2024 THOUGHTS // 2025 GOALS

ESTABLISHING A FOUNDATION

I guess maybe I need to turn this into a yearly update blog. Or set more frequent updates as a goal for the next year. A commitment to more challenging goals is what lies ahead in 2025. Goals that are just on the brink of achieving. Goals that require a struggle. Struggling well and struggling hard in the process are markers for the quality of your goals. At the same time, some things that are hard and difficult to achieve aren’t always worth it or valuable.

2024 was a foundational year. After spending so many years identifying what my purpose might be, I used 2024 to secure where I was headed. My purpose became clear and the person I needed to become laid itself out in front of me.

There may be no better feeling than to be complimented on your authenticity. People know what they are going to get with you. The opposite is disastrous. Is there anything worse than being a fake? Those that are authentic have strong senses and can identify frauds and fakes. Once we figure that out with certainty, we stay away from them. The most powerful trait we can develop is an authentic generated purpose. Defining who we are as we pursue our purpose benefits us to the highest degree, and serves the ones that are around us.

The challenge with being certain in your purpose is what you truly learn about yourself along the way.

PASSING THE TORCH

Many of us spend years trying to make our parents proud. Setting worthwhile goals, behaving well, getting good grades, making solid choices, not letting the family down. It’s fair to say my sister and I fell into that category and then some, being the children of the town’s doctor.

But what nobody really prepares you for is that one day, you become proud of your parents. My mother has been incredibly supportive of friends experiencing hardships this year and my dad recently laid his uncle to eternal rest. A fascinating man that devoted his life to work in the FBI and as a generous host to family and friends. He was the last of his kind. My father spent that last year by his side, whether that was out in California or here in Iowa.

I’m used to my dad being Doc — the surgeon, not Doc — the caregiver. Very different lanes. So it hit a bit different watching my father funnel all of his medical expertise AND emotional attachment of a family member into his 96-year old uncle. What a lesson and impression for a 27-year old boy. To watch the head of the family lead and carry on through a long and difficult time.

There comes a time when your parents transition from being strictly your parents to friends and fellow adults. I saw a note the other day that said: “Take it easy on your parents. This is their first time living life too.” That really stuck with me. My parents know everything. So do yours. They’ve always known what’s best. Even if it didn’t work out, it’s okay because that is what Mom and Dad would have done. I’m exceptionally proud of my parents and how they progressed through 2024.

CONTENT, BUT NOT COMPLACENT

Almost immediately at the start of the year, I earned a full-time position working with Iowa Athletics in the Strategic Communications department. After spending a couple years as an intern, a position opened up and I was selected. I’ve never been the most confident in an interview setting. I found it hard to sell myself to others, largely because it’s a combination of knowing what they want to hear (and the fear of possibly not meeting that) and because I find it challenging to promote myself so outwardly. I’ve developed and become more certain of who I am since that interview during the first week of January.

I, as you could imagine, certainly enjoy my time working for the Hawkeyes. Shocker. The people I have met, the moments I have covered and the places I have been check off my main career boxes. I am supremely appreciative of my boss, Matt, who stresses work-life balance. I’m still learning what that might look like for myself. The holidays are a slower time for me and it’s nice to connect with the important people in my life.

The trick moving forward is to experience being content, but not complacent. I am content and appreciative, fortunate and grateful for the job I do have. But that is far from complacent. Earning the job was not the finish line. The work was just beginning. Now it is time to prove myself right that I was the proper selection for the open position.

RUN TO – NOT FROM – THE GOALS

2024 feels strictly foundational. This upcoming year is about building upon that foundation. The goals I created for myself are arguably the most challenging I’ve ever set. And I will refresh my mind on them every morning in my mirror.

Better to be prepared and never get the opportunity than to get the opportunity but not be prepared. I use my Instagram account to inspire and transform. If I wanted to gatekeep the messaging, I would just watch it and then continue scrolling. But I think if just one person can pull something from the messages I share, that is a win.

When the opportunity comes, will I be ready? Am I doing the things today that position myself to be an impactful husband and father? Will my parents and sister be able to rely on me? Can my colleagues at work count on me? When my circle knocks on my door, will it open to a welcoming respite?

Run towards the goals, not away from the past. I had a moment the other day thinking about urgency. There are aspects of my life that I don’t know the end goal or finish line. I’m not sure what the finished product will be or what it is meant to look like. But the dangerous byproduct of that is not having urgency to accomplish improvement. Whether those are goals in the gym, personal life or professional development. How far am I willing to sprint when the distance is unknown?

