Happy Monday! And an official, non-pre-scheduled Happy New Year message. Damn, it feels good to be back in the USA.

Allison and I arrived back to Kansas City yesterday afternoon after spending 15 days in Bali for our honeymoon. I plan to take some time to process and articulate some of the thoughts and takeaways I’ve had from the two week break - some that will certainly turn into consistent themes in this newsletter.

For now, I wanted to try a little something different for this week. Being in a different country for any extended period of time affords you the opportunity to disconnect and spend a lot of time with your thoughts, in a great way. I pieced my way through many things mentally, including this newsletter.

We are coming up rapidly on 52 weeks in a row of publishing this. The motivation for this project was always a catalyst for me to find an avenue where I could share things I am passionate about, become a better writer, entrench myself in the spaces I enjoy, and hopefully through the process encourage others to adopt some of the lessons I come across in your own lives. The structure of the newsletter - Brain | Body | Books - came from the core of why I wanted to start it in the first place. There is so much content out there right now around fitness, personal development, reading, and self-help - yet I still find there aren’t enough places where those concepts overlap.

From personal experience, I’ve come to grips with the fact that without development in all of these buckets, one can be left with a feeling of discontent. You can have the fittest body in the world, but if you feel stagnant in your career, it can seem irrelevant. You can be on a rocket ship up the corporate / entrepreneurial ladder, but if your body and diet are out of wack, your self-worth will suffer. And it’s just my personal opinion that there isn’t a single person out there who couldn’t benefit from reading more than they are right now - yet it’s rare to see the fit influencer on social media posting anything but quotes they likely didn’t get from turning the pages themselves.

I say this all again as a reminder to you reading, and to myself, that the foundation of this newsletter is to encourage you to take on more in each of these buckets. I write this newsletter not for the potential of a dollar that could come from it, but because I want to hopefully be a reason someone picks up a book for the first time in years on their own accord. To push someone to sign up for that race who is reading this telling themselves they aren’t a runner. To encourage someone to turn off their daily music loop and throw on a podcast instead.

Today’s newsletter is going to be a departure from its normal 4-section structure and be more of a brain dump from things I thought about consistently while disconnected from it all, and some reflections I’m taking away from Bali culture as well. The newsletter will return to normal format, but I will continue to experiment with it as well through the year, in hopes to continue to improve it. Let me know if you enjoy! LFG 2025

Perspective - The Foundation of Life

One thing I ALWAYS come back with from a trip experiencing a different culture from the US is a reminder of how crucial a role perspective plays in our lives. Bali was the 10X version of this learning cycle.

It can be easy to fall into the loop of life in America and take things for granted as “normal” and “the way things are / should be.” We live in a fast-paced society, built around the concept of more. We work more hours, to acquire more money, to acquire more things, to acquire more “happiness.” And that path is not a linear line - it’s a circle that just starts over at the beginning. Make more money, acquire more things, still not “happy” so you work more hours, to make more money, to acquire even more, nicer things. Keeping up with the Joneses is marketed to us everywhere we look. Our idols are rich. We look up to those burning the midnight oil. Our social medias are full of the latest, lavish things. It’s constantly in front of our eyes.

Then you get off a plane in Denpasar, Bali, and all of a sudden time slows down. My phone has no service, I am getting no notifications. Our hotel shuttle driver greets us with a 🙏🏻, helps us load our bags, and immediately launches into explaining some of the foundations of the local Bali culture.

It’s 9:30 AM, and it’s immediately clear that the island is going to be the antithesis to American culture. Everyone is smiling. The roads are TINY, traffic is bumper to bumper, yet the only horn you hear is the one from a car kindly letting the moped in front of them know that they will be passing by on the right. Every car has a small floral arrangement on the dash - an “offering” (I encourage you to read this quick piece on the ideology of the offering in Bali - pictured above), prepared every morning in the car, in front of each house, and in front of each temple, as a sign of respect to the powers that be, and as a living metaphor of “Karma” as our driver Petek said. Bad energy out, good energy in. Thankful for the blessing of each day.

Every house has a temple in it for the family to begin their day. Every village has a temple in it for the community to gather. Every single person had a smile on their face. Our guide for most of the week was named Mega, and he talked about how the main goal of every family in Bali is to make enough to put food on the table, get their kids an education, and to be able to help their village. No aspirations higher than that. He had a TV in his house, but he hadn’t watched it in a few years. He had a Facebook, but he used it as a means to connect with travelers who he built a rapport with.

I could write about the culture in Bali for thousands of words, but I simply want to remember the impact it had on me, and to hopefully bring some of that back to the states. We so often forget what’s important in life, and the rat race wheel of chasing down our aspirations can often be a cloud over the things we already have in our possession and take for granted. Family - friends - health - time. If I accomplish nothing more in 2025, I hope I can (and you) work on grounding myself in that realization.

