Aaron's Status

10:49 am

Every year for the past few years I’ve completed this annual wrap-up exercise, which is a structured approach to looking back on the past year and forward to the next. Credit to my friend Oren for the original version, and check out his coaching app Telos as well.

One of the things you’re guided to do in this exercise is create a motto for yourself for the upcoming year. This year, I landed on “Choose the hard thing; one step at a time.”

This motto is meant to remind me that I can do hard things, and I like to accomplish hard things, but sometimes I need a nudge. I also have a tendency to get overwhelmed by things I want to do, and the “one step at a time” part is meant to remind me that any small step toward that goal is valuable.

It’s my intention this year not to shy away from hard things, even if they may be frightening, and to more fully embrace the notion that growth happens at our edges, and with some discomfort. World-famous big wall climber Tommy Caldwell learned this from his father, who would call those kinds of adventures “type two fun.”

“Type one fun” is just fun; it’s watching a comedy or playing a game. “Type two fun” is uncomfortable, painful even, but has a big payoff. Something like climbing a difficult wall or changing a deeply ingrained habit. There is also a “type three fun,” which is simply not fun at all. Why endure the distress if there is no reward?

I don’t yet have a very clear picture of what kinds of “type two fun” I may get up to this year, but I have a pretty strong sense that I’ll know them when I see them.

Here’s to “becoming a more terrifying version of yourself” in 2025!