Launching The Year
Issue 010 | On Planning In QuarterSeasons
“Anima Invicta. Within me is a splinter of the divine, an unconquerable spirit. I am protected by energies, guided by forces, and energized by passion that the challenges and enemies before me are simply not prepared to face.”
I. Situation Report
We now seal the tomb.
This week you identified the decision. You ran the Honest Inventory. You built the minimum viable plan. You entered the chrysalis and let the old form dissolve. You emerged with your story reframed and now you wield it not as wound, but as weapon.
The Resurrection is complete.
Now what?
Now you Campaign.
My friends, it is Friday, December 12th, in the year of our shared crisis, 2025. Good morning. I bring you Morning Thunder, and we plan for the new year ahead. Are you with me?
You are no longer the person who entered this week. That version began dissolving the moment you wrote down the decision you’d been avoiding. The version standing here now has extracted, processed, integrated, and emerged.
But emergence without direction is just wandering with wings.
Today we point you toward the horizon. Today we give you the operating rhythm for the year ahead. Today you stop being someone who hopes for change and become a strategist executing a plan.
To face the day and emerge victorious, even when you claim a temporary defeat, your perspectives must be dialed in. How do you see yourself? What affirmations do you speak? What company do you keep?
Do you love yourself? Have you forgiven yourself? Do you respect yourself?
These questions matter. How you view yourself shapes how you view the world. How you view the world shapes who you keep around you. Once toxicity enters the circuit, the entire system corrupts.
We must not, we will not allow this to happen.
II. Framework 37 (Expanded): The Respect Threshold
Core Principle: To include the actions and words of others as well as my own, I respect myself too much to allow myself to be disrespected by anyone, or anything, else.
This framework began as a filter for relationships. Today we expand it to everything.
People. Places. Objects. Activities. Habits. Subscriptions. Obligations. Every single element of your life gets run through the same audit:
Does this serve my long-term ambitions? Does this feed me or drain me? Does this integrate with Future Me or push me further from that vision?
If no → it goes.
Uninstall with fervor Distance with caution Separate with care Eliminate with prejudice Dispatch All Drag
The Three Responses:
Some bridges require no ceremony, they are marked for Burn. They can be torched at will with no consequence. The streaming service you don’t watch. The social media account that poisons your mind. The habit that adds nothing. Strike the match. Smile. Walk away.
Other bridges require surgical removal through planned action, a Severance. The relationship that’s run its course. The job that’s become dangerous. The living situation that’s slowly killing you. This is extraction. Hot blades. Clean cuts. No lingering. Do it proper. Nod politely. Walk away.
For the crossings that remain, post a Guard. Ensure no further use of bridges marked for termination. Some connections can’t be fully severed yet. You have financial entanglements, shared responsibilities, logistical dependencies. Guard them. Limit traffic. Plan the eventual severance. Allow yourself to sink into your daily disciplines as you work toward Extraction.
Patience in your persistence. Progress will come.
Lived Application:
I realized there was no future in a prior relationship. I communicated this to my partner, and we planned to split amicably a few days later. Peaceful terms. Surgical severance.
I realized my workplace had become dangerous due to a coworker’s behavior and our supervisor’s acceptance of it. I put on headphones, collected my effects, and left mid-shift during busy season without a word. Immediate burn.
Where is your effort disproportionately spent? Where are you undervalued, underappreciated, or left out?
There is no part or function of my life which does not serve my long-term ambitions. From the clothing I wear, the vehicle I drive, the vessel I live in, and the thousand micro-decisions I make each day. Everything serves or it goes.
Respect yourself so much that you become naturally repulsed by fast food and fast living. Through making these decisions alone, your brain will literally rewire itself to reject mediocrity.
III. Framework 45: The QuarterSeason Operating Rhythm
Core Principle: Energy is cyclical. Build your calendar around seasons, not arbitrary months.
Don’t freak out. It’s simpler than it sounds. Rock with me:
QuarterSeason 1: October, November, December
A Time of Foundation/Building
Mistakes are cheap here. While the world winds down for holidays, I’m taxiing to the launch ramp. It’s more fun to ride the bleeding edge because it opens an entire underground previously unseen. This is where infrastructure gets built. Systems get tested. Foundations get laid.
I’m IN QuarterSeason 1 right now. Building the Legion Model. Fleshing out The MINDSET, Lester’s Letters, Isaac’s Ideas. YouTube channels spinning up, yes, that means more than one. Social profiles aligning. All of it preparation for what comes next.
QuarterSeason 2: January, February, March
A Time of Momentum/Shipping
At the turn of the new year, I’m aligned and set for full swing. This is where brute force and violent effort get applied. I brute force the depression that comes with cold months by already being airborne with a plan for the minimum viable day. I apply violent effort by systematically maximizing content spread without throwing off balance.
