My 2018 Year in Review

2018 Year in Review:

I’ve finally gotten around to do my Year in Review. This is something I saw the author of Atomic Habit James Clear and the freelance blogger Kaleigh Moore as a way reflect on the Good, the Bad, and what I learned over the past year. This will be a little rough since this is my first one but I plan on making this a regular thing.

Without further ado…

The Good –

I had a baby girl: To start things off, in September, during Hurricane Florence, my wife and I had our 3rd child and our 1st little girl. She is cute as a button and the whole family loves her to pieces. The best part was deciding to have her at home. IT WAS AWESOME! I woke up around 3:30 am, called the Midwife, the Doula, and the Birth Photographer to come in around 4:30 am, and our baby girl was here by 5:45 am. The Midwives setup everything, they cleaned up everything, and when they left it was like they were never there, except we had a new baby. Thanks to my wife I’ve been an advocate for natural and homebirths for some time now but this was my first homebirth. I couldn’t imagine any other way.

It’s taken some time to get used to having a new baby in house and I’ve personally had some growing pains juggling three. Still I’m thankful to have her in our lives and I couldn’t imagine our family any other way.

Started Lifting again: In April I decided to start lifting again to get my body in shape for the beach trip back in August. My wife, knowing how much I wanted a garage gym, bought me a Squat Rack for Christmas, and, after taking my sweet ass time putting it together, I finally got after it. I LOVED IT! There is nothing like working out in your home. I would roll out of bed, stumble into the garage, put on my lifting shoes, and work out. The best part was how successful I was at it. From the end of April until our trip in the beginning of June, I lifted four times a week, each week. That was over three months, which is the most consistency I’ve had working out ever in my life. Nothing was going to slow me down. I wanted to drop the weight and turn myself into a brick house at the same time. It worked and it was good.

Started a Blog: This is the thing I’m most proud of this year. When I finally decided I wanted to start a blog back in October, I honestly had no idea what would happen. I didn’t know how far I would go or if I would quit because things got too hard, like most things I start. Surprisingly, I’ve been writing for almost three months and almost 50 blog posts now, which is still shocking for me. It goes to show what can be accomplished when it becomes a priority. I have lots of plans for this blog and I can’t wait to see where this goes.

The Bad –

Lifting has been spotty lately: When I started lifting in April I became surprisingly happy. It was still taking me some time to get up in the morning but I didn’t miss workouts because I knew how important it is to be consistent. Then I went on vacation and things went sideways. Between the break and not having ready access to my home gym for a month, my fitness went out the window. Then my baby girl was born and I barely had the energy to function let alone workout. From August to December I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve worked out which was extremely frustrating. Since December I’ve slowly started building this practice again but it’s slow.

Lost almost 25 lbs but gained ten back: One of my main reasons for lifting was to drop, from over 240lbs, down to 215 lbs by my vacation in August. Though I didn’t make the goal I did come close, hitting a low of 219 lbs. This represents the lowest I’ve been since I left the Navy which is awesome. It took a lot of hard work, dedication, and plenty of missteps.

So I had the discipline to drop almost 25 lbs in several months, which was a real accomplishment for me but it didn’t take much for me to gain a good portion of this back. Between the lack of a solid routine, lack of exercise, and the holidays my old bad habit quickly came back. It’s made me feel like a failure. I know this is a bump in the road and I’m more focused on it now but building the habit back will take some time.

I found I still get derailed easily: Routines, while tedious, are great for a reason. They help to keep us consistent. When we break the consistency there is the tendency to lose the routine all together. Then when we want to restart the routine it takes twice the effort. There’s the desire to start the routine but the emotional baggage which comes with it. The frustration of being a failure, the memory of how difficult it was to start the first time, and the willpower to start again when it feels easier to let go. These are all the things I’ve been feeling since August and it didn’t take much.

I don’t know if it was the week away, the emotion stress of having massive amounts of flooding damage due to a broken water heater, the new baby, or a combination of all of it but the grit wasn’t there. I’ve tried to get back into the routine kicking and screaming and I’m finally starting to make progress. Fitness, eating, drinking water, writing, and a variety of other things will gradually need to be worked on this year. I know I need to take it one step at a time to create compound results.

What I learned –

Babies don’t get easier the more you have: This should be a no brainer but apparently I still need to learn things the hard way. Babies are babies no matter how many someone has in their family. They take time, patience, and energy. They take our routines, throw them out the window, and force us to get us to a new normal. It can be difficult to feel like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel when caring for a newborn and it can be difficult to ask for help. I had to remember it was okay and I’ll get through it. Thankfully, after four months things are starting to calm down.

Writing is more difficult than I thought: First, writing isn’t difficult. It’s fairly easy. Writing with intent and with a purpose is the difficult part and I thought it would get easier. The thing is good writing takes time and energy. It takes patience and a willingness to persevere, even when the “I don’t feel like it” or “I’m not in the mood,” for me to keep going. It’s not always fun but I know, in the end, I’m making progress and becoming a better writer.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help: Recently, I recruited my brother-in-law to be an accountability buddy (accountabilibuddy?). This one little step has helped me more than I had imagined. I’ve always considered myself someone who didn’t need anyone’s help to make changes in my life. It’s the “I can’t help you if you can’t help yourself,” mentality. Since I started working out with my brother-in-law I am becoming more consistent. I’m working out multiple times a week and even adding some running into the mix. It’s still a far cry from perfect but I’m making it.

You won’t get anywhere if you don’t start: For years I’ve hated the direction my life was heading. I didn’t feel like I was growing as a person. I kept learning all of these new things but either not applying them or not willing to share. I was on a treadmill heading towards a dead end. Then I started this blog. I wrote one blog post, then another, and then another. I was scared to put myself out there but I was more afraid of how my life would turn out if I didn’t. Afraid of what my life would look like in 10 years if I refused to start. Now I may only be at the beginning of my journey but the important thing is I’ve started. I feel like Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit. I’ve caught up to the dwarves, fought off some trolls, and I’m on my way to Rivendell. The Lonely Mountain, and Smaug, are thousands of miles away but I’m getting closer everyday.

Each day is a chance to start over: We tend to wait for milestones to start a new habit or new project. “I’ll try again on Monday,” or “I’ll make this a New Year’s Resolution.” The best part is we don’t have to wait. Each new day is a chance to start something new. If we don’t like the way our life is going, we don’t have to wait for a random start date in the future, we get to make a fresh start whenever we want. We just have to decide to make the change.

Thanks for reading my first Annual Review. I can’t wait to see what next year brings and want my review will look like then.