At Peace

When the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004 after an 86-year drought, Bill Simmons wrote a book called Now I Can Die in Peace. I was never a baseball guy, but the concept stuck with me. 

At now at age 40, I can look at the life I've built and say that I feel at peace. 

To recap, here's where I'm at:

married to the love of my life
granted the opportunity to be a dad to two wonderful boys
made a successful advertising career and achieved my lifelong goal of becoming Creative Director
made great friends in college and have been able to hang on to them
traveled the world including Hawaii, Italy, Greece, Jamaica, Argentina
saw the Chiefs win multiple Super Bowls and the Avalanche lift the Cup
saw Derren Brown in person and go on stage as part of the finale

seen all my favorite bands in person

made my soul happy by creating books, movies, music, podcasts and a cookbook

So what does this mean?

Two things. 

1. I've built a great life and I want to keep enjoying it. But tomorrow is not promised. If my time is up before I expect, I want everyone to know (including myself) that I'm at peace. 

2. I've built a great life and I want to keep enjoying it. While I'm sure that I will embark on new hobbies, visit new places, achieve new milestones...what I really want to focus on is savoring the life that I've created and not take any of it for granted.

Reliable Joy

So when you're in a funk, how do you get out of it?

It's tempting to shift all that Chiefs mental energy into the Avs (#1 team in the league) or Bulls (#1 team in the East) or Illini basketball (tied for 1st in the Big Ten)...but the thing about sports is that you can't control the outcomes. On a given night it's roughly a coin flip and given these teams history, I wouldn't bet on any of them bringing home any trophies in 2022. 

Compare watching a sports game to listening to music by one of your favorite artists...with the music, you're virtually guaranteed a good time and a positive mood. With the sports, you might go to one parade in your life and you might break a TV. 

Playing chess and video games are sometimes fun, but also can on occasion be frustrating. So a bit of caution there.

Here's a list of things that can reliably bring me joy:

Listening to music I like

Cooking delicious food

Eating barbecue

Reading Big Magic

Listening to podcasts

Visiting escape rooms

Playing family board games

Playing basketball

Play disc golf

Walking the dogs

Make videos

Making progress on a creative project

Making progress on bucket list life items

Writing on HC or Medium

Planning and taking vacations

Sound healing on headphones / Meditate

Playing foosball, darts, shuffleboard, etc.

Bucket List Progress

I've always been one for pursuing new endeavors, but in 2014 I started a legit bucket list. Entering 2021, I had accomplished 13 items on the list. Some notable ones include cooking a 5-course dinner, making a cookbook, and moving to Kansas City. 

And then in the last 5 months I checked off 5 new items on my list:

• go zip-lining
• lose weight and take new work pictures
• take photos of the stars
• visit Greece
• take a Mediterranean cruise

Three of the things were work trips that fell into my lap (and of course the Greece cruise is a 2 for 1). For context I've currently got about 20+ more items left on the list, but most are travel destinations to visit. (So my current line of work seems fortuitous.)

So yeah, things are working out pretty well.

Living My Best Life

I almost wrote this post in early May of this year. At that point, several things were falling into place. I had just gotten fully vaccinated. I was listening to my favorite bands (which I did post) and with the help of bluetooth speakers, I was listening to music in the shower and when I played basketball in my backyard. Yeah, and I was playing basketball every day. I had lost 50 pounds at that point and got my BMI to under 29. And I had just figured out how to make delicious Italian hoagies fit into a healthy lifestyle. 

Looking at all of that, I don't know why I didn't write it all down. This is an awesome list. 

- - -

Three months later and things are...even better? After having the same hairstyle for the last 6 years, I went to a real stylist who gave me a fresh hairstyle that I love. (Before 2015, I had no hairstyle. I just let it fall in front of my face like a doofus.) I just took a great family Chicago vacation. I got promoted back to Associate Creative Director. Over the last month, I re-started my pedometer app and have been taking a ton of walks. My goal weight is in sight this year. And year four of Mahomes as a starter is about to begin. 

Last year, despite everything else, we crowned it Year of the Fym. My 2021 is sure giving my 2020 a run for its money. It reminds me of my weight loss mantra of "keep stacking good months." If I keep stacking good years, that's a recipe for an enjoyable life.

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Update on 9.2.21: Just upgraded to a 4k tv and got a new pixel phone and got back into disc golf so the wins just keep coming.

Update on 11.5.21: Just got back from an incredible work trip to Rome and the Greek Isles. What a great year. 

Year of the Fym

Back in 2016, I consciously aspired to make my 33rd year the best year of my life. That turned out pretty well.

This year, I didn't set out to do the same, but a lot of things fell into place. Here's everything that's happened in just January and February: 

The Chiefs won the Super Bowl

I won a Gold Addy for the first time

Our whole family changed our eating habits and everyone lost a bunch of weight.

Just 47 days into the year, Mark had already crowned 2020: 

Perhaps that was a bit premature. 

Just a few weeks later, a global pandemic arrived in the United States. Many people lost their jobs. My industry was hit hard and salary affected. 

March Madness (including Illinois in the tournament) was cancelled. Our family vacations to San Diego and Peoria were cancelled. I gained back 21 of the 19 pounds I had lost. (Yep, at my highest weight during the pandemic I was two pounds heavier than when I started the year.)

It didn't seem safe to send the kids to school, so they started virtual school. Our dog is on his last legs. Working from home with all of the commotion going on is quite stressful. 

And all of that is with avoiding any personal connections to people getting sick or lives being upended in the California wildfires. 

- - -

For many people, I think it's safe to say 2020 has either been the most challenging or worst year of their lives. 

It's definitely not the celebratory year I was thinking it would be in February, having just gone to a Super Bowl parade. 

But... in the middle of such a terrible year, some other good things happened. I started writing on Medium, and even wrote a post that reached #1 on the site, far exceeding my expectations. 

I got my own basketball hoop in the backyard and play all the time. 

I've now officially lost the Corona 21 and am back at the weight I was when the pandemic started. 

And my job moved from Kansas City to Overland Park, cutting my commute time in half. It's a cool new office, so whenever I'm back in there full-time, it will be really nice. 

So is this the Year of the Fym?

Well, let's see what happens on November 3 first.

November 7 Edit: Okay, getting a normal president again is actually really incredible. 

So yeah, Year of the Fym.