Purpose on Og Maciel's Journal

Questions for a Happier 2026

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Questions for a Happier 2026

Not resolutions, but reflections on what actually mattered

Questions for a Happier 2026

This is my final post of 2025.

I want to start by saying thank you. Truly.Life in Rough Draft exists because you read, reply, reflect, and occasionally tell me that something here landed at the right moment. That quiet exchange—writer to reader—is what keeps this space alive.

If these essays have resonated with you this year, the simplest way to support this work is also the easiest: share a post with a friend, tap the ❤️, or restack it with a few words of your own. Those small gestures help these pieces find the people who might need them—and they let me know what’s connecting.

Tracing the Edges of My Ikigai: What the World Needs, and What We Miss

Sat, 27 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Tracing the Edges of My Ikigai: What the World Needs, and What We Miss

An Ikigai reflection on people, systems, and wasted potential

Tracing the Edges of My Ikigai: Where I Feel Needed

I’ve been circling four Ikigai questions lately: what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. The framework has four overlapping parts, and I’m writing through them one at a time, in the order they’re actually showing up for me.

Tracing the Edges of My Ikigai

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Tracing the Edges of My Ikigai

Photo by Acy Ian Malimban on Unsplash

The end of the year is quickly approaching, and this is the season when people managers get busy completing performance reviews for the engineers who report to them. Some organizations do this once a year; here, we do it every quarter. As I’ve been having these conversations—talking with my team about what excites them about the year ahead, what their goals might be, and what their aspirations look like—the word Ikigai has surfaced more than once.

Planning My Escape (Sort of)

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Photo by 🇻🇪 Jose G. Ortega Castro 🇲🇽 on Unsplash

Today I stumbled across an article claiming that the magic number you need to save for a “comfortable” retirement is $1.5 million. I only skimmed the article, but I’m pretty sure it was written for people living in the U.S. who plan to retire around 67. And by “comfortable,” I’m guessing they mean having a roof that doesn’t leak, food that isn’t ramen, and health insurance that doesn’t send you straight into bankruptcy.