Happy new year to y'all 🥂 Special thoughts to our LA friends. If you'd like to help, here's a list of places.
If I had to wrap my 2025's intentions into one word only, it'll be 'change'. Only 2 weeks in, and 'change' I went through already. Which might be a good sign.
Physically speaking, I changed flats. I haven't moved as far as I wished initially -across Ocean literally- cause I'm still in the same city in France, Lyon. I just traded one river banks for another. But still, I changed neighborhood, the view -and from the 6th floor you can see way further- and all our habits accordingly. The kids love it: we're closer to their school so they can jump on their own bikes and go there while I follow them on my board -which is quite cool I've to admit- we're closer to their friends so yesterday for instance -classic Wednesday afternoon- we were able to join some of them nearby and play for a few hours between the skatepark and the soccer pitch. The neighborhood being recent, I truly appreciate the urbanism itself: 10x more infrastructure for people, no cars, bike lanes and just tons of space to hang out outside. Mathilde loves the flat cause it's smaller too. I concede 100m2 is big enough for a family of 4 so we didn't need more.
So that's how we kicked off the new year: moving stuff around. We spent 3 years in the previous flat, which is surprisingly long according to our own standards (we moved 18 times across 4 continents in the past 15 years). I truly appreciated the move itself. It took us a few days but we did it entirely alone Mathilde and I; filling up a family car gently lent by our parents and performing 11 back and forth between both flats in total. I think moving is good for your mental health, and sanity. It's also the best way to avoid too much clutter. Next time, we cross the Atlantic Ocean.
Now that I know about Janus, the God with two faces -one symbolically looking back, and one looking ahead- I kinda like the idea of January to take time to look at the previous year, what worked, what didn't, and your intentions and desires going forward. 2024 was pretty good. I spent some incredible moments with Mathilde and the kids and except the last quarter of the year -during which I've spent more time in the US than home- I've been very 'in the moment' with them on a daily basis.
I think I've found my pace re: reading -consistently more than 2 books a month for a few years, totalling 32 last year; this is how I read; next week I'll publish what I've read in 2024- I've also found one re: writing -I'm definitely on my longest streak ever; publishing on this blog every month since Sept. 2023! All of this makes me happy.
Culture wise though, there's one thing I really miss: video games. And I think it's time to unbox my (now quite old) video games consoles collection and set it up in our new flat. I'd also love to welcome the kids into this experience with me (I also fear it to be honest; any advice welcome here).
Sports wise, I'm very consistent with my boxing practice, hitting the ring at least twice a week. An even bigger win has been: no more chronic back pain. This is huge for me. My remaining frustration is skateboarding. While I did enjoy a few great sessions here and there I haven't succeeded to implement a real routine. I intend to change this going forward. And even though winter times is never the best, I do jump on my board way more often these days, which always brings me so much joy, just cruising at fast speed makes you feel free.
I'm spiritually convinced for a while that I should start doing yoga regularly. I started 2025 with a win: I'm having at least two 30min-sessions a week currently. Let's try to be consistent with that one. I also picked up running again every time I was in the US (almost 4 months in total last year), and did buy a new pair of running shoes. I feel well-equipped now. Another win for this early 2025: we went to a dancing class with Mathilde and loved it. We love it when the kids start dancing like crazy -pretty often I've to say- and we've talked about dancing classes for a while so we decided this year should be THE year. There is an added benefit to such a habit: introducing a new couple-only activity on a weekly basis. Always beneficial, and welcoming.
My biggest frustration of all remained my weight. I feel over-weight. Period. I don't look how I'd like to. This makes me feel uncomfortable in my clothes. Worse, it makes me ignore a whole set of my wardrobe -of course, the one I cherish the most- and it prevents me from buying any clothes at all; which starts to be a burden. I'm tracking my weight every Monday morning and I'd like to lose at least 10kg out of the average across a full year. I do have an unexpected help on this one: a family wedding in Ireland this summer.
Talking about trips, we did enjoy our fair share of adventures in 2024 thanks to home-swapping. The biggest of them all: a full summer as a family in Berkeley and then in SF. Not only as a family actually since Max joined us -our 3rd co-founder on Objet- and we also brought Alice with us who took care of the kids for a month. Then, we welcomed some friends, (re-)connected with many awesome people and did throw a party to sew some custom labels on people's clothes. What a summer! Unforgivable.
Now, to end with the same spirit as last year and carry on the "few new goals big enough to follow me through the years" I'll reiterate the same ones: (a) to grow Objet's impact significantly [let's have more "NEW CONSUMERS"] and (b) to move and settle permanently in the US.
Onwards.