I had a good year this year. Good, not great. But I will take it. It was the first good year I’ve had in my thirties. That isn’t an exaggeration. The last 5 years were complete and utter shit. That isn’t me being negative, that’s just the reality of the situation. My perspective throughout those 5 years was mostly positive, but even still overall it was a sucky time. This year, however, something changed. I didn’t feel lost and confused. I didn’t make mountains out of molehills. I took everything in stride. It was good. Things were busy, as usual, but I never felt overwhelmed or scatterbrained. I knew if I just clamped down and chugged I could get a lot done. And I was mostly pleased with my progress. Slowly but surely I’ve been progressing in the game of life, leveling up where I can, stopping to smell the flowers where appropriate, and 2017 was pretty smooth in those regards.
Some of the highlights this year for me included getting Lasik surgery and hiring a private swimming coach. Both of these were huge. My vision has improved tremendously and I no longer need glasses and contact lenses. I cannot emphasize how much this has improved my life. The same can be said for hiring a private swimming coach. She was able to 10x my swimming ability and drastically improve my confidence in the water. I was so pleased with the results that I’ll be hiring her again next year. Lesson learned – sometimes you just have to pay up to have your problems solved. Both of these were investments into me and were worth every penny.
This was also a great year health-wise. Sure, I still can’t see my abs and I still have a bit more tummy then I did before I started my uber bulk, but the fat has slowly been melting away. I don’t mind, though. I’ve put on more muscle than fat and have had numerous people compliment me on my gainz. But much, much more importantly, I’ve been mostly injury free and a lot more durable this year. This makes me very, very happy. Strength training has gone well and progressive overload has been pretty much linear (or maybe step-wise). A first time in my 5 years of lifting. Injuries in the past have set me back time and again, sometimes for unbearably long periods of time, but this year everything just went well. This allowed me to sneak in some fun BJJ injury-free as well (though not as much as I would have liked). Things are just better without injuries so I’m hoping I can stay this way for a long time. I think I made the right adjustments this year and am quite pleased.
I didn’t do a lot of travel this year but did sneak away to Havana for a few days early in the year. I’ve always wanted to go to Havana because that is where my Grandmother was born and it always looked like it was trapped in a time capsule. It didn’t disappoint in the slightest. It was a fabulous place and the people were great. I also had short weekends in Chicago and New York City, my favourite city in the world. It was my first time in Chicago but hopefully not the last. I had a fantastic time there with some fantastic people. I will be traveling a lot more in 2018, for sure, starting with a month-long trip to India in January.
Aside from that, not much else to report. I didn’t think I read a whole lot of books this year but looking back at my Goodreads bookshelf, it looks like I managed to cram in over 20 books since the beginning of the year. I really enjoyed the books “Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World” and “Persuadable: How Great Leaders Change Their Minds to Change the World” (what’s with me liking books about changing the world? hmmmm).
Next year looks to be business as usual in a lot of ways, but there will also be exciting opportunities available. I think it will be a hard but rewarding year. And if it’s a good year like this one I’ll gladly accept it. I’m excited to see what happens.
Happy New Year! Much love.