ever.
I don’t bag leaves.
I live in a neighborhood with huge trees and if I bagged my leaves it would take me multiple weekends and 20 to 30 bags.
But I don’t bag leaves.
I mulch them. Right into the lawn. I clip down bushes and daylilies and tall grasses, spread them across my lawn, and then mulch those into my lawn, too. Read More
Breathing? Nope. I’m Mewing
Just when I think I’m out … they pull me back in. Technically, I think that’s called “inhaling” … as in “pulling in air” … breathing? Get it?
What I mean is … my lungs were cured 4 or 5 years ago and suddenly I’m obsessed with breathing again. Breathing better, that is. Because I’m convinced, now, that breathing can be improved.
I’m reading about how certain breathing techniques can give a person more energy than a cuppa coffee or an energy drink in the afternoon. Some breathing techniques can lower heart rate. Some can help a guy grow hair. Yes. Some people believe that so I say, why not? I’m not bald, but maybe I can thicken up my coif a tad with breathing techniques.
I’m adding to my Lung Stuff. I guess I’m obsessed.
My current obsession? Read More
Breathing Through My Nose
I think I’m a … I can’t believe I’m admitting this … I think I’m a mouth-breather.
Why didn’t anyone every tell me this!?!?!?!
Or maybe I’m a mouth-breather, but only sometimes.
In my weekly round-up (still trying to name that thing that’ll make me famous and get me thousands or readers) I talked about the book, Breath, all about breathing and I’m obsessed. With breathing.
The book starts by describing the evolution of humans and why our noses are all different. Fascinating. Then the book quickly gets to why we’re supposed to breathe through our noses. All those hair filters and heating and cooling and cleaning of the air and on and on and on. Read More
Don Kowalewski 