#8 Closing out 2024...

How did your 2024 end up? Did you accomplish all you set out to do? Are you proud of where you're at?

It was an interesting year for yours truly.

I will start with: I learned ALOT. About myself, my ambitions, the financial world, the medication world, what matters to me, embracing the suck, the importance of mindset, along with a number of other things.

For the sake of time, I'm going to focus on a few of the major hard hitters.

Mental Health

2024 did not begin with a hot start. At the time, I was very much struggling with trying to wean off my antidepressant medication Escitalopram. I had been trying to do so since July 2023 & as a result experienced almost every single side effect in the book - spaciness, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, panic attacks, disassociation. Antidepressant withdrawal is harder than any race I've ever run because it's constant. Throughout my mental health journey, I have taken videos to track my progress. I remember crying on my first run of the year with my Mom. I was disassociating & feeling like crap. I questioned why I was the way that I was. The victim mentality. I was scared to go back to Colorado after the holidays because of how much I had been struggling. In a video right before I left, I said "Just because you struggle doesn't mean you have to suffer." And that's stuck with me throughout this process.

Basically: embrace the suck.

Therefore, over the year, I tried my best to reframe certain situations I was in to practice being grateful & positive. The withdrawal wasn't happening TO me it was happening FOR me. These side effects weren't happening TO me they were happening FOR me. The low points weren't happening TO me they were happening FOR me. Every experience in life is a learning opportunity & this one taught me a few things.

1. The medication world is no joke & I feel for you if you've ever experienced withdrawal side effects. Understand what you're going through is very real but also very treatable. In the moment, things seem permanent but understand everything in life is temporary. Lean on your support system.

2. I created an exercise called "Life Could Be Much Worse" where I wrote down real life scenarios that I believe were worse than mine. For example, being a coal miner, working at McDonalds, being paralyzed, having cancer, etc. Although extremes, it has trained me to be more grateful.

3. Another exercise I wrote out on a posterboard on my wall is "Things that I can control & Things that I cannot control". It allows you to understand how little you have control over. This exercise trains acceptance & appreciate for what actions you can take to make change.

Races

In terms of races, to be honest I personally think it was just an "ok" year in terms of physical accomplishments. I'd call it a rebuilding year for sure. It's difficult when you like to do challenging things because in order to feel like you're achieving something greater than your past it requires doing even more difficult tasks. Basically, the law of diminishing returns.

I will note there is one race in particular I'm extremely proud of: the Georgetown to Idaho Springs half marathon. I believe I executed the race perfectly. Each mile split time was within 10 seconds of each other, so I was proud of how I paced myself. I absolutely killed my goal of 1:25:00 finishing with a time of 1:22:36. To cap it off, my name was surprisingly called for a 3rd place finish on the podium.

Regarding races, I think the most exciting part has been helping friends & family with training plans to get them across the finish lines. In total, I helped 5 different people with plans. I really enjoy that process. It's exciting to see advice be taken & executed on to accomplish a goal. I'm excited to help a number of family & friends with their halves & fulls this upcoming year. My advice is to sign up for a race of sorts. It brings out the competitive nature & allows you to work toward something. If you want help with a training plan or someone to nag you about getting your workouts in, reach out!

Adventures

From soloing Mt. Sneffels in Ouray, CO to holding close friend's newborns in Philadelphia to golfing with my fraternity brothers in Palm Springs, I've been all over the map this year. This past year is by far the most I've ever traveled in my life due to the frequency for work combined with my personal treks. Near Thanksgiving, I was definitely worn out & wanted a break from it. The constant treks to the Denver Airport weighed on me & my body asked for rest. Since then, I have slowed down some & look forward to a slower (at least beginning) of 2025. My goal is to be more intentional with where I go, doing things I want to do. My advice is to spend money on experiences but understand the importance of downtime as well! It's a balance.

Overall, I'm grateful for how the year went despite its challenges. Have you had the time to review how your 2024 went? It's great to review progression over a year time frame because you can truly begin to see differences. My ask is to write out experiences that you are grateful for. Each experience is a learning opportunity. The mindset we have daily is the key to appreciating what we've done, where we're at, & what's ahead. Cheers to 2024 & onward to 2025: The Year of Positivity. More to come on that!

Cheers Fam.