THE GYM JOURNEY

The gym is a metaphor. I don’t go to the gym to get huge muscles and look good. Those are certainly secondary products of my effort. The gym provides me opportunities to build my commitment. My discipline. My delayed gratification. Those traits carry over into the other aspects of my life like becoming a man that people can rely on and trust.

My fitness goals are truly scary. A riper version of me would already be asking “what if…”. But I don’t do that anymore. One of my first goals is to tell this story for the final time.

When Gary offered me the job as co-host of On Press Row in the winter of 2018, I thanked God for getting exactly what I asked for. I was heading back home after college to begin my career. But some of the things I wanted to sort out, got sorted out a little differently than I had thought.

When I moved back home, I weighed up over 270 pounds and did not have a healthy lifestyle. The college life was still in play. Ate junk, drank alcohol excessively, and didn’t sniff a gym. That is literally a deadly combination.

It wasn’t very long into my move back to Oelwein in 2018 that I needed to make a change. OPR was great. I loved working from 4-6 on a radio show every weekday. I loved my parents dearly, but I found shame in having to live at home again post-college. My social life was shot. I was not doing myself any favors. I was lost.

The wellness center in Oelwein was attached to our high school weight room. A small room of cardio machines separated the free weight room from the basketball courts and machine weights. The cardio room had a bike in the corner. Only one. For some reason it was always available. For the first few months of my gym journey, I would ride that bike for at least an hour every day. Zone out and grind. Then I would go lift. Then I would come back to the bike. At the start, I would spend about four hours a day at that gym.

The cut from 275 to 240 happened pretty quickly. It certainly feels like a lifetime ago. So much has changed since then. Currently, I am in much better shape and have become addicted to the gym. It is a lifestyle change and part of my identity. I plan to be around for a while, so the least I can attempt to do is take care of my fitness.

I often talk about improving by 1% each day. Whatever that may look like for you. I find great joy knowing that I beat the hell out of yesterday’s version of me. That’s the only competition I see now. I have memorized the words on billboards outside the window of a quaint little office where I get some assistance managing my thoughts. I’ve been equipped with tools to control them. I admit I don’t know what my end goal is, but I am enjoying the process of being while I am becoming. The real mountain has no peak.

My gym community in North Liberty is one of a kind. There is a group of us that roll in around 5 a.m. and get to work. Guys like Terry and Joe push me to find my limit and then go just a little bit past it. A few months ago I was going for a heavy set of incline dumb bell bench, failed below my PR and dropped the weights. Joe was across the gym, saw me fail, walked over and said “go again.” I ripped off a few more reps and ended on a much better note. Seems minor but when you have a crew of supportive folks, that experience can stick.

Every morning as I enter the gym parking lot around 5:15, I look for the cars of my friends. I typically see Terry’s car in the back corner and Joe’s truck in the third row. There was a time where I was sleeping in until 8:00, 10:00, or even noon. Now I wonder what the drive to the gym would look like in daylight.

I think each one of the guys in the gym has something to teach. Some days we don’t say many words. Other days, we are a bit more talkative. I’ve had my training sessions totally revamped by stretching past my previously perceived comfort zone. Some days you have it, some days you don’t. “Good days and bad days”, Joe often says. But the bad days don’t discourage us from charging hard the next day.

The lessons learned during the training sessions don’t stop when I walk out the door. That extra drop set, those extra miles on the bike, doing the thing you don’t want to do… they’re all symbols for outside of the gym. Terry is a tough and relentless charger. Joe is a leader in our community. And yet they’re grabbing the same weights, moving them powerfully and then going about their day. I am certain that they are better men and leaders because of the traits they possess while at the gym. Outside of the gym when life gets tough. Do what you do with the weights. Give it an extra try and power through the uncomfortable zone. That’s where the growth comes from. Another lesson and point of guidance for a 27-year old kid.

And so after a foundational 2024, I am committing to becoming a hybrid athlete in 2025 and will spend the year training for Hyrox in 2026. Scary, right? Aiming upwards in this direction will land me in personally uncharted territory. The work has already begun. The only time doubt is dangerous is when you begin to doubt yourself. So I am fired up and scrapping to get after it as I begin my training and enter a new phase.

TAKE (AND KEEP) CONTROL

At one time or another, we’ve all handed the keys of our life to other people. We’ve given the control and power of our happiness to someone other than ourselves. And come to find out, those people ended up taking us to places we didn’t want to go, places that were not meant for us. Or even worse, they never had any intention of putting the keys in the ignition. People want to see us do well, but not better than them. A notion that can only be learned through experience.

There is no greater privilege than the individual responsibility to improve our life. Failing to become our best not only hurts us, but it hurts all the people that care about us. The key factor is discovering who is supportive of our ambition. While we figure that out, don’t give up the keys to life. Let’s keep them on our own rung.