Looking Back on Year 25

Every year on my birthday, I take the opportunity to reflect on the past 365 days, another full lap around the sun.  When I reflect, I focus on three things: what were the wins of the last year, what do I want my wins to be in a year from now, and who are the people in my life that helped me and are going to continue to help me get there.  

Physical Health – Half Marathon

Relationships – Proposal in Colorado

Mental Health – 31 Books

Professional – New career

Financial – No Debt

Education- Graduate School

Community – SigEp LAC

Adventure – Azores

In the spring of 2018, leading up to my 24th birthday, I created a strategy for goal setting that was more than just creating a SMART goal.  This was influenced by the books that I read, the people I interacted with, and the life lessons I learned along the way.  Over the past two years I have worked to construct “Big Hairy Audacious Goals” (BHAGs), a goal setting concept similar to President John F. Kennedy declaring his mission to take people to space in his “We choose to go to the moon” speech in 1962.  Alongside each of these BHAGs, I have set up a “personal dashboard” where I can outline each goal and work to track progress along the way, a concept derived from Tom Barton, a goal-crushing mentor from Dubuque, Iowa, and Robert Glazer, a thought-leader in business and personal growth.  

In the pursuit of growth and development, I am going to outline my eight goal values, share the wins of my 25th year, and identify who the people were that made this happen.  When creating these eight different areas I reflected about what I truly value in my life — the areas of my life needed to be successful for me to have fulfillment and meaning at the end of the day.  Those eight values in my life are relationships, community, mental health, physical health, education, adventure, professional, and financial.  

Relationships 

One of my favorite books of 2020 was Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.  In this book, Frankl spoke about the three ways of how he defines meaning.  The second way he defines meaning is through “experiencing something or encountering someone.”  I relate strongly to this concept.  The people around me are a significant part of how I find meaning in my life.  

• Moved to Kansas City, Missouri, with my girlfriend at the time, Ellie Coggins.
• Proposed to my best friend on October 5th, 2019 during a surprise trip to Colorado Springs, CO, in the Garden of the Gods.  
• Surprised my Grandpa Brooke for his 80th birthday in Florida with the entire family.
• Adopted “man’s best friend”, Lucy,  a three-and-a-half year old black lab mix from KC Pet Project who has a new home with us in Kansas City and has made life way more exciting throughout the work from home lifestyle of the pandemic.   

Community 

Throughout year 25, the world invested so much in me through the communities that I am a part of.  This investment inspires me to “pay it forward,” reinvest in those around me, and develop my own community.  

• Facilitated at SigEp’s Life After College with Wendell Rakosky on the power of mentors.
• Facilitated at the SigEp’s Carlson Leadership Academy VP of Finance track with a dynamic partner and friend, Jamison Shields.
• Engaged as a local volunteer with SigEp at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
• Engaged as a local volunteer with SigEp at the University of Cincinnati as a Chaplain Mentor.
• Participated in a day of service in my hometown through United Way with my mom in the summer of 2019.
• Created LinkedIn promotional content for the University of Cincinnati International Co-Op Alumni Group, an organization that was created to showcase the international co-op experience, connect students with potential employers, and fundraise for the future success of the program.  In my role working with our LinkedIn page, I was able to support the creation of over 50 pieces of unique content and the generation of over 170 followers.

Mental Health 

Mental health was something that I took for granted growing up, mostly because I didn’t really understand what it was or how to actively participate in it.  Through close friends and family I was able to learn that taking care of mental health for me includes balancing my goals, journaling, and reading. 

• Read 31 books in the past year using Goodreads, an amazing tool that I would recommend to any bookworm.
• Journaled over 50 times while reflecting on two questions every day; “what are you looking forward to today” and “what are you thankful for today”.  Two questions that completely alter your mindset.   

Physical Health

I will always believe that a healthy and sound body leads to success in every other area of life.  According to the Greeks, sound body “is a part of balance that rounds out a man’s life.”

• Dropped my weight to consistently under 180 pounds, the lowest I have weighed in 10 years (since my sophomore in high school).
• Engaged in OrangeTheory Fitness at least two times per week.
• Finished multiple 5Ks and the Kansas City Hangover Half-Marathon on New Year’s Day.

Education

One of my greatest passions in life is learning.  The pursuit of knowledge opens up the world to so many more opportunities personally and professionally.  Professionally, I have always known that I want to leave a lasting impact in the field of public health.  

• Began graduate school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.  I will spend the next three years as a part of the coordinated online Masters in Public Health / Masters in Business Administration dual-degree program, where I will get to study the intersection of public health and business.  

Adventure

Life is more interesting when you are having fun, exploring new places, and experiencing new ideas.  I am blessed to be a part of a family that regularly introduced me to new and unique places. Whether it was discovering the Grand Canyon as a kid or snorkeling in the Atlantic Ocean, adventure and travel have always had a special place in my heart.  Adventure is defined for me best by a German word I regularly thought of while living in Germany, “das fernweh,”or being homesick for a place you’ve never been.  

• Spent two weeks traveling Portugal, specifically the Azorean islands, Lisbon, and Sintra, with Ellie, where we tried food that was cooked in a hot spring, kayaked in a crater, explored caves, and got lost for 10 hours on the deserted side of the island.
• Spent a weekend camping and hiking in the Adirondack Mountains while Ellie finished graduate school at Syracuse University.  During our weekend of hiking we were able to summit Cascade Mountain and Porter Mountain, two of the “Adirondack 46.”
• Professionally, I spent four months traveling to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and Jersey City, New Jersey — literally touching both sides of North America.  

Professional

In Frankl’s book “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl, the first way that he defines meaning is by ”creating work or by doing a deed.”  Professionally, I strive every day to create meaningful work that will leave a lasting impact.  

• Completed a two-year commitment working with Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity Headquarters in a consulting and sales role in May 2019.
• Transitioned seamlessly into a new role with Cerner Corporation where I work as a learning facilitator for healthcare information technology implementation, specifically at the point of implementation where nurses, doctors, and other clinicians are transitioning through change and learning this new system.
• Mentored eight new associates starting with Cerner.
• Completed Cerner’s Pre-Management Experience and assisted in developing a new managerial training program.
• Received a certification as a Certified Specialist in Business Intelligence.
• Led in the implementation of virtual delivery for our clients as we actively adjusted our team’s implementation strategy throughout the pandemic.   

Financial

I dream of generating assets so that I can reinvest my wealth in the world.  Since graduating from college in 2017 I have worked hard using Personal Capital to budget, condense my expenses, pay off debt, and invest in my Roth 401(k).

• Debt-free.
• Roth 401(k) savings greater 50% of my annual income.  

Thank You

My quarter of a century year will be one for the memory books and I would never have been able to accomplish any of this without the people that surround me.  

Year 26

As I leave my 25th and wake up a year older (and wiser?) I’ll be tackling some new and even bigger BHAGs for my 26th year.  For the new year, I will be keeping the same eight core values while incorporating a few new items.  In the pursuit of accountability and transparency, I am creating a “personal board of directors,” my closest friends and family, who I will enlist to help me accomplish my goals on a monthly basis.  I’ll also include a visual for each of the goals I’m chasing after.  Checkout my 26th year of goals and my new and improved goal-setting process here.