What are you most proud of yourself for last year?
I started off 2023 with 23 magical morning mountain miles up to the top of Reddish Knob. Running the miles of the new year has been a tradition that keeps getting better and here’s why (and how it connects to the ways I'm most proud of myself).
Getting out for long athletic pursuits (that be, a 50 mi race, ironman, etc). is living life in a day. You learn (+ relearn, because in hindsight I realized I wrote on these exact experiences in The NonRecipe Book:
💡 Brain follows body: Psychology, then physiology. Mood follow actions (Pg 159 - Bias Toward Action).
💡Gratitude: Starting a new year with noticing the beauty in what IS, with being PROUD of ourselves. It’s the reminder we are ALREADY enough. We don’t need to change. We are great right here, and right now. There is such richness in striving to grow into ourselves and it can be done while simultaneously being proud of ourselves in the moment (Pg 193 Striving, with Gratitude).
💡Leaning into the spectrum, and the extremes of life: pausing, returning to processing on paper, soaking into a warm back <> finding + testing my limits on the technical, steep trail and cold river dips. Befriending and knowing ourselves through both— helps us to be more present and appreciative in between (Pg 189 Effort and Rest).
💡Finding magic, helps us make magic: not just in the extremes, but in the little moments. Starting the year with 23 miles challenged me - and demands me to notice the magic all around. When we find it, we fuel it, we make it ✨ (Pg 114 Find Magic ).
💡Trust in the natural rhythms: Coming off the rest of a restorative holiday season, remembering there is time for rest and it's essential (Pg 201 With and In Nature).
💡Courage: Through action, a reminder that you can do hard things. Step by step (Pg 149 Building Our Courage Muscles).
💡THIS is how we nourish our full self - in community, in nature, in connection with the land and nourishment (Pg 205 Nourishing Your Soul-Self). This is big living.
In supporting my athletes reflection this week (anything I do with others, I practice myself too) I’ve been asking them the same question:
“What are you most proud of yourself for in 2022” and “what do you want to be most proud of yourself for in 2023”.
Rather than measuring ourselves by the weight, time, placement, or miles. This question goes deeper. It gets to the core of not just what we do, but WHO we are in the process of doing it.
If you look back on what made you proud, it often reveals something —where you derive meaning— that’s where the real answers are.
The moments where I was most proud myself, they weren’t the podiums, or the # of copies of books I sold. They were the individuals I interacted with when consulting, moments of relational connection, the breakthroughs in overcoming and working with myself in writing, in listening to my body in uniquely programming my training to match the emotional demands, it was following through on my commitment to myself.
⚡️What action are you taking that will make your future self proud?