Quarterly and YE Reflection
I am doing a combination of various methods of year end reflection. I will keep what works and drop what doesn’t.
First - Mel Robbins’ approach. I am going to be skipping the monthly reflection. Because I haven’t done quarterly reflections, this feels like it will be too time consuming to review everything that I have done (I made more than 40 videos in Q1 of ‘25).
I will, however, reflect on Q4 of ‘25. My reflection will exclude my work for now.
Quarter 4 ‘25
October:
Road trip to Alabama
Syd’s grandpa (dad’s dad) passed the Monday of our trip so we added a trip to Illinois to the itinerary. We felt awful for Syd’s dad as both of his parents have now passed. It was clearly tough on him but we were grateful that we were able to go out there and support him. You could tell it meant the world to him, which meant the world to us. Makes me tear up just thinking about it.
Thinking back, Truman was skinny and I was secure about it at our race. Good to remember… Holy shit dude.
The race was fun! Truman hated going under obstacles, especially those with water but we had a great time. Interestingly, he snapped at one person and I have no idea why. I don’t think he made contact but she was clearly scared and I can’t blame her. I chatted with a bunch of people there. Crossfitters from FL (one of which ripped her pants on one of the hills), crossfitters from TX, a guy with a doberman (Kirby.. I can’t remember his name - my fault - I do, however, remember the amount he loved his dog), and guy (and his mom) that played football at the same school I played football at.
I learned that Truman isn’t a huge fan of water that he isn’t drinking and carried him… A lot haha
We stayed in the most ghetto La Quinta in Birmingham because some d-bag didn’t book a hotel until the night of. Truman discovered a cockroach in the toilet with his mouth. Gross.
I almost gave the dogs heat stroke during the funeral as it was cool in the morning with cloud coverage so I didn’t leave the car on. Reading this back, I sound so much more negligent than I am with my dogs, I promise.
Halloween
Nothing you silly geese.
Ate dinner at Venice Ristorante
It was fine (the veal meatballs were good but I don’t really want to support the killing of young animals) but it was a good chance to connect with my mom and half-sister and I appreciate the effort that my mom makes to connect and the time that she takes to drive to Denver so it isn’t all on my shoulders to drive to her.
We found out she got two more cats during this dinner and were super surprised haha.
The traffic was horrendous because there was an Avs or Nuggets game… I should have pulled into the parking garage instead of being cheap but Syd drove me to where I parked. Such a lovely lady.
Birthdays
I don’t pay attention to the date, just the day. This means that I have missed… an embarrassing amount of birthdays. For my grandma, I set a reminder. This reminded me A WEEK in advance. Guess who texted their grandma a week early when they were trying to be mindful. What a guy.
$100 Million Offers
I joined the live stream after purchasing the book. Midway through the livestream, I realized that all I was there for were the free prizes and that I didn’t have any intention of applying the information to Syd’s fledgling business… Didn’t learn much because of my intentions.
Blood Test
I did a blood test and absolutely crushed it. My only high reading was creatine kinase and that is to be expected when lifting and supplementing creatine.
My innerage (biological age) dropped from 32 to 30. I’m only 28 so still not great but hey, it’s better and I’m undoing the damage I had done when I was being physically lazy. My theory is that I will die early because I am 6’9” so I want the longest healthspan and life I can to try and prove myself wrong.
Interestingly, my testosterone dropped a little bit from 619 ng/dL to 606 ng/dL. I would have expected it to go up but I was younger in the initial test?
November:
Road-tripped to Missouri
This was one of the longest trips that we have taken to Missouri and it was nice to get some time to relax there. We had a great time with Syd’s parents and found a version of spades that we can actually win.
I racked up Ws with Syd’s parents on Fortnite
The dogs loved exploring the property. So much so that Ellie almost got Truman kicked in the face by a horse. Dogs chasing horses is a… terrifying… experience. Fortunately, everybody made it out unscathed. The dogs loved seeing the horses again and Truman really enjoyed meeting the neighbor’s donkey. I enjoyed letting them rough-house on the front lawn and walking around the property with them (when the horses weren’t in the same area as us). In addition to chasing the horses, Ellie also tried to chase a deer. Fortunately, she listened to me when I told her to leave the deer be.
I bought a handful of courses
From learning about lifting to learning about dog training to learning about myofascial release. I will learn about anything to not exhaust myself by learning Japanese. I promise, I still want to do this…
December:
Chris Williamson podcast
I had no expectations going in but thought my ticket would buy me more leg room. Unfortunately, it didn’t and sat us right behind two people that fondled each other the whole show so I didn’t get to pay much attention as I can’t ignore stuff like that. Got to grow my patience?
