2024: Stumbling Into A Groove

Did I find my groove this year?

My Word of the Year for 2024 was “Groove”. It was always a kind of nebulous goal, but I think that what I was really looking for was some kind of feeling that I was doing the right things week to week. I think that overall I achieved this goal, but it kind of happened by accident.

The early and middle parts of this year hit me pretty hard, which led me to write an article about my “funk”. In essence, I felt guilty for neglecting certain parts of my goals and how I didn’t have a good routine. I wanted to reframe how I looked at these things and I ultimately came to the conclusion that my energies were just being put elsewhere and that I shouldn’t feel bad about how my energy is being expended as long as I am still trying to grow and improve myself.

I’m glad I have the mid-year reflection article because otherwise I’m not sure if I would have remembered how I was feeling at that point. It honestly feels like a totally different years of my life and like I was a completely different person.

What got me out of my funk?

I think that individually each of these things wouldn’t have been enough to get me out of my funk, but a lot of them led into each other/worked synergistically to give me more energy to accomplish the things I wanted. As I mentioned before, these factors weren’t really aimed at trying to get me out of my funk, rather they were just the natural progression of things already happening in my life.

I gained better routine and more energy:

1. I got more seriously into lifting and personal health
   • I started lifting and consumed Science-Based Lifting content (late June to start of July)
     • TikTok really helped my fitness journey
   • Started some supplements: Protein powder (August), Electrolytes (October), Creatine (November)
   • I feel so much better physically and it’s fun to feel yourself getting stronger.
   • Working out everyday (if not lifting, cardio) has helped structure my days because I know that I want to work out each day. If I accomplish nothing else that day as long as I exercised I feel pretty good.
2. I switched teams at work
   • The work is more interesting and I have more long-term projects to do on this team. This means that I have more things to do during the day and feel more fulfilled by the work I’m doing which has definitely helped my energy levels.
     • I definitely feel more drain when I am bored and don’t have a lot of things to do during the day.

I had more fulfilling social interactions and relationships:

1. I started dating more seriously with an abundance mindset which allowed me to meet new people and experience new things
   • When I first started Hinge, I was honestly too scared to talk to people and/or meet up with them, so I mostly just swiped and matched with a few people here and there. It wasn’t until I decided to start having fun with it and not really care about the results too much that I was able to start matching and meeting up with people who felt more aligned with me.
   • Dating, while not easy, has still been a lot of fun and exposed me to a lot of new experiences that I probably otherwise wouldn’t have gotten.
2. Meeting new friends and hosting more allowed me to solidify my community and strengthen my relationships to people
   • I feel like I met a lot of new people this year while also deepening my other friendships by hosting and introducing them to other people.
   • I am particularly proud of the fact that I hosted every month from July-December except for October.
     • I really enjoy hosting but it can be a lot of mental effort to plan, coordinate, invite people, and actually have the event. Having a co-host for some of my events has really helped take the some of the burden off it.

Reflection on Sub-Goals

I won’t even really do this because I feel like in light of everything else it feels trite, but I do want to do it just for consistency’s sake.

1. Plan meals better
   • I didn’t do this, but I Feel less bad about it. I have a few frozen/pantry meals that I can go to if I’m hungry and don’t wanna cook, or have protein bars for a quick snack. When I want to cook, I’ll cook, but usually I don’t want to as much and that’s okay.
2. Do an arts & crafts hobby
   • I made some stamp art and tried to do a gallery wall and take more photos this year. I think reframing interior design as an artistic practice has given me more creative fulfillment.
   • I definitely still want to be more creative next year but not sure if I will have an emphasis on tangible, physical objects/art
3. Make less impulsive purchases
   • I did a pretty good job for the most part I think, but then Christmas came around and it did feel like I was spending so much money. I think maybe I should just budget instead of trying to focus on reducing impulsive purchases.
4. Learn, think, and write more
   • I read far more than I did last year and I wrote a bunch of articles this year that I am really proud of, so I would say that this was a smashing success.
5. Listen to more music
   • I discovered a lot of new music this year as I got more into Skramz and while I don’t think I discovered many new artists outside of genres that I wasn’t already listening to, I am still happy with the music that I listened to this year.
6. Leave the apartment more
   • It now feels like staying at my apartment is “having a night in” rather than it being the default, which I think speaks volumes about how well I accomplished this goal.
   • I think this will always be in the back of my mind, but I don’t think I’ll have it as an explicit goal again.