This season is set to define Josh Kerr's career and he won't let anyone tell him otherwise.
The 28-year-old won 1500m silver at Paris 2024 and was a heavy favourite for the world title in Tokyo a year later before injury saw him forced to pull up and hand over his crown.
He now heads to ToruĊ in Poland with ambitions to reclaim his men's 3000m crown at the 2026 World Indoor Athletics Championships.
It's a title he clinched two years ago on home soil in Glasgow and one he hopes to take back as he kicks off the season he has clearly stated will be the crowning jewel of his career.
Getting in the way of his plans stands the USA's middle-distance duo and his fellow Paris 2024 Olympic medallists Cole Hocker and Yared Nuguse, with the former having pipped Kerr in the two miles at the Milrose Games just over a month ago.
But Kerr is not fazed by any rivalry build-up; he knows he is the best and is ready to reclaim what is rightfully his.
"I'm not going to change who I am and my goals," he said.
"I believe I'm the best athlete in the world in these distances and there's no one in the world that can convince me otherwise. I'm not looking for opinions on that.
"I do think that I'm the most experienced going into the championships and I'm excited to defend the title that I believe is mine."
Dreaming of winning a world championships just mere months after you were on crutches is not something every athlete can turn into reality, but for Kerr it is just the start of his 2026 arc.
A grade two calf tear was the reasoning behind his 1500m world championships title defence in 2025 with 600m to go.
The Scot suddenly found himself in rehab mode but was back on the track just two months later to lay the crucial winter month building blocks he needed for this season.
It was a streamlined process that helped reveal just how crucial the behind-the-scenes staff are to his overarching goals.
These are freak accidents," he said. "So there weren't really any process issues.
"What it did expose is how amazing my medical team is and how amazing my medical staff is.
"We're sitting here talking about going after a world indoor title not that many months afterwards and I know there's other athletes that wouldn't have been able to do that.
"I have a lot of faith in the people I've got around me."
The World Athletics Indoor Championships in Poland will mark the first step in Kerr's ambitions 2026 plans.
The two-time Olympic medallist is keeping pretty tight lipped so far about his ultimate outdoor ambitions, with a Commonwealth Games and European Championships on UK shores this summer, but one thing is for sure, they're set to stun.
"I have some pretty big goals that I'm going to come out and talk about a little bit after World Indoors, just so we can keep focus where the focus is.
"But when you have the flexibility of there being no Olympic Games, you can go out and try and prove why you're the best runner in the world.
"I think that's what's the fun part of it, it's a challenge for everyone to be battling for that top spot and it keeps me excited."
Sportsbeat 2026