Chris seemed exhausted so I didn’t ask him questions but felt good about that decision and still do.
Syd enjoyed it more than she thought she would and said a past her would have resonated with what he was going through and talking about.
Orthodontics
I have been using aligners (Angel align) to correct some issues that were caused by me having a grade 3 to 4 tongue tie and the conversation this month prompted me to have to reflect on if I want to get veneers on some of my teeth to close the gaps. I used to be self-conscious about them but don’t really care as an adult. I think I will get the veneers because if I don’t, I will have to be religious about wearing my retainers because my teeth will be likely to shift due to the gaps.
Syd and I joked that we both have small teeth at the top of our mouth and, if we have a child, they are fucked because they are practically guaranteed that problem.
Christmas Eve/Christmas
Syd went to see her parents for Christmas. She is an only child and I love that she gets extra time with them - I say this because people generally react interestingly when I tell them we spent the holiday apart and wonder if it bothers me. My parents were divorced and I felt guilt-tripped growing up about where I chose to spend time and in my previous relationship, this was a huge pain point. I don’t want holidays to be stressful and love the dynamic she has with her parents so I wholly support her visiting her parents each holiday while I navigate having three families.
My dad’s family celebrates Christmas Eve and my mom’s Christmas day. This makes my life much easier. I just feel like I let down my in-laws as I cycle the holidays I spend with them (this year was Thanksgiving) to make my life easier. I love spending time with them and more time with Syd so I feel like I am letting them all down at times even if I know I am not and that it is likely very nice to get time with Sydney. I also feel undeserving of their support at times because they are so supportive of Sydney and I. I think that’s why I feel extra guilty when I don’t visit as they give us so much and my time is the least that I can give them.
This year, I think I solidified in my mind that I would rather not receive a gift than receive something thoughtless. I love sincere gestures and recognize that people try to get you things if they are thinking of you but I’d rather just spend time together with no gift that I feel obligated to keep for a while prior to throwing it away. It is ungrateful, I know, but I also feel obligated to keep what people give me because they spent money on it.
Periodization
I have been prepping to not work with my coach for a little while to test myself and my ability to support my training independently. After watching some RP Strength videos, I decided to add my training blocks to my calendar so I know how close I am to the next training cycle. I will begin a cut in 2 months and 4 days. Woot woot!
I am also going to be targeting 1 lb a week of muscle gain. Over 2 months, that will be ~ 9 lbs. That means I will be cutting at ~240 lbs. Also, gaining weight eating pretty clean is much harder than being lazy and eating like shit. I got up to 270 over 2 years eating that way. I am struggling at 230 lbs right now and supplement eating out when I am dropping more than I would like…
Pets
I have been training the dogs more and have been reviewing courses to help my comprehension of dog training. I want well-mannered dogs so I can take them to do more without stressing about their behavior and am happy to put the work in.
With us getting a garage fridge as part of my Christmas gift to Syd, I tried transitioning them to a BARF diet and Truman got sick and proceeded to get Ellie sick. Nice. I accepted this as a risk and it came to fruition, I just feel bad for them as the whole point of their diet change was to help them be healthier.
After taking them to the vet today (12.27.25), I learned that they both have lost a tremendous amount of weight. This was soul-crushing as I didn’t pay enough attention to their caloric intake and Truman lost 30 lbs. My stomach dropped seeing their weight. He hasn’t eaten in the last 5 days, which doesn’t help either. He’s showing signs of pancreatitis and, if he doesn’t eat tonight, I will hospitalize him tomorrow to ensure this doesn’t become life threatening. Back to the drawing board…
I’ll admit, once I looked through all of the prompts a lot of what works for her seems like a waste of time to me as I don’t like spending time reminiscing so I pulled the meat of what I value out and left what created friction.
What were your low points last year?
This year honestly doesn’t have a ton of obvious low points (at least relative to losing the dogs the year before). There are areas that I know I can improve but I am really proud of what I was able to accomplish from a health perspective as that historically has been one of my biggest pain points.
Having nailed fitness, I want to make sure I layer things in. To achieve what I want, there will be elements of suffering but if I get where I want to be, I think it will all be worth it. My theme of the year last year was building discipline but I learned that I was refining my understanding of what discipline looks like for me. Now I need to refine discipline in the form of how I hold myself accountable in ways that I don’t avoid the work that I want to do.
