The Wanderer

Today was a good day. Life seems to segment itself into distinct phases. Eras if you will, though that term feels overused now. And I feel like for a while I’ve been transitioning from one phase of my life to another. I’ve talked about this a lot on the blog, but I find myself more and more wanting to be a different person from who I was in college. I want to be someone dedicated. To their work, their health, their relationships, everything. I want to be focused, on one singular goal of being the best person I can be. And more and more lately I sense a battle going on between that old me and the new me, that the new me is winning.

I want to dedicate myself again. And right now seems like the perfect time to do it. Let me spell out the next 3 months of my life for you for a moment.

My new project started today, and I will be going back and forth traveling to Wisconsin for the next 3 months. During this time, promotions occur. Right after the project ends, I’m taking a family trip to Australia to see my new baby cousin (!!) and the rest of my extended family before heading to Bali for a few days. I just spent the past 2 weeks having fun, going to Mexico City with my girlfriend, running around with my friends in Chicago, and drinking merrily to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. And from today till the day I leave for Australia, I have absolutely no major events to hold me back from fully committing to my goals. I want that promotion, I want to look good for Australia, and I want to be the best version of myself possible. I’m ready to do whatever it takes to get there. Which brings us to today.

Today I woke up slightly hungover for my morning meetings. After drinking water and cleaning up my room, I attended my meetings and began work. I had a break for a few hours in the morning so I cleaned the apartment and went over to the gym. To set the scene a little, this past weekend was St. Patrick’s day, which is a huge deal in Chicago. There are 3 different bar crawls going on around the city, and they die the river green, It’s a big deal. Paddy’s was a blast last year so this year a bunch of my friends wanted to visit. As the day got closer, more and more people ended up booking tickets and asking for a place to stay, so by the time the weekend came around, we had about 12 people crashing on our couch. The place was chaos. So cleaning up the apartment meant throwing out about 60 empty beer cans and even more red solo cups, while 3 or 4 of my closest friends lay fast asleep on an air mattress on my floor. And with that mental image we return. I go to the gym around 10:30am, so there was next to no one in the gym. I did my regular chest day routine, hitting bench press for a few sets before switching to incline for the rest of the exercise. Then hitting chest flies and dumbbell raises in a superset, and ending off with shoulders and triceps in a circuit format. The workout was quick, just over 45 minutes, but it felt good to start my day with something tangible. After the gym I came back and ate some food, took a shower, and hopped back into work. Around 3 I was done with work (consulting!!) and headed back out to the gym to do a cardio session. I had a goal to hit 12 miles in 45 minutes on the bike, and as I got going and the music started flowing I got into a good rhythm around a 3:45 pace. I was looking good to hit my goal but at 30 minutes the bike shut off on me and sent me into a cool down. It was frustrating, being just 15 minutes away from the finish line but not being able to know for sure if you would have reached it. A lot of times I get so caught up in the goal that I miss how far I’ve come, this was a small but crucial reminder of that fact, that even though I stopped early, I still made it pretty far. I ended the workout with 10 minutes of yoga and stretching before heading home to unwind for the rest of the day.

This past week has been a whirlwind. Between Mexico with my girlfriend and partying with my friends, I feel like I haven’t had a moment to think in days. Don’t get me wrong, I love my girlfriend and I love my friends. I would do anything for them. But spending today just focusing on myself and my wellbeing felt fantastic, and I think I’m going to spend more and more of my time chasing that feeling.

Well thanks again for reading another blog! I had a lot of people this weekend mention that they read the blog and look forward to posts, so I’ll do what I can to stick to schedule. Much love guys, I’ll see y’all next time 🙂