Letting the Mind Wander

We spent a lot of time doing something I rarely do, and typically don’t enjoy all that much - which was simply relaxing, letting the time pass with nothing on the agenda to do. It’s pretty rare that I spend a bunch of uninterrupted time with my thoughts, outside of running. What I found, and have always found interesting, is identifying where the mind consistently wanders when left idle. Meaning, that when you disconnect and let your mind free, what are the recurring topics you think about?

I thought a lot about where I am professionally, and where I’d like to see that progress over the future. No major revelations worth sharing quite yet, but I think it’s relevant to connect these thoughts back to the above section on perspective, as I am certainly considering both as one packaged item more than I have in the past.

It might sound facetious to some, but every time we got a massage, or just laid by the pool, my mind ALWAYS made its way back to fitness. I love to train. I love the way it makes me feel. I love the focus it gives my days. I love the discipline it instills in everything else in my weeks. I love setting a goal that is outside of my current ability and just having to figure out how to get there, and then executing on that plan.

Training for endurance races is an all-encompassing pursuit, and I’ve feared that I would someday reach the point where the time sacrifice and the grind of it would outweigh the passion I have for doing them in the first place. After spending some time with my thoughts, I really don’t have those fears anymore. I think they are rooted in the person I used to be - who simply was overweight, out of shape, and had poor discipline. Training is a part of who I am. Striving for a better physique is a passion of mine. It is something I want to pass on to my kids, and an example I want to set to motivate those around me.

I always thought that the beginning of starting a family would be an inflection point where I would have to slow down, but now I am looking forward to the challenge of finding ways to balance it all together. 2025 starts with a Hyrox race in Miami in April. It’s completely out of my comfort zone, and something I simply don’t know much about. I’m ecstatic to obsess over the training, the details, understanding the ins and outs of the race, and pushing my body in ways it hasn’t been pushed before. All meanwhile building up a fitness base to immediately launch into whatever the next prep may be.

I’ve had periods of my life, 6 months, 1 year, where I was locked in with my fitness routine and then fell off the wagon eventually. Spending some time with my thoughts reinforced that that is the old me. My identity has changed. Fitness, behind family and friends, is the singular thing I’m most passionate about, and I am just scratching the surface of what I want to do with it.

Sit back and let your mind wander some this week - where does it keep coming back for you?

“Your goals become more realistic when you think about accomplishing them in 10 years rather than one. Your goal isn’t crazy, but your timeline is”

Not a ton to add here, it was simply a quote from my reading that I thought about often this trip. Last year I aggressively pushed for a sub-3 hour marathon on a 4-month prep and “failed”. As I’ve spent time in reflection, I understand that I haven’t failed at the goal of a sub-3 hour marathon, I failed in the context of the time period I set around that. The goal remains, the runway of time is simply longer. A lesson I’ll need to continue to re-ingrain.

What is something you want to accomplish in the future that maybe you are simply not allocating enough time for to increase your chances of success?

Old Habits Never Die, Your Old Identity is Simply Buried

I leaned in heavily this trip to simply enjoying time with my now wife. I have spent the better part of the last 5 years adhering to some sort of diet and training plan. Even on our trips of the past, I have let those focuses ride along and set guard rails for our trips. In reality, it’s something I know I will do in our future trips, but for this one, I wanted to try to just enjoy the days and the meals as they came.

It was nice to let the proverbial foot off the gas, but it was also a stark reminder that my old identity is not dead, it’s just buried. After a few days of loose eating and a couple of days of not training, I was reminded of who I used to be. You start to crave the meals I spend so much time in my normal life avoiding. I never got to a point where I didn’t miss the training - I love the gym - but I could certainly see how an extended period of time away from a normal meal schedule could result in a complete relapse in the kitchen. Improving my relationship with food will be something I work on for the rest of my life.

If you’re someone who has struggled with weight or adhering to a diet in the past and has made it over a hump, this is simply your (and mine) reminder to keep focused and keep going. Your body, health, longevity, and mental state will thank you.

So often we think of losing weight and dieting in these short time blocks. The reality is that it’s a lifetime commitment to a better version of yourself and a new identity. And that identity takes continual reinforcing.

Read More. Read More. Read More.

There was no ESPN in Bali. We were 14 hours ahead of our home time zone in Kansas City. I have an obsessive personality and love sports. It’s something I know about myself. When I am home and in the mix, I know a fault and distraction point of mine is the rat wheel of staying “in the know” on everything going on in the sports world. In the moment, it feels like of course I need to know what the scores of the 3:25 NFL games are. I love a good box score perusing of the latest NBA slate. Gotta check the PGA leaderboard while I’m at it. What’s the latest in the NFL coaching search realm? Did Mizzou land any new recruits today?

