The rise, the peak, and the fall. A year in review.

Winning is everything. Second, ninth, one hundredth, they're all the same. Outside of your close knit friends and yourself, you can have mini milestones, personal records, breakthrough performances, disappointments, and failures that your ride or dies will take notice. But toe the line as the winner, everything changes.

The Beginnings

Most would call it an ego but I write it off to competitiveness. Growing up, I had many lessons of failure. I distinctly remember playing my first year of little league sitting in right field, most of the time not completely understanding how the sport worked. I went around tagging people with my glove hoping it would get people out, little did I know you needed the ball to do so. With the help of teammates laughing at me and a sympathetic babysitter, I trained all off-season and got my first dose of work ethic. The next year, I helped pitch our team to an undefeated season. After that, I spent every off-season practicing football, baseball, running, and basketball with all the neighborhood kids. Calling up everyone's home phones the old fashion way and setting up play dates. I quickly learned that if you wanted something, you could work for it.

I applied my newfound knowledge to everything in life. If I lost, I needed to figure out how to get better. With the help of coaches, teammates, parents, and a competitive brother, I won state titles in baseball, cross-country, track, and competed at the varsity level in wrestling. I was class president, excelled in the classroom, and received accolades in orchestra. You give me a goal and I was going to get it.

The Turn

​There you have it, a big headed, ego driven (it's just competitiveness y'all), goal smashing, naïve little boy. I came into college ready to take on more and I got it. I finished the year as the second fastest division I true freshmen in the 10k. Only behind the infamous Parker Stinson. At this point, I can barely fit my giant noggin through doorways.

(enter reality check)

​The next 7 years, I fail. I fail a lot. I'm put through a slow and painful dismantling. Brick by brick, my running foundation was removed until I was left with nothing. Each year was met with more disappointment and a stronger drive to work harder. I had spent my childhood proving that work ethic equates to success. Work harder and good things will come. At my peak, I was running 114x100 meter hill repeats on Tuesday, 10 mile tempo on Thursday, 14x800 meter hill repeats on Saturday, and 20 mile long run on Sunday for a total of 120 miles a week. I wasn't afraid to work hard, I had worked hard my whole life.

Mental fortitude never let me down but my body's ability to keep up faltered. Mono, two stress fractures, and a four year bout with anemia attempted to slow me down but I found other ways to keep working hard. My body was screaming ENOUGH but I had bigger plans. Eventually, my mind started to give up on me. My senior year, I'd often go on late night runs hoping I'd be hit by a car so I'd have an excuse to stop. I was defeated, ego checked, and my identity was in crisis mode. I finished my senior year of college running slower than any year previously. I was humbled but I wasn't done. I needed to win again.

The rise

I wasted a college career chasing greatness but only caught an invaluable lesson. I knew I had to find more balance in life and in training but I also wanted to prove to myself that I was still as good as I thought. I was once one of the best runners in the nation and I knew that talent still existed.
Determined to find my love for running again, I spent the next three years undertraining. Often running as far as my body felt for the day and mixing in a weekly workout and long run to keep the legs sharp. My body began to bounce back, my chronic anemia resolved, I saw some improvement and even won a couple races. My love for running was finding its way back.

By year three, my performances had become stagnant and my peers in high school and college had begun to surpass me. While my competitiveness was anxious to hop on the training wagon to catch up, I was patient with my process. It wasn't until my former college teammate Reed Fischer placed fourth at the US 10k championship that I knew it was time. I'll be the first to admit that I was jealous, the fire had been lit. The next day I contacted Reed's coach Tom (Tinman) Schwartz.

While reading an article about the biggest regrets folks had on their death bed, I contemplated what advice I'd share. 

​For me, the greatest impact would be to make an emphasis on goals. What is your purpose? Where would you like to be in a year? 5 years? 10 years? If we don't set goals, we perform daily acts of randomness. Goals allow us to set deliberate action to better ourselves and 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, 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 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 a sports science researcher and explained to them why I was interested and how I could help. Over the next few weeks, we had discussions and ultimately they 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.

While the idea is simple, acting on this advice has 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? While I know I was a fool for burning the midnight oil, the mindset shift had me ready to climb Mt. Everest. 

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 and 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 $10 a day (or less) 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.

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?

For a reason I'm not smart enough to explain, we often associate ourselves with some inspirational  poem, quote, or phrase. Maybe it's something that makes us feel heard or maybe strikes a chord with where we're at in life? If I were to ask you your favorite quote, would you be able to rattle it off? 

For myself, there are always two quotes that are top of mind: "pain lasts a day, regret lasts a lifetime" and "You are nothing but the fruit". The first of the two quotes was my rallying cry prior to big races. Where the quote reinforced my mindset to embrace the fight as pain would inevitably come. 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.

For the second quote, I discovered the inspiration while reading this article by David Wong. This is one of my favorite quotes due to its applicability to any scenario and is one of the main reasons I decided to start my blog and name it after this quote. The phrase, "You are nothing but the fruit" can be boiled down to the following analogy: A tree can claim that it's an apple tree but their peers won't see them as an apples tree until they start bearing fruit. 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, adventure, caring, and financial responsibility. I take these core components that I'd like to portray and create bucket list tasks to complete in the year. That's my project management 101 coming out of me. How do you like them apples?

Bucket List- age 26

1. Learning
   1. Start blog
   2. Code a program
   3. Research stocks and take some risks
   4. Read at least 12 books
   5. Make 12 new meals
2. Financially Responsible
   1. Make 12 new meals
   2. Save/invest 50% of income
   3. Get a credit card
3. ​Running
   1. Qualify for Olympic Trials in the Marathon
   2. Run a PR on the track
   3. Run a new race
4. Adventure
   1. Get Passport- adventure
   2. Eat at 12 new restaurants in Des Moines
   3. Go on a vacation someplace new
   4. Create a big get together with friends- Vacation? 
5. Caring
   1. Do something for mom and dad
   2. Buy a book for a different friend each month
   3. Do something for the siblings
   4. Volunteer for something- habitat for humanity? Volunteer for construction in trade of knowledge? ​