2024 Personal & Professional Update
Over the past 8 months of 2024 I have been very quiet online in regards to Actualized Potential Wellness Coaching, my life, and all the happenings. This has also included a professional and personal break from social media in order to focus on other areas of my life. As 2024 has continued, I have reached a place where I feel ready to come back to sharing updates, as well as what my focuses are with Actualized Potential Wellness Coaching and how I am excited to serve those I coach! Before we jump into what 2024 has looked like, here is a little back story…
In July of 2022 I founded Actualized Potential Wellness Coaching, and for the following 18 months I spent most of my time, energy, and focus on succeeding at building my new online coaching business! This concentration of energy was put towards the many details of building a business operationally, as well as traveling to many different events, masterminds, and community opportunities to network and build my business. This also included reducing the amount of time and energy I was giving to coaching clients in person.
Another large aspect of my business that took a lot of energy and focus was building my online presence, as prior to Actualized Potential, I was not someone who largely participated in Social Media in any fashion. In order to build a successful online business I bought into the idea that I had to build an online presence that resonated with my ideal client. While I do not believe this is inaccurate, I think I have since learned from taking this approach and have adjusted (I will share more in upcoming blog posts).
Through these 18 months I met so many incredible people, grew and learned from so many great conversations, and was lucky enough to create memories that I will remember for a lifetime along the way. I got to travel to new places, and enjoy new experiences which is such an important part of perspective and mindset growth. I think this was just as much a part of why I created my business as I did to coach and support those I worked with. When I created my business I believed all of the experiences that came with it would share the commonality of experiences that grew me as a man, which I am forever grateful for.
As I stepped into 2024, I felt as though I had begun to stray from my purpose with founding Actualized Potential. Whether in business, or any other area of life, this can be challenging to resist in a society where we are so constantly bombarded with messages of how/why we should do things. I also felt that I was struggling with facing these challenges as I had moved to a new state (Montana) in the back half of 2023, and was beginning to realize that it was not where I wanted to be.
As 2023 came to an end, I felt as though I needed to step into 2024 pursuing radical change. As I spent time thinking about how I was going to do this intentionally, I felt as though I needed to return to myself. After 18 months of meeting many new people, absorbing many new ideas, and trying many new things, I felt as though I needed to connect those things back to who I knew I was already. I kept coming back to a very simple thought process:
“Everyday in 2024, I will do something that makes me physically uncomfortable.”
As the year began, this came through in simple action of renewing focus and intensity in my own training sessions to begin each day, or when I was out on the trail putting miles in. It is not that I had gotten out of routine with being uncomfortable, as many of my experiences with building my business made me feel that way, however choosing discomfort is different than being uncomfortable in a reactive way. Through January I felt as though I gained momentum from intentionally finding a physical moment of, “I do not want to do this,” and following through based on the straight forward fact that I had committed to doing so.
By the end of the month I felt this momentum carrying over into areas of life outside of training, and just physical fitness. This partnered well with an opportunity to return to Colorado for a visit in late February/early March to dog and house sit for friends who were going on an international trip.
When the opportunity arose, a part of me felt uncomfortable with the idea of returning to Fort Collins, Colorado for a month. There was a part of me that just wanted to keep doing what I was doing in Montana, instead of taking the uncomfortable action of returning. I was afraid that if I returned I would only confirm that I did not want to be in Montana.
The momentum built to begin the year in taking on physical discomfort consistently helped me see this uncomfortable opportunity through the positive lens of being able to confirm where I wanted to be, instead of being afraid of doing so. Acknowledging that if I did indeed confirm I wanted to be back in Colorado, then there would be many life decisions and action steps to follow.
So as I returned to Fort Collins for the first time since leaving the previous August, I did so with an open mind and heart. I genuinely wanted to reconnect with the area, the amazing friends and clients I developed relationships with over the past 7 years, and determine if I wanted to come back. It started with me just being open to the thought process, and by the end of my third week here I knew that I was not returning to Montana at the end of my month as planned.
However, this again left me in a very uncomfortable position; return to Montana as planned, knowing that I want to be in Colorado again, AND that I wanted to return to In Person Coaching; OR decide to stay on a weeks notice, and get to IMMEDIATE work on finding a location to train clients, and finding a place to live. While the next 10 days were some of the most hectic of this year, I did secure a place to live, as well as a gym to get back to training/coaching in person clients again all within the following 10 days. If you had told me in January that I could move to another state, settle into a job, and be back to routine in 14 days, I would have questioned that strongly, but the momentum of stepping head on into uncomfortable situations continued to build.
As the final week of March/beginning of April rolled around, I felt such a massive positive change in myself and my energy simply by being back in a place where I not only wanted to be, but truly felt like I belonged. As I stepped into April, within 2 weeks I was filling an In Person client schedule, reconnecting and spending time with close friends, AND continuing to succeed at the simple commitment from the beginning of the year; doing something physically uncomfortable/difficult every single day.
It was at this point in the year that I started to connect some bigger thought processes between the simple commitment I had made to start 2024, and how the year was beginning to unfold. I began to realize that one of the biggest practices I was promoting with daily physical discomfort was BEING PRESENT. So much of our society tempts us to get through or cope with discomfort and challenge by disconnecting, numbing, or avoiding it. Through experiencing it daily, I had reminded myself of the fact that the true standard for overcoming challenge or discomfort is to do so by being present. To push through not by numbing or avoiding the feelings or emotions that experience brings you, but leaning into them. Experiencing them fully, and continuing to move forward all the same. Returning to this standard of managing challenge has continued to be the platform from which I have grown since April.
I am excited to share more about what I have have been working on since returning to Colorado in upcoming blog and social media posts, but here are a few of the highlights:
In Q2, I ran/completed my first 50+k trail run… ALONE. (Blog Post Coming SOON!)
In Q2, I achieved LIFETIME Personal Bests in the weightroom
In Q2, I achieved a LIFETIME Personal Best Body Weight/Composition check in
In the month of July, I summited 8 Colorado 14ers again… ALONE (Blog Post Coming SOON!)
In Q2, I coached 5X as many clients IN PERSON, as I did in ALL of 2024 ONLINE.
In Q2, EVERY MONTH I surpassed monthly revenue goals that I had been working to achieve through online coaching for 18 months.
I have journaled more this year than I have in my entire life.
EVERY SINGLE DAY, I have done something that makes me physically uncomfortable, I have chosen to be present for the experience, and extract as much growth as possible from each one of them.
If you have made it to the end of this blog post, I am grateful for you being here, and taking the time to reconnect with me and my story! I am very excited to continue to share more details throughout August, and as 2024 continues!
You will also notice some changes to the Actualized Potential Website, that now outline working with me In Person if you live in the Northern Colorado area! I will still be working with online clients in exercise programming, nutrition coaching, and mindset coaching; while being very excited to be back to In Person Coaching! If you have any questions, or just want to connect, you can always touch base with me through the Contact page!
What I would hope to leave you with at the end of this blog post is the simple reminder:
You are a human being that is extremely capable of being resilient and fortified in the face of challenge/discomfort, and if you are brave enough to continue stepping towards what makes you uncomfortable, you will be rewarded with getting to know parts of yourself and life you do not currently know.
