Today is January 20th. You are 20 days into the new year. How are you tracking on your New Year’s resolutions?

If you are part of the masses, chances are you have fallen of the wagon a bit, or have at least begun to let your daily standards stray. Don’t beat yourself up - this is the normal curve of any meaningful goal. We are motivated and ambitious initially - this is finally the year we take control of “x”. We have a plan, our motivation is high, and we are also coming off a holiday stretch that likely has our desire to get back into a routine at its highest level.

We don’t ever set goals that are easy though, and everything around us pushes us to lean into short-term satisfaction over long-term gain and delayed gratification.

I know you’re sore from the gym. I know you’re tired of being the sober one at the weekend festivities where your friends are enjoying themselves. I know it sucks to be hungry and tired of a monotonous diet. I know that the extra hours at work are leaving you tired in the evenings.

I also know that you started because of something rooted deep inside you. You are not happy with your body. You are not content with your career. You know that you have been coasting for a while, and that is not you. Today is the day to get back on track, and if you are on track - today is the day to reaffirm to yourself the real reason why you started in the first place. Keep Going.

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Brain - The Most Important Question of Your Life

We’ve all asked ourselves at some point what we want in life - but what if that question is the wrong one to ask in the first place?

Mark Manson - author of “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F***” - writes in a recent blog post that everyone has an idea of what they want in their lives, relationships, careers, and health, but few people are asking the right question. What if the right question is actually: “What pain do you want in your life? What are you willing to struggle for?”

From the article “The Most Important Question of Your Life“: “At the core of all human behavior, our needs are more or less similar. Positive experience is easy to handle. It’s negative experience that we all, by definition, struggle with. Therefore, what we get out of life is not determined by the good feelings we desire, but by what bad feelings we’re willing and able to sustain to get us to those good feelings.”

I spent a lot of time thinking about two sections of this article:

1. Mark discusses his lifetime goal of being a rock star. He dreamed of performing in front of sold-out crowds, the fame, and all that came with being a famous musician. He held onto this dream, even when he quit music school and even when he stopped playing seriously. What he came to realize later in his life was he didn’t actually want it. He was in love with the result, but he wasn’t in love with the process - the daily hours of practice, living a broke musician lifestyle trying to make it, the politics of finding a band, etc.

   1. “I wanted the reward and not the struggle. I wanted the result and not the process. I was in love not with the fight, but only the victory.”

2. “Who you are is defined by the values you are willing to struggle for. People who enjoy the struggles of a gym are the ones who get in good shape. People who enjoy long work weeks and the politics of the corporate ladder are the ones who move up it. People who enjoy the stresses and uncertainty of the starving artist life are ultimately the ones who live it and make it.”

I know all of us have had a dream of something we’ve wanted to be or wanted to have at some point. What this article has challenged me, and hopefully you, to do is to seriously challenge whether I love the “result” of that outcome enough to also love the process of it too.

If I want to achieve and maintain single digit body fat numbers, am I willing to abstain from eating out, drinking any serious amounts of alcohol, being in a state of slight hunger most hours of the day? I believe the answer to be yes - but certainly need to continually reaffirm that position in my mind.

If I want this newsletter to get bigger than it is now, I need to spend some time reflecting what parts of my week I am willing to give up to commit the extra time to ensure it does so.

If I want to have a great relationship with Allison, to be a great dad, to have a great family - what am I consistently doing to ensure that I am becoming the man who can foster all of these things?

It’s great to have your thought process challenged. As you sit here reading, I challenge you to consider what you have said you’ve wanted in the past, and even consider what you have defined as your goals for this new year. Do you want the result enough to carry the pain and struggle required to achieve it? Or are your desires more external and superficial?

Body - A 12-Week Hyrox Prep Begins Today

At the time of this newsletter posting, I will have completed the first session of a new 12-week block to prepare for the next endurance event - HYROX Miami.

Many of you reading this probably have never heard of HYROX (As I hadn’t as of about 18 months ago). Hyrox is a new fitness competition that blends running and functional fitness into one race. The structure is simple but grueling:

Participants complete (8) 1 kilometer runs (.625 miles), and in between each 1K run, completes the following 8 stations:

• 1K Ski Erg

• 50M Sled Push (226 Pounds)

• 50M Sled Pull (226 Pounds)

• 80M Burpee Broad Jumps

• 1K Row

• 200M Farmers Carry (2× 70lb Kettlebells)

• 100M Lunges (45lb Sand Bag)

• 100 Wall Balls (20lb Ball)

The core of this race is still a running race, as 8K total equates out to 5 miles. But this is not your standard running race where you can go out and easily find a rhythm to stabilize your heart rate to cruise through a distance effort. The core challenge of HYROX is managing and pacing through challenging movements at an effort level that keeps your heart rate from spiking so high that you compromise the running and movements to follow.

I have a strong conviction about what we are seeing in the fitness industry right now, and why I am thankful I got into the running space at the time I did. One - I believe we are going to see a compounding explosion of running over the next 1 - 3 years. It is already happening now, but I think the movement is only just getting started. The ease of access to the sport combined with the mental benefits, in a time where society needs outlets to cope with stress and declining mental health, are going to be like pouring gasoline on a lightly stoked fire.

I also strongly believe that we are seeing a unification in the fitness industry that promotes straying from a specialization and meeting in the middle of fitness - a functional approach. Not only striving to look good, but also striving to feel and perform as well.

I am diving head first into this 12-week prep. I will document and share as much as I can here, and on Instagram, but I am looking forward to pushing my body in new ways. Looking forward to being a beginner again. And looking forward to answering the question yet again - what am I capable of?

Book - Die With Zero by Bill Perkins

I read 1860 pages in two weeks on our honeymoon. It was by far the most I have ever read in a two-week period of my life. Which, like anything else, has expanded my belief in how much I can and should be reading. Many of those pages were fun fantasy reads (I can’t stop reading The Stormlight Archive series by Brandon Sanderson…), but I did finally make a full first pass through Bill Perkins’ “Die With Zero”, which has been mentioned here before. Here are some of my favorite quotes and highlights:

1. Time and energy are your most valuable resources. Instead of endlessly accumulating wealth, focus on creating experiences that enrich your life. Money can always be earned, but time, once spent, cannot be regained.

2. "Experiences have diminishing returns over time, so prioritize them when you’re young." Your ability to enjoy certain experiences decreases as you age. Ski trips, adventure travel, or endurance sports are far more rewarding in your prime years. Plan and enjoy life’s big adventures when your body and mind are capable of fully embracing them.

3. Experiences don’t just bring joy in the moment; they create lasting memories that you can revisit throughout your life. Investing in meaningful experiences early on pays dividends in the form of happiness and fulfillment for years to come.

Perkins challenges the traditional mindset of accumulating wealth for retirement or inheritance, advocating instead for a life focused on maximizing experiences and fulfillment. By aligning your financial choices with your personal values and timeline, you can live a richer, more meaningful life.