​If I could only give one piece of advice before I died, it would be to set goals. This is the single greatest idea to having a fruitful and successful life. If we don't set goals, we perform daily acts of randomness and have no deliberate action to better ourselves or our surroundings. Setting goals also allows us to critically reflect on where we've been and where we want to go. Of course, exploring life as it comes may allow us to end up at the same destination but being deliberate about our approach may allow us to cut the time in half. I've found goal setting to be successful in any facet in life: work, health, friends and family, religion, and any other general self-improvement. 

But what if I don't know what I want to do?
Not a problem at all. There are still general skills that we can work on before we develop a career, fitness achievements, or any other type of high overarching goals. We can work on communication (create discussions on message boards), writing (write letters to friends), speaking (try out for a play), and many other general traits to prepare us for any life decision. Being deliberate now allows us to be proactive rather than reactive for our future.

As I mentioned in my earlier blog, I like to set mini goals every year for my birthday to work on broad characteristics. I also like to set Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAG) to help give myself direction for the future.

Give us an Example!!!
I learned the power of setting goals my senior year of college when I determined that I wanted to intern for the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) in Colorado Springs, CO. I quickly sought out job openings and applied for any position I could. Believe it or not, one week later I heard nothing. Two weeks - nothing, one month - nothing (Brogan starts sweating), 2 months - nothing (Brogan holds back tears) but here is where the power of goal setting comes in. I ultimately failed to find an internship by applying online but I committed to interning for the USOC so I damn well was gonna find an opportunity. I started researching what other people did via blogs, I further refined my resume, but I believe the biggest item that led to my ultimate success was reaching out and making connections. I started researching roles on linkedIn and found current employees with careers I'd be interested in. I ended up reaching out to Peter Vint as a sports science researcher and explained to him why I was interested and explained how I could help. Over the next few weeks, we had discussions and ultimately he created a new internship for me to work there that summer. Goal - Completed.

Had I never made the commitment, I may never have worked at USOC nor would I have learned the power of reaching out and simply asking questions. Setting goals is empowering!!!

In Summary
Be bold! Set BHAGs! Find ways to improve yourself and then find how you can be deliberate on achieving that goal. If we wonder through life aimlessly, we may never reach our full potential or accomplish as much as we, later in life, wished we had.

Be creative! Do things that make you uncomfortable! Push your boundaries! Set a career objective to work for NASA and then start catering your career path as to how to accomplish that goal. Commit to a marathon and gradually build up your training over a year. Become financially independent and begin finding a side hustle. Learn to be more caring and do something nice for your friends once a month. The possibilities are endless, all you have to do is commit to a goal!

Sickness, hunger, thirst, and loss of family/friends are probably the hardest things we'll have to face in life but most of us won't have to face these issues in large doses. Outside of that, what in life is really that hard? More specifically, do we overuse the term hard? 

I was in the middle of pulling a 13 hour shift at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City when I began complaining to my coworkers that I still needed to run 12 miles after I got off at 10:00pm. My coworker silently leaned over to me and whispered, "what is so hard about that?" I looked over at him and was like, aaaaah, what? He cleared his throat and clarified: 

               Nothing in life is that hard, you just don't want to do it. I used to work three jobs and                                         complain the same way until I had the realization that working isn't that hard, I'd just                                       rather be doing something else. Only a few things in life are hard.

This may have been one of the greatest pieces of advice I've ever received, as it's reshaped my perspective on how I tackle challenges. To this day, I still quote the same man when things are getting "hard" and shake myself up to get a better perspective. I can think of handfuls of times where I perceived things as difficult and opted for the easier path. Imagine throwing a rock in your backyard every time you opted for the easier route. How many rocks would you have after a day? After a week? Over the course of a lifetime? How much farther ahead in life would you be if you chose to perceive them as manageable barriers rather than hard tasks? If we dissect our day into manageable tasks, we can see the simplicity of each task and accomplish more. Don't let a productive schedule be confused with something that is hard!

With my newfound inspiration, I hopped on the treadmill after work and ran until 1:00am. How do you like them apples? Believe it or not, the "following" day I woke up 7:00am and instantly regretted it. Which plays an important lesson on understanding the need for balance. Sleep deprivation is not easy, and we can't burn the candle from both ends! 

In short, Don't let your ego get in the way of understanding when enough is enough but keep your commitments sound enough that you're able to have continuous productive results! Whenever I start to get lazy, I recall this conversation and ask myself if what I have to do is really that hard. More often than not, I choose to take the higher road and I'd like to think I'm better because of it.

Inspired by Elon Musk's commitment to eating hot dogs for a month (link to article), I thought i'd test my limits on spending an average of less than $10 a day on food for a year. Note that this included eating out, beer, snacks, buying friends/family meals and anything in between that involved eating. Although eating hot dogs everyday sounds like heaven, I also had to consider my nutritional needs of being a professional athlete running 100+ mile weeks.

