Happy Saturday, people. Another day here at The Stack.

If you’re new: The Stack is my 75-day daily column where I practice showing up, shipping small, and sharing what I’m learning about creativity, focus, and momentum. It’s honest reps over perfect moments, and a public reminder that consistency is a better teacher than inspiration.

It’s the weekend and I’m still recovering from birthday escapades, so energy is limited.

With roughly 60 more days to go, I’m reminded that long streaks are great and also genuinely testing. But tests reveal patterns, and patterns shape progress. Here are three shaping mine.

1) Prepare to fail on purpose

I’ve become an observer and a documenter. Not because I’m special, but because it’s a useful system when you know some days won’t sing. I treat everything like a conversation or a learning moment. Notes live open. Voice memos catch throwaway thoughts. Photos become prompts. The point isn’t to capture brilliance; it’s to remove friction so that even on low-energy days I can still show up with something real. Preparing to fail well means I rarely fail to show up.

2) The “best” isn’t the point. Your best is.

The work I think is my best rarely lands the way I expect. And the “trashy” piece I almost didn’t post sometimes moves people most. That’s humbling and freeing. Put it out anyway. There’s often gold buried in what you’d call mid. If the goal is a better average(being your best on that day), then reps matter more than rare fireworks. Publish the imperfect. Let the audience teach you where the gold is, and let the story write itself.

3) We aren’t just chasing titles. We’re searching for ourselves.

A lot of our ambition is disguised transformation. We say we want wealth, or a creative identity, or a title like author, founder, creator. Underneath we’re trying to uncover who we might be. That’s noble. And the way we find it isn’t by waiting for a sign. It’s by moving from assumption to test, daily. Each small experiment reveals another square inch of who we are and what we’re here to make.

One of my favourite quotes i’ve been chewing on lately, is one by Matthew McConaughey.

I don’t know about you, but isn’t it wonderful? I love it because in some way hearing it, frees me. I’ve come to learn that if I run into an error or a recurring weakness, and I treat it like a rhyme, not history repeating himself in this case, it becomes a cue to pause and reflect rather than a verdict I put on myself.

Suddenly it seems, that shame loses its power, and shift has recently continually helped me move forward in the midst of mistakes, in life and in my creative practices.

So I leave you with a question for the road:

What patterns and rhymes are you discovering along the way, and what will you do to rewrite the song?

It’s been great speaking to you as always, oh and see you tomorrow!

✳️ The Stack.

Part of the 75-Day Stack Challenge, essays for builders, makers, and doers, finding their start again.

Written by Josiah Hyacinth, creator, strategist, and storyteller exploring the intersection of faith, creativity, and action. Follow along as we unpack what it means to build, become, and begin again.