TWENTY TWENTY FOUR – STEPPING FORWARD

Twenty twenty four is only a few weeks away. December always is a month of reflection for me. Twenty twenty three wasn’t bad but I am quite pleased to be shutting the door on it soon. I am eager to push into the new year with a new mindset. With time and deep reflection throughout 2023 I have discovered some lifelong patterns and learned a lot about what I need and what motivates me. With effort and energy I have explored some of these life long patterns and discoveries along with the deeper meaning behind those things. 

This is not a long post filled with self discoveries. It is however a bit of an exhale, or relief, for me. For those close to me and to those friends and family that have known me since my childhood, what I am sharing to kick this off will come as no surprise. But this past 6 months I have spent some time working on how an alcoholic father, a related chaotic teenage life and the resulting behavior to want to please others have impacted my life. There I said it. I feel better already.  

When you grow up in a family with an alcoholic adult in the house you learn to live with chaos. You live a life not entirely sure what normal responses to any situation, even little things, will be. You focus on pleasing to protect yourself or others. You put others needs ahead of yours. Many people growing up this way carry this and the behaviors learned for much, or all, of their lives.

If you don’t like where you are in life, move. You are not a f*cking tree.

@empirewomenvision

Well….That’s enough of that. I don’t want to dwell on that. Two years ago I moved on from what was holding me back and take my life back and live with intention. I am focused on carrying forward the learning, or lesson, and not carrying the baggage!  It’s this idea of moving forward wiser, smarter and lighter. It is for this reason I am excited for the new year. 

Twenty twenty four is going to be a great year. I have been super fortunate to have the support of my wife and friends while on this journey over the last couple years. I am grateful. That is both a gift and a privilege. It’s time to move. It’s time to set new goals and move forward again. It’s time to give back and support my friends and family as they have given so much to me the past few years. 

So what’s in store for 2024? 

• Stop hanging onto the past, past life, past career, past personas, past, past, past……. Create what I want and pursue it.
• Pursue and build my on my own businesses, products and ideas. I have a new cycling art/photography focused website coming shortly. I also have some new Iceworm MFG sewn goods coming. I also hope to continue to build on my current consulting business. 
• I may even rent a studio/office space and move out of the basement of my house. 
• Health – What if I put the same focus on food and nutrition as I put into obsessing about gear? What if I used my time differently and simply moved my body more in 2024? I bet both my health and performance could skyrocket if I can move toward these notions. 
• Cycling events – Reshaping the idea of doing events. Rather, I am going to do bike related things with people, for people and for causes that I support or believe in. Right now the only two commitments I have are Mid South and The Heywood Ride. 

I know this blog is only reaching tens of people. While this year has actually been my highest traffic of visits and visitors since 2018, it is still a very small, supportive group. I just need to write, organize and share as a mechanism to move forward. It’s also a way I hold myself accountable. I also like the idea that just maybe it lands with one person and helps them re imagine their future or helps them get out of bed and moving forward when its hard then its worth the time, energy and $$ I put into the site.

And to sign off and finish up this post, I usually post and share a whole bunch of pictures with the idea that I can maybe please the folks that land here just to look at pretty pictures of bike adventures. In the spirit of this post, not today. Just the opening image. I’ll be back soon enough with other words and images about bikes! OK…One sneak peek!

Next Up: 2023 Favorite Pictures and Experiences. I have drafted my final blog post of the year. I likely will post this later this week or sometime between Christmas and New Years Eve.  Stay tuned.