Sports will always be something I’m passionate about, but a resolution of mine post-Bali is to strategically attempt to slowly separate myself from the information intake portion of it all, and to replace that with more time reading, or simply being unplugged. I plan to spend my time actually watching and enjoying the live sports - not simply passing time reading about them.

For the first 6 days of our trip, I left my phone in the cabinet and averaged 14 minutes of screen time a day. Something I am not proud of is what that number typically is on a normal week. After those 6 days, I wasn’t left with a feeling of lack or being left out because I didn’t know the stats from the Penn State game. Instead, I had blown through a 1050-page book, and felt incredibly refreshed and relaxed to have gotten lost in some pages, instead of notifications on my phone.

Reading is a powerful medicine. For pleasure or for purpose. I know I read more than the average American, likely by quite a bit. Yet I know I can do more. I will replace more idle time this year with spending time with a book rather than on my phone. I hope you get lost in a few pages yourself in 2025.

Force the Disconnection

Readers of the Superset know I’ve tried the gambit of tips and tricks to reduce the time I spend staring at my screen. When you travel somewhere without service and are reliant strictly on WiFi connection, your hand is forced in this regard. No need to block apps and limit time. The environment does that for you.

This lead me to continually think - why can’t I simply duplicate these environments at home?

I’m going to spend more time leaving my phone in the other room when I am spending time with Allison or working this year. I am going to turn off all notifications on my phone that aren’t texts and calls. I plan to utilize the “do not disturb” function more often. My phone is not something that should be within reach when I’m at a dinner table, watching a movie, conversing with family or friends, etc.

Access is the foundational problem of our constant screen checking, and I am as guilty as any. The text comes through, then you check Instagram, and might as well check ESPN while you’re at it. Oh, there are some emails too. None of it is pressing, but it feels so in the moment. And whether you want to be honest with yourself or not, this DOES have a negative impact on your brain, and a negative impact on your social ability. There are no exceptions to the rule. Much like deciding to smoke a cigarette knowing it negatively impacts your lungs, choosing to not do something about your screen time is knowingly deciding that you’re taking a small chunk away from your mental health.

Structure around the time when you use the phone and not - much like when you do and don’t have wi-fi in a foreign country - can be an easy antidote to reducing the screen time.

Priorities in Life

Thanks to my buddy Darus for forwarding this my way - I spent a lot of time thinking about this post from Chris Williamson, and think everyone needs to read it too (then re-read it again, and again) - LINK

If you react as I did, and others I know have, you will catch yourself thinking “oh, well my situation is different” or something along the lines. Deep down, you know the truth. It’s not.

I don’t want to look back on my life and regret having omitted the lessons we continually hear passed down from generation to generation, expanding upon what really matters in life, and what really doesn’t. 2025 will be a year of asking the question - is the sacrifice of this worth the reward, and does it line up with what I have decided are the priorities in my life?

Does chasing that next promotion mean enough financial security and professional exposure to sacrifice the decreased time I would get to spend with my wife, my future kids, my parents, and my friends? Does saying “yes” to this thing positively impact my mental state, or will it overburden my schedule to the point the stress/ fatigue outweighs the benefit? Do I really need to buy that next pair of shoes or piece of workout clothing, or do I really need to actually clean out my closet of all the s*** I already have? Do I really enjoy doing “x”, or do I do it because my friends do?

The line in the sand is not grey - it’s black and white. Our choices have consequences. And the only way to make sure we make more good ones than bad ones is to ensure we have properly identified what we prioritize in life, and use those only as the North Star in our decision-making process.

The Superset

I want to do more with this content and space, and I want to do better at it too. Better writing. Better research. More original ideas. More experimentation. More content on social media.

I don’t want to do it with some grand idea that it will one day blow up and become my primary source of professional income. I want to do it because I think people need more positive content in their lives. People need to feel the endorphins from putting on a pair of running shoes and going farther than they’ve ever gone before. And then waking up a few days later and going even further than that. And then eventually faster. And then eventually a race.

I want people to feel the satisfaction of gaining discipline in their life. To the point where the battle with the alarm clock is one you never lose again. To where you can easily say no when the waitress asks if you’d like to see the dessert menu.

I want people to be able to brush their teeth in the morning and look in the mirror with their shirt off and be happy with the image reflecting back at them. I want people to feel confident and informed when they step into the gym.

I want people to enjoy the positive state of mind that reverberates from spending time listening to a personal development podcast in the morning.

I want people to pick up that book every day and to win that battle to pick up the phone instead. To get lost in the pages of a good story, or to find their next actionable pursuit from the pages of a self-help book.

I spent a lot of time in Bali reflecting, and I continually came back to this. This is what I’m passionate about, and this is the theme for 2025. It’s easier to achieve these things together. Hopefully this is a space we all find we can commune around doing so.

What are your passions you plan to chase this year?