Accuracy through volume, my friends. I walk between worlds, and place myself back in the shoes of the Marine Corps Recruiter in a liberal state during The Great Shut-in of 2021. I execute as though my very life depends on it.
It does.
QuarterSeason 3: April, May, June
A Time of Refinement/Iteration
All that performs well gets analyzed and replicated. All that causes drag gets sent overboard. This is where the plateau of consistent work meets the explosive power of compounded interest. Optimize what works. Eliminate what doesn’t.
QuarterSeason 4: July, August, September
A Time of Integration/Rest
Operations and Projects wrap up. I take my “winter holiday” in summer, looking back on accomplishments, failures, and targets for the next cycle. Consolidate gains. Plan the next push. Rest, actual rest. In this way the next Foundation phase starts with full reserves.
Why It Works:
You’re a different person every 30/60/90 days anyway. I created this to facilitate that change intentionally. With notebooks and a simple logging system, I measure the weight of my life, decisions, ideas, and thoughts daily.
The calendar year doesn’t dictate my rhythm. I dictate my rhythm.
IV. Campaign Orders
You will conduct an audit, in preparation of the coming Campaign. You don’t need to adhere to my rhythm, but you do need to take inventory of what tools and resources you already have on hand for use in your own life.
We will not be caught unprepared or unaware in the year 2026. We will anticipate challenges. We will overcome showstoppers. We will execute on our tasks, and gain ground on our objectives. We will fight, and conquer for our goals, and have them.
Be reminded that logistics wins wars, “The Audit” is the nexus of your logistics.
The Audit:
Take everything in your life: people, places, objects, activities, habits, obligations... and run it through the Respect Threshold.
For each element, answer:
- Does this serve my long-term ambitions?
- Does this feed me or drain me?
- Does this integrate with Future Me?
Mark each one: Burn, Sever, or Guard.
The Calendar:
If you’ve aligned your rhythm with the standard calendar, you’re likely thinking about your “new years resolutions” or some such at this point. This is good.
I challenge you to go a step further and design “The Most Detailed Strategy”. Is there a plan in place for what you will do on your worst days, or are your resolutions more like guidelines?
suggestions, even?
If you’re interested in operating from the QuarterSeason Rhythm, we’re now closing out December and inching toward collectively entering the start of QuarterSeason 2: A Time of Momentum/Shipping.
You have awareness about where you are. You have an understanding of where you want to be.
The general outline of The Way Forward is already identified, all you have to do is detail the game plan, and prepare to execute with violent effort.
Write down your three primary targets for QS2. What ships between January and March? What gets built? What gets proven? What actions get taken?
The Declaration:
Write your Campaign launch statement. One paragraph. Who you are now. What you’re building. Why you will not be stopped.
This is your banner. This is what you march under into the new year.
V. Witness/Practice
I struggled for years in the ring of life against myself. Rushing into stupid decisions with reckless abandon. Modeling the perfect Marine while having affairs with addictions.
Destroying body and soul in a spiral of self-hatred.
Then one evening, after so many perceived negative experiences had accumulated, I broke.
I was remade.
I upgraded my mental software and installed a new MINDSET Operating System. I developed values. I rekindled the hunt for goals at the top of mountains that tickle the edge of the sky itself.
Now I Campaign.
Every piece of content is a tactical strike. Every framework shared is a weapon distributed. Every Morning Thunder recorded before dawn is proof that the transformation holds.
Say it with me:
“The challenges and enemies before me are not prepared for what’s coming. Neither is the world.”
That’s the point.
VI. Transmission End..
The Resurrection is complete.
The tomb is sealed. The old MINDSET is buried. What emerged this week is something new: You are now Strategist, Integrator, Campaigner.
You have the Honest Inventory to map terrain. You have the 48-Hour Protocol to maintain speed. You have the Minimum Viable Plan to structure extraction. You have the Transparent But Not Porous doctrine to share your story.
You have the Identity Integration System to synthesize your past selves. You have the Respect Threshold to audit everything in your life. You have the QuarterSeason rhythm to structure your year.
All you have is all you need.
The only question is whether you’ll use it.
QuarterSeason 2 launches in weeks. The world will be making resolutions they’ll have wholly abandoned by February. You will be executing a Campaign you built in the chrysalis of December.
Different breed. Different rhythm. Different results.
Rise with the Morning Thunder. Campaign against the chaos. Turn your mess into your message. Exchange value for freedom.
Defeat apathy.
This is The Way Forward.
The Resurrection Week is complete. The Grand Adventure begins.
Patience with your persistence. Progress will come.
Lux Ex Tenebris | Light From Darkness
Per Aspera Ad Astra
Through Hardships to the Gorydamn Stars
- Isaac