Personal Check-In

Today’s thoughts come as the end of the second month of 2023 approaches. Tomorrow’s post will be similar to the January 31st post and will be a mash-up of everything written this month. Today I want to take a personal reset and publicly evaluate where I am and what is going on in my life. The idea comes from a conversation I had yesterday and my thoughts on conducting personal resets at periods over the year. Some of what I will write I have not publicly stated but I am not afraid of making it known.

Starting with the hard part first, I am unemployed. I have been unemployed since the start of 2023 as a result of budget cuts. I took a risk joining a start-up tech company, a risk I would do again. I joined my twin brother and had the opportunity to work with him on a daily basis for the first time since high school. Working with him made the reality I now find myself in worth it. Currently, this just means my days are monotonous with reaching out to people, researching companies, and looking for my next opportunity. I maintain the belief that this journey is only making me stronger over the long run. Some days are harder than others and getting told “no” by companies is never easy, but I recognize good will come out of this. In setbacks, I can find ways to grow and improve.

Regardless of my career situation, I believe I have never been in a better mental place than I am today. Writing over the last 2 months has certainly helped because of the additional time for reflection on a daily basis. The support system I have around me has been vocal in their support for me and I cherish what they have done for me. I have also cultivated relationships with groups of friends and find ourselves increasingly shifting our mindsets to the same sorts of focus and goals. These relationships and energy channeled have helped me stay positive.

From a more black-and-white level, I currently find myself at the following levels of progress regarding some of my goals:

• In my goal of 1,000 miles ran for the year I am currently at 178.3 miles. The math equates to 83.33 miles per month and I am slightly ahead of schedule. I need to average 82.17 miles over the remaining 10 months to finish. I also ran a 15k (9.3 miles) race over the weekend, a race I had been training for 7 weeks. My goal was to run at an 8:00 minute pace per mile and I achieved a pace of 8:15 average per mile. My goal was not accomplished but I could not have given more effort, I gave it everything and finished through the line on a sprint. There is also significant progress as I ran a 5-mile race in November with a pace of 8:14. Saturday at the race I added 4.3 miles and kept the same pace.

• In looking to read 24 books this year I have read 6 so far, and will finish a 7th this week. People close to me have told me they set their own reading goals because of my “Read that Book” post, and those conversations are very rewarding to me. My book club will be entering our 3rd book on March 1st and one of the more rewarding parts of my life has been the bimonthly conversations we have. We have found a sense of comfortability that lets barriers break down and deep conversation flow.

• My Spanish learning has drastically decreased which I am not proud of. I have not found the time to maintain this habit and could choose to blame my job search, but I will instead acknowledge I just need to be more deliberate with my time. This is a change I intend to make.

• I have not missed a post on this writing journey. It has become a part of who I am and what I do. I am looking forward to working to have finished posts ahead of time so I have a buffer but I am proud of the work I have done here.

Today serves as a personal reflection and is much different than my typical perspective gauging breakdowns of different ideas. It is my hope that in opening my life and assessing myself, you do the same on a personal level. There should be no one more honest with yourself than you are. Taking the time and assessing where you are is the best way to find out.