I wanted to progress in my video editing more. I wanted to progress in Japanese more. I wanted to do better with the dogs (and did not do great at this to close out the year). I don’t want these wants to become regrets and that is where I will have to ensure that I am holding myself to what I have committed to.
What were the high points?
I lost 35 lbs while getting stronger and getting to the point where I was just shy of a 6 pack. That was pretty damn cool. Now I am gaining weight and I would love to get to a lean 250 in the next few years.
I performed very well at work and would like to sustain that to continue making progress at a good rate.
What did you learn about yourself?
A lot of people think I am Type A when I have always thought myself to be Type B. I am very hard on myself and I think that is where the Type A impression comes from. I have to fight my inner critic to not trump what I want in life with fear of failure. I also have to not let that inner critic burn me out or steer me away from what genuinely interests me as that is where I have found the most growth.
I will stop….
Avoiding what I want to do.
I will continue…
Working hard at the gym and prioritizing my health along with my family’s health.
I will start…
Periodizing my work more so I can sustain my efforts better without getting to a point of burnout.
The following is from Dan Pink and I like it more…
My most important project for 2026 is:
Documenting my life and sharing my learning along the way
It’s December 31st, 2026 and this project is a disaster. What went wrong?
I forgot about it.
I didn’t make the time for it.
I didn’t document (film, write, etc.) it.
How will I prevent each pitfall in the real 2026?
Make reminders. Little notes around the house. Reminders in my calendar. Scheduled reflection time.
Refer to the above.
DON’T BE AFRAID TO USE YOUR PHONE. Don’t aim for perfection. It will never be perfect. Just get some content.
Three words that describe me at my best
Curious
Playful
Determined
Emotions I feel when I’m at my best
Happiness
Fulfillment
Emotions I feel when I’m not at my best
Guilt
Shame
Anxiety
Conditions that help me be at my best
Consistent exercise and diet
Consistent routines (even if I don’t think that it is great to prescribe them)
Strengths I see in myself
I care a lot about others
When I am interested in something, I can do a very deep dive and, as the kids say, hyperfixate to a point where I have a decent level of knowledge about a topic
Strengths others see in me
Kind
What three things consistently waste my time, divert my attention, and prevent me from doing my best work?
Compulsively pulling out my phone to play games and scroll Facebook mindlessly. That’s it, those are the things.
Okay, I’ll add watching YouTube for entertainment
I need to uninstall FB from my phone and stop using marketplace to justify my having it. I already moved all of my games from my phone to the iPad and feel the impact… and use the iPad more…
What deep discomfort am I willing to endure regularly to get great at something?
Hmmmm. I mean, I have pretty consistently been “sacrificing” my nights and weekends to go to the gym and to improve myself so… That? It isn’t really a discomfort for me but is for others. I don’t need to see friends and family to be fulfilled if I have my wife and my pets with me.
What three skills in my life have already rewarded long-term effort?
This doesn’t make sense to me so I’m changing it to What have you done to get where you are now?
I consistently show up. I did this in school, football, and work and it seemed to always make me stand out, even if I didn’t feel like it should. Showing up, understanding what is expected of you and doing what is expected of you seems to have tremendous rewards for, what I consider to be, little effort.
What matters enough to deserve energy this year?
My wife, my animals, my health, and my job
Whose life or work gets better when I’m at my best
Please see the above. And all of my employees and coworkers
What I will contribute consistently
Being present in what I am working on.
The single meaningful contribution I hope will define my 2026:
This. This gives me accountability to the world. I want to help you and I want you to help me.
What I can’t control
I already don’t pay attention to what I can’t control and turn my attention towards taking action. There’s no point stressing about what you can’t control.
What I can control
Attitude and effort
Most importantly, showing up
At this point, there was too much extra shit.
I’m going to get after it and make sure that I’m not forgetting about what I want to accomplish and taking repeated, consistent action to get there.
Also I hate SMART goals for broad strokes things like this. I am not going to set one.
P.S. There is a near 0% chance that I ever read this again. The way my brain works is I like to think things out by writing (usually by hand) and, unless there is a test, I don’t revisit it. For some reason, I am more likely to remember as long as I have it written somewhere. The flaw I reference in forgetting about things is that I will ignore something for a day and suddenly a day is three months and it pops back in my mind but I get back into my routine and forget about it again. I’ve tried to solve for that numerous ways but haven’t created a perfect solution. One day, I’m sure I’ll come up with something.
