T.H.U.R.S. #19

Hola and welcome to The Summit, my biweekly newsletter where I share my unfiltered thoughts on navigating the peaks and valleys of adulthood.

My mission is to question everything, grow every day and have fun along the way. The Summit’s mission is to invite you to do the same.

Today: T.H.U.R.S. #19

Apologies for missing last week amigos! I have been pretty busy and a little lazy to be honest! But we are back 😎. Onwards and upwards from here!

Thoughts:

• Something light: An annual reflection!

As we close in on the end of the year, what better time to do some personal reflection!

• What went well?

• What didn’t go so well?

• What were your favourite experiences? What made you feel most alive?

• What were the biggest things you learnt?

• What are your goals for next year?

I sat down for a couple hours last week and pondered on all of these questions. While most of my answers were quite personal, I thought I’d share a couple of my top takeaways from my year in review:

• I love doing hard/difficult things (seeking discomfort):

Some of my favourite experiences/memories I’ve made this year have been tackling difficult feats. Running marathons, climbing mountains, and even building up the courage to start and write this blog!

• I enjoy having a routine working towards something:

My passion projects this year (this blog and my chairlift chats) have provided me with lots of joy and purpose. When I am not working towards something, I can often feel quite lost… sounds like I need a job hey 🤣.

Finally, I was listening to an episode of Modern Wisdom this week with Chris Williamson and Mathew McConaughey, that ties quite nicely into this topic. They talked about how people tend only to journal and reflect when they are at their lowest. As we know, journalling/reflection is a great tool to help us in difficult times, but what we often forget is that it can be just as powerful when we are thriving!

So, give it a go. Take a couple hours and reflect upon your 2024 :)

• Something heavy: Your greatest growth germinates from your lowest points.

This thought also stems from an episode of Modern Wisdom, this time featuring Nedd Brockman (post 1000-mile run)!

On the poddy, Chris and Nedd were talking on the topic of bullying. Obviously, they started discussing how awful bullying can be and the lasting impact it can have on people through adult life. But then they flipped the coin.

After both being bullied in high school, they spoke about how many years later, their experience shaped them into stronger, more resilient individuals; and even helped propel them forwards in life.

My main learning from this segment was no matter how bad things are, there may be the potential for remarkable growth. Many years later, in some cases, we may even be grateful for our negative experiences.

In Nedd’s words, it is about “making the best of shitty hand”.

P.S. if you want to read more on this topic, I would highly recommend Ryan Holiday’s The Obstacle is the Way.

Highlights:

My favourite thing I learnt this week: Earn to give.

I was having an interesting discussion recently about ‘giving’.

Most of us want to ‘give’ in some way. We want to be charitable, we want to make a difference, we want to help where we can.

But why? Is it because we want to feel good about ourselves, or is it because we actually want to do our part to make the world a better place?

Everyone has different motives, but generally I think the answer is somewhere in the middle! Of course we want to feel good about ourselves, we’re only human - but sometimes it is important that we think about how effective our impact really is.

What am I getting at here? Let me give an example.

Now, I am no wealthy executive, so this example doesn’t really apply to me or many of my fellow 20-somethings, but I do think it is good fuel for thought moving forwards.

If/when you are trying to give, consider how effective you can be!

Uplift:

A summary of my favourite chairlift chats from the last week!

gabes_chairlift_chats

View more on Instagram

Reflect:

My favourite Q and A from the week (chairlift chat with Serge):

❓️What have you worked the hardest for?

💁‍♂️ “My discipline. I think discipline is a tool that you keep sharpening every single day and the more you exercise it the stronger it becomes. And once you have discipline, you can do anything.”

❓️What do you do to sharpen it?

💁‍♂️”Every day, I take care of my body and mind. Workout. Meditate. Eat clean.”

Summit:

A challenge I set myself:

I’ve done a few challenges in the last couple of weeks. After having a few too many beers the night before, I decided to run off the hangover and make my way from Banff to Canmore. It was the longest run I had done in a while (25 kms) and was through snow pretty much the entire time lol!

I also challenged myself to try ice climbing! It was such a wicked experience: bushwacking through the forest to a remote waterfall and learning to climb with crampons and ice picks!

Oh, and I decided to skin up the ski hill again - that was wasn’t too crazy. But I was surprised with how warm you get when you’re working hard. I was sweating in a T-shirt in -15 degree weather!

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