2024 was a great year. It was full of so many significant milestones and great memories. While it may have been overwhelming to manage, it may have been one of the best years of my life. While buying a house, getting married, and getting promoted happened in 2024, they were achieved through the effort and commitment to the goals I set through the years prior. I feel grateful that they happened and reassured that I have established a new benchmark in life where I can progress further from.
I consider these next few months as a great opportunity to substitute ambitious goal-setting for living in the moment and experiencing what is presented to me. 2024 was about achieving the goals I had previously set. Now jumping into 2025, I feel confident about where I currently am personally and professionally. Work is going great, and I am excited to work towards substantial completion. I have a great routine right now balancing work, exercising, reading, and am back in the groove working on Going The Distance. At times, I venture off and dream about what’s to come for the rest of the year, however, I would like to reign that in and not default back to ambitious goal-setting. The reason is that I often find my relentless pursuit of achieving my goals can sometimes take away from my enjoyment of the journey. To accomplish this, I need to give up some control and trust that who I am and who I continue to grow into will be enough to overcome any challenges and opportunities presented to me. As my big brother says and has tattooed:
“Journey before destination”
Considering all of that, my objective for the next few months, or New Year’s Resolution if you will is to prioritize what I enjoy doing, seek new experiences, and focus on the moment rather than the outcome.
Now, what do I enjoy doing? Well, a lot of things. I enjoy a nice beer at The Local while reading my book. I enjoy writing for Going the Distance. I enjoy quality time with my wife, friends, and family. I enjoy working out a lot more lately. These make me feel good as they are avenues for me to better myself. It sounds easy but doing what you enjoy can be difficult. We all live busy lives and have something to do or get distracted by. I mean, we’ve all had days or weeks where we feel like we may not have had a second alone or got swamped at work. I love what I do for work but even that can distract me from the other things I enjoy doing. That is where I will emphasize “prioritization” over the next little while. There will of course be things to distract me from this. Works busy and must work overtime? Sure, but I need to prioritize going to gym afterwards. Got plans later? Great, take a moment for yourself first. Been a tough day? Who didn’t, go read your book and relax. I will accomplish this by being more mindful when I feel overwhelmed. As soon as that anxiety sets in, I will look towards one of my priorities and rearrange my other plans to work around that.
Author
PATRICK SMYTHE
Project Manager
Civil Engineer
Motivated
Storyteller
Big Time Dreamer
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At 28 years old, married, with a stable career that I love, I feel like I have the most freedom that I have ever had in my life. Over the next couple years, I plan on chasing this freedom until children come along for us. I dedicated my early twenties to my education. Since then, my freedom started to grow but now with this new benchmark I have set, I feel that the world is opening more than it felt before. So how do I plan on seeking new experiences? What does that look like? I have a few ideas in mind. First, I plan to continue to travel and seek more adventures. Whether it’s a short or long trip, I will look to take advantage of the free time available to me. We started this year by taking advantage of a free weekend my wife had off work and finally joined one of my friends on his off-roading adventures. It was a fantastic day and a great reminder that getaways don’t require significant planning or taking time off to feel refreshed. We have a few longer trips in mind this year as well that I look forward to plan.
Secondly, continue to take risks and be open to professional opportunities presented to me. Toronto was a personal sacrifice, but an amazing life experience altogether. If there is a new opportunity like this waiting for me, I need to be open to the experience and assess the opportunity with my partner. When I think of seeking new experiences I think of James Thurber’s quote in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty:
“To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other and to feel. That is the purpose of life”
I love this quote so much. It even made a home for it on the home page of Going The Distance. I will eventually write a full reflection of this quote and how it makes me feel. As a brief reflection, it really inspires me and resonates with a strong feeling of moving away from your routine and what you know to take risks.
Another way I can seek new experiences is to pick up a new hobby. Most likely that’ll be golf. My friends have been eager for me to buy some clubs and would probably be good to go with my bosses also. So, I will be looking at getting around to this.
And now the last part of my New Year’s Resolution, is to focus on the moment rather than the outcome. I touched on this earlier and know that this will be tricky for me. When considering it, I find myself thinking about what Andy Bernard said in The Office:
“I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them”
This is another quote that deserves a full reflection eventually. What comes to my mind when I read this quote is that life moves quickly and won’t slow down for you if you forgot to appreciate it. I won’t get a second chance in life so now is the time to enjoy every bit of it.
This feels like a satisfactory conclusion to my first Sunday Journal. I’ve been looking forward to reading my book at Local all weekend so I will go and do that now after a workout and walk around my neighborhood. Until next time.
