Week 1 log – 2026

A week without urgency

After a period of movement and transition, this week was about staying put. The routines I put in place last week began to hold, and the days took on a steady, predictable shape. On the surface, things felt settled. In practice, learning how to stay inside that stability proved more demanding than I had expected.

Week 1 metrics

Training
Workouts: 4 | Cycling: 5.5 hrs

Recovery
Avg sleep: 8:22 hrs | Sleep score: 82

Work
HG work: 27 hrs | Other work: 4 hrs

This log reflects how I’ve worked with the Hagen Growth philosophy in practice over the past week


What I worked on

After a long period with a lot happening, things have finally quieted down. My days have started to take on a steady, predictable shape. I wake up at the same time each morning, eat the same breakfast, and head to the gym or out on the bike for the workout planned for that day, sometimes alone, sometimes with friends. Afterward I go home, shower, eat a light snack, and start working. A few hours later I stop for lunch, then continue. Evenings are reserved for dinner, free time, and a short journal and reading before bed.

Slipping back into these routines came easier than I expected. In hindsight, that makes sense. This is how I’ve lived most of my adult life. Still, as these days repeated themselves and slowly became my new normal, a strange feeling followed.

My behaviors are largely where I want them to be. For the first time since moving to Thailand, my focus feels undivided – work, mental health, and physical training all moving in the same direction. I can see that this is good for me. And yet, despite everything being aligned on paper, something feels slightly off.

What went well

I settled into these routines quickly. Before starting, I spent an evening deciding which behaviors mattered most to me right now and where they realistically fit into my days. Once that was clear, I adjusted my environment to support those choices rather than relying on motivation.

From the following day onward, the structure held. Eating and training were already familiar, but during this week I filled in the rest – clearer rhythms for work, rest, and evenings, and a more deliberate order to the day instead of letting things happen randomly.

What went well wasn’t that anything dramatic changed, but that the structure stayed intact without friction. I didn’t try to add new habits for the sake of improvement, and I didn’t rush to optimize. I kept the scope narrow and purposeful, and that restraint made the routines feel sustainable rather than demanding.

What could have been better

The past months have been pointing toward something specific. Ending my employment. Leaving Thailand. Relaunching Hagen Growth. Returning home and re-establishing my routines. For a long time, everything had a clear direction. Now that I’m here, the feeling is flatter than I expected.

I noticed a restlessness throughout the week. A pull toward the next thing, the next milestone, even though nothing in my current setup is asking to be changed. The next step isn’t expansion or acceleration – it’s consistency – and that’s been harder to sit with than I anticipated.

I struggled to fully relax. My attention kept drifting forward, toward what comes after, rather than staying with what’s already in place. After months of moving toward defined endpoints, being in a phase without one feels unfamiliar. 

Reflection of the week – The friction of stability

Stability is often described as something to aim for. A state where things finally settle, where effort becomes sustainable and life easier to manage. I’ve spent a long time working toward exactly that. This week showed me that stability has its own kind of friction.

My days are structured. The routines hold. Training, work, meals, and evenings follow a rhythm that makes sense. Nothing feels chaotic or demanding. And yet, the absence of pressure leaves a kind of space that feels unfamiliar.

When things are intense, attention has somewhere obvious to go. There’s always a next step, a deadline, a problem that needs solving. Stability removes that. What remains is repetition without urgency. Effort without immediate contrast.

I noticed how often my mind tried to create movement where none was required. A subtle impatience. A sense that something should be happening, even when everything already was. Not dissatisfaction, exactly – more a quiet unease with days that simply repeat themselves.

This made it clear how much meaning I tend to derive from motion. From working toward something visible. When that disappears, stability asks a different question: whether the structure itself is enough, without needing to justify it through progress or change.

Week 1 summarized

This week I settled into my routines, and for the first time in months, there wasn’t a major issue to solve or a big milestone just around the corner. Everything now is tied to consistency, and that left me with an uneasy feeling I carried throughout the week.

Next week’s focus

Next week will be a continuation of this one. I’ll focus on maintaining the routines I’ve put in place, while paying closer attention to how I relate to the quieter parts of the day. I may reintroduce meditation as part of my end-of-work routine, not to change anything, but to stay more present with it.

  • Training –  Four gym sessions and six hours on the bike. Maintain high intensity and quality, but adjust if needed.
  • Hagen Growth – Publish an article about personal accountability, publish weekly log, and send out the newsletter.

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Paul Hagen
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