The universe gave me an early birthday gift. I usually love my birthday, but this year it was lacking the typical Adina energy. If you spend any time following me on social media you know that one of my favorite things is to Celebrate Everything. And a birthday is all about celebrating you.

The Power of Celebration: My Usual Birthday Ritual

One thing I do each year is take time for reflection. Since September is at the end of the triathlon and open water swim seasons I get to add in my athletic and professional reflections too. 

As I started the process I said to my husband that it’s been a really tough year for me. I’ve been faced with some heavy personal situations that have drained me emotionally. He quickly reminded me that I also had some really good things happen too. 

It seems that no matter how hard I tried to focus on the good, those negative situations kept taking over. 

This blog post is a perfect example. I have been procrastinating to write this for days because I couldn’t think of a topic that I thought was exciting enough. I thought it needed to be super special since it’s been an entire year that I stuck to writing one blog post per month. 

Procrastination and Self-Doubt: A Writer’s Block

Quick back story. I was struggling to write my blog and newsletter consistently. So I applied a proven goal setting tactic that works time and again with my athletes: make it reasonable and fun. Once a month sounded reasonable and I picked the 23rd of the month for my favorite number. This was all probably part of last year’s reflections.

Back to the blog post. Since I’m turning 52 I wondered if I could come up with 52 good things that happened to me. By sharing my list you would be inspired to think about the good things in your life. Then you’d feel empowered to move forward towards your goals. My thoughts bounced from thinking it was a clever idea to wondering if it would have an impact to doubting I could even list 52 good things.

During today’s procrastination, I stumbled upon an episode of the Bialik Breakdown Podcast where Deepak Chopra defined his happiness equation. The big takeaway is that 50% of our happiness comes from our attitude. He reminds us that we can take adversity or negative situations and reframe them as an opportunity for learning, that our challenges are a chance to find creative ways to make progress and move forward. If you want to hear Dr Chopra’s definition, listen to this clip on Instagram.

A Common Thread: Parallels Between Athletics and Life

It smacked me right in the face that I had used the same concept with Team B*REAL athletes earlier this week. Each week I go live in our private group for “Training Tip Tuesday” to teach about one aspect of endurance training. It’s really not surprising as there are so many parallels between training for an athletic goal and navigating daily life. This week we were reflecting on our performance from the season and I explained that falling short or not achieving a goal isn’t a sign of failure. It is an opportunity to correct or enhance your current skills to improve your performance. 

A strong core value that guides both my personal and professional life is integrity. I will be honest and choose what is right over what is easy or popular. That also means leading by example. So when I share strategies and concepts during Training Tip Tuesday, it is important that I apply those concepts myself as a means to demonstrate for the athletes I coach. 

Embracing Gratitude: A Year of Growth and Resilience

So I sat down with my notebook and started listing good things that happened this year. I got to 52 pretty quickly. I made a point of thinking of some of those difficult situations that made me say it was a tough year and reframing them. I was able to find a positive outcome in each of my hardest moments. I stopped when I reached 123 good things for 3 reasons: 1- I still love the number 23, 2 – I proved to myself that this was a pretty good year,  and 3 – it was time to stop procrastinating and get back to writing this blog post. 

Instead of sharing all of the 123 things, I’ve combined some of them into categories to come up with a list of 23 favorites. I decided to keep to myself which ones came out of the negative situations. I bet you can’t even tell the difference. 

A Call to Action: Share Your Own Story

It’s clear that I overcame my self doubt and found way more than 52 good things about this year. Now it’s time to find out if my idea is impactful. This is where you come in: If reading through my list inspires you, write your own list of good things about your year and reflect on how it will empower you to reach your next goal. If you do it, please send an email to hello@adinaoneill.com and tell me all about it.