At the beginning of the year, I said I wanted to do one newsletter or so a month where I deviated from the standard Brain | Body | Book format and converted the issue into more of long form-brain dump in which I just emptied some things that are on my mind.

Some of my favorite newsletters I read personally do a great job of this. We all go through these “seasons” during what is a long year, and it’s helpful sometimes to be able to connect with each other on something we may not even know we have in common or are similarly dealing with.

Today is the last week of the first quarter of the year. We are 25% through 2025 already. I am officially under 1 month out from my first Hyrox competition in Miami on April 19th. This feels like the opportune time to reflect, reset, and reengage - not just for myself, but hopefully for you. With that being said, here are some recurring thoughts I have been processing and wanted to share:

(If you want to read another example of a Brain Dump version of the Superset, I got some good feedback on our honeymoon reflection issue here)

On Hyrox

Showing Up

I’ll say this every so often and get a few eye rolls I’m sure, but I truly believe it. I have never been super athletic. As I kid, I was always a little pudgy. I played golf from as early as I can remember, and only ever had small stints in other sports like basketball because I have been the same height since I was 13. I am not fast. I am nowhere close to the strongest. I don’t have great physical genetics for staying in great shape all year round. If my athletic genes were a poker hand, I would likely be looking at a 2/9, unsuited.

I have known this throughout my entire life, and over the years, I matured and leaned into it, and developed what I believe to be the only real skill I do have - I will show up. No questions asked.

I know that when April 19th comes around and it is my time to toe the line, I will again not be the fastest, the fittest, the strongest, or have the best physique. I can confidently say though that as we toe that line, I will already have 50% of my competition beat, because I showed up to train more days than they did.

I have now trained for 4 marathons, 2 halves, a 50 mile ultra, and an IronMan 70.3. All of these training blocks have lasted 12 - 24 weeks. It’s a gruelingly long time to stay consistent with something, and just like life, you absolutely have your high moments and you have your low moments.

You have many days where the alarm goes off and you simply jump out of bed because you are energized, well-rested, and excited to train. You have plenty of days too where you mentally go through the gambit of reasons why today is an okay day to just stay in bed and relax.

My older self would have given into the pity party more often than not, there’s no doubt about that. When you’re out of shape, not in a routine, and haven’t sharpened your discipline knife, it’s easy to just coast by. The harsh truth is that the reason this is easy is that we have not yet set a standard for ourselves that we swear to uphold on a daily basis.

This isn’t just for fitness, but for life too. If we haven’t clearly defined what and why we are willing to do on a daily basis in our fitness, our careers, our families, our friends, then the bar can vary with the wind based on how we feel and our emotions. And this lack of a standard is probably more common than it is not.

Which is why I have confidence in this race coming up. It's going to be hard. I am going to push my limits. There’s even a chance that I might go out there and struggle and not have the race I think I am going to have. But I know that at a minimum, many of the other guys hammering beside me took days off - they cut corners - they opted for easier workouts when the plan for the day was too hard. And so when the going gets tough - some will lean back on their speed, their strength, their genes - I will lean back on the mental fortitude from simply choosing to get up every day and go get it done.

There are so many lessons learned in these fitness races that instill their values into every other aspect of our lives. It’s why I have latched on so hard to them. Show up. Do the work. Set a standard. Don’t miss that standard. Repeat.

Compound Interest

This is of a similar vein to the thought above, but I believe worthy of its own short little section. As you choose to continue to show up or not to show up, you recruit the positive or the negative power of compounding interest in your favor or against you.

So much of a long period of training or tackling a goal is simply stacking days on each other. Not every day has to be perfect, but every day has to contain progress.

It doesn’t seem like a lot in the moment - showing up to the gym for one day isn’t going to change your physique. Running one mile isn’t going to snap you in shape for a marathon. Eating one meal of chicken and rice isn’t going to get you a six-pack.

Likewise skipping the gym for a day isn’t going to put 30 pounds on your frame. Not going for a run isn’t going to reset your cardiovascular fitness. Falling off the wagon and eating ice cream isn’t going to ruin your diet.

What these positives and negatives DO possess though is this power of compounding interest and a reinforcement of what type of person you believe yourself to be and the type of decisions you make because of such.

Skipping the gym for one day doesn’t seem like a major deal - and it’s not - but skipping the gym for even a day plants a little seed in your mind that it is an acceptable decision, and subtly engrains that you are the person who skips the gym every once in a while.

The compound interest of that decision might be that one skipped day in the gym - even after a month of perfect execution - opens the door for skipping the gym becoming a once-a-week decision. Next thing you know, you look up, and you’ve missed two days this week. Three days the next. Then you blink and you’ve completely fallen off track.

The flip side of that coin is deciding on that day when you feel like sleeping in to show up and get something done. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It might even just be a 10-minute jog and some pushups - but it’s something. Making that decision to do SOMETHING reinforces in your mind that you are the type of person who shows up. The type of person who doesn’t respond to their emotions.

That’s why it’s so crucial that you set a minimum standard for your daily activity around every goal you set. So that when the going gets tough, you have a compressed version of your standard plan that you can fall back upon to keep the momentum going in your favor.

If you were going to invest a dollar a day into your savings account for the future, you would certainly run into a day where you were presented the opportunity to instead spend that dollar elsewhere and get back to the investing tomorrow. If you simply put 50 cents in there instead of nothing, the law of compounding interest would continue to work in your favor. It’s the same with your fitness and your goals. Keep inching forward.

On Resolutions

Time for a Reset?

It’s Not Over—Unless You Quit.

Let’s get real for a second.
It’s almost April.
Most people made big promises to themselves in January.
“New year, new me.”
And then…life happened.

You missed a workout.
Ate like crap for a weekend.
Hit snooze on their alarm once…then twice…then for a month straight.
And now you’re telling yourselves, “I’ll start fresh next year.”

What?
You’re going to let three bad months ruin the next nine?
Come on.

This isn’t about a resolution.
It’s about a decision.
You don’t need a Monday. You don’t need a new month.
You just need a moment. And this is it. Today is it.

Reset. Refocus. Recommit.
Forget what you didn’t do. Nobody cares. You shouldn’t either.
Care about what you do next.
Care about the work. The reps. The miles. The meals.
Because the clock’s still running. You’ve got time.

9 months is more than enough time to change your life.
But you have to start again.
Not next year.
Not next week.
Now.

So often we fall off the wagon and forget the reason we got on in the first place.

You have so much time left in this year. Please do me and yourself a favor and not give up on it because you failed to start in the way that you would like.

On Reading