But Why?

I know you all are probably thinking to yourselves, but why? Just pay the extra two bucks and get that cheeseburger made for you. If you can't already tell, I'm addicted to numbers and excel. So naturally I try to compute and apply numbers to everything. In the case of saving money, let's assume you put the money into your retirement fund and achieve the average stock market return of 7% a year and take your savings out after 40 years. If your penny pinching saved you $10 a day on food, your total savings for the year would be $365*10=$3,650.00. After 40 years of compounding interest, this amount would equal $54,656.77. That's enough to fund your new spending diet for $54,656.77/$3,650=14.97 years after retirement. #Math

Where did I begin?

I started with what I needed from a nutritional standpoint veggies, carbs, fruits, et cetera and determined what the minimum cost could potentially be for each. For all of you project managers, I took the minimum viable product (MVP) on what I needed to operate from a sustenance perspective and the rest was nice to have money to spend on myself. Without a doubt, my budget was quickly gobbled up by fruits and vegetables as there were no cost cutting strategies around this (Gardening for me consists of growing weeds and killing plants). With whatever remaining budget I had, I began meal planning for the most bang for my buck. Here is what a typical day looked like for me:

Tuna Casserole was a go-to for me as it met my 4 to 1 carbs to protein ratio for recovery and it was cheap and surprisingly palatable (don't deny it till you try it!).

How did my year turn out?

Tips and Tricks

• Going out to eat adds up quick (Duh), where meals could range from $8.00-$18.00 depending on where you eat. That's almost 2 days of budget for one meal… Doh! By simply making every meal each week, I ran under the $10 average easily even while eating like a horse. To avoid being a recluse, I typically trended much lower through the week so I could enjoy going out on the weekends. It all starts with planning!
• Never do all your grocery shopping at one store! I found grocery stores had their niche markets for weekly sales and I could penny pinch more by buying accordingly. Aldi provided the cheapest/highest quality produce, Hyvee had weekly promos with killer sales, and Walmart provided consistently low prices.
• Off brand products, in most cases, taste every bit as good as name brand products at a fraction of the cost. I'll save you all the heartbreak of eating off brand cereal- don't do it!
• It's not the end of the world if you're off one day, week, or month, as long as you're consistent over the long run and plan accordingly it's very achievable.

​Sum it up already!

Saving money doesn’t have to equate to eating unhealthy or being a recluse, it involves proactive planning and being deliberate in not eating out when you don't have to. Over the course of a year, I met my financial goal while meeting my athletic goal of qualifying for the Olympic marathon trials. How do you like them apples?

I have two quotes in life that I like to live by, "pain lasts a day, regret lasts a lifetime" and "You are nothing but the fruit". The first of the two quotes was my go to quote to mentally prepare my teammates and myself for big races. From a runner's perspective, there is nothing more frustrating than reflecting on a race and thinking about where you gave up or why you didn't push harder. I think we can all generally agree if you gave someone a split second decision to either run up a hill or down a hill, they are more apt to choose downhill. By mentally preparing myself to climb the mountain when I reached the "Y" in my path, I was more willing to embrace the pain during a race.

The second quote I found while reading this article http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-you-better-person/ by David Wong. This is one of my favorite quotes due to its applicability to everything in life and is one of the main reasons for starting and naming my blog. To summarize the article, I can say I'm an apple tree but until I actually start producing apples, people don’t see me as an apple tree. The same principle applies to life, I'm caring because I ask you how your day is going, I'm determined because I never skip leg day, I'm a cereal connoisseur because I eat 3 family sized boxes each week.

Ever since reading this article, I've sought out ways to continually bear my fruit. One way I like to subtly grow myself in a direction I want, is by creating a yearly bucket list on my birthday. I start by determining the core characteristics I hope to portray. In example, this year I'm focusing on learning, running/health, adventure, caring, and financial responsibility and then I take these core components to create my bucket list with tasks. That's my project management planning 101 coming out of me. How do you like them apples?

Bucket List- age 26

1. Start blog- Learning
2. Code a program- Learning
3. Research stocks and take some risks- Learning
4. Read at least 12 books- Learning
5. Make 12 new meals- Learning/Financially responsible
6. Save/invest 50% of income- financially responsible
7. Get a credit card- financially responsible
8. Qualify for Olympic Trials in the Marathon- running
9. Run a PR on the track- running
10. Run a new race- running/adventure
11. Get Passport- adventure
12. Eat at 12 new restaurants in Des Moines- Adventure
13. Go on a vacation someplace new- adventure
14. Create a big get together with friends- Vacation? Adventure/caring
15. Do something for mom and dad- caring
16. Buy a book for a different friend each month- caring
17. Do something for the siblings- caring
18. Volunteer for something- habitat for humanity? Volunteer for construction in trade of knowledge? Caring
19. Plus other top secret stuff I can't share with the world…