Austin JochumA Year In Review: Building The Foundation
“Woe is the man who is alone for when he falls no one is there to pick him up”
I entered 2019 broken. I had no foundation. I had no direction. I was making the world worse off.
I knew I had to change and I set out to do just that. The day before the new year I created a mission statement. I started my path. I started to take control of my life for the first time in my entire life.
I’m honestly happy to say I feel I did just that. I have my foundation set and I work on it every day.
I leave 2019 a changed person. A leader. Someone I’m proud to be. I have direction and I know my purpose. I try every single day to make the world better.
And very little of it had to do with what I did and way more to do with what was put into me.
Thank you. From the bottom of my heart thank you! To anyone that has put an ounce of energy, love, blood, sweat or tears into me this past year. It’s hard to portray through typing on this computer, but I honestly don’t believe I’d be here without that love. I don’t think I’d be where I’m at, I’d be a shell.
It’s not about me. It Never was.
2019 Review:
January: I set my mission statement. I set my direction. I put what I wanted out into the universe and the start to the foundation was built. I took control of the first thing I knew how and that was my own physical transformation. I read “look at yourself in the mirror and see who stares back” and I did just that and hated who stared back so I went about changing that. This was just one small step in changing who I was but it allowed me to have part of my foundation set that would allow me to help build the other aspects of my life. Then I was offered my dream job, being the Strength and Conditioning Coach at the University of St. Thomas, which was pretty incredible to me at the time, because it was one of my 5-year goals I had set a month prior. The Universe has a weird way of working. January was a strong start to the new me.
17 – Books Read and boy was this a change for me. When I was in middle school I loved reading, I loved the curiosity, I loved what the world could be and how that could be displayed through a book. Through the years I felt I lost that curiosity. I lost that child like wonder. I was trying to be someone I wasn’t and I went back to who I felt I was and I’m so happy I did. I’ve been inspired. I’ve been educated. I’ve learned and questioned things I never thought I was. All because I started reading again. In no specific order:
1. Special Strength
2. Game Changer
3. Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning
4. 7 Habits of Highly effective People
5. Good To Great
6. Conscious Coaching
7. Extreme Ownership
8. 12 Rules for Life
9. The Playmakers Advantage
10. Show Dog
11. Speed Strength
12. Anatomy Trains
13. Never Eat Alone
14. 4 Hour Work Week
15. The Back Mechanic
16. The Alchemist
17. Becoming a Supple Leopard
Gym Opening What really made me feel like we were onto something. What really made me feel like I was building a community. The energy and love put into opening this was crazy and it’s something I always bring myself back to when I feel down, tired or lost. It’s not about me. Its about the people that believed in this.
3 - Podcasts: It may seem silly, but podcasts had a huge impact on my 2019 growth. It started with my opportunity to go on The BackPocket podcast and tell my story. This kick started a lot of things for me and was the first time I had openly put out what my goals were and who I was trying to be. This was powerful, now it wasn’t just me in this journey, everyone that had listened was on it with me. On this podcast they challenged me to start my own podcast, so I did just that. This has been a huge personal growth thing for me. I have grown a ton in my public speaking abilities because of the practice the podcast has given me and the things I’ve learn from the guest has been amazing. Just recently I was invited to go on the It’s Hard Podcast and again was able to just talk and tell my story and talk to like minded people. It’s something I really enjoy and it’s something I believe I have a skill set in and I’m going to continue to develop in this area.
Ankle Porn - An absolute movement that went “viral” My foot fetish will only grow in 2020, stay tuned.
365 – Nuggets of the Day: Something I had to find and look for every day and share with the world, one of my favorite challenges from the past year!
20- Episodes of Anatomy Tuesday! It started with a caffeinated text to my buddy Mark and it turned into a video series in which we cover a body part or movement pattern every week! This has been awesome for me for a couple of reasons. 1. It makes me review and dive deeper Into the Anatomy of the body 2. And more importantly I think, It makes me learn how to teach and talk on camera, this is a skill set I will for sure use going forward. Special thanks to our producer Markus who has been with us the entire time recording and editing all of our bloopers, you’re the real MVP.
Online Training: Absolute game changer for the business and the answer to “How can I find a way to affect more people and not trade my time for money?” This has been something very rewarding for me. People don’t need much, we all have it within us and many times its just that little push, that little direction that can change everything.
8 – Pre-Game Races Won: Now this # is highly debated but because none of the across field races the coaches have pre-game are officially measured, I’m going to give myself 8.
BEEF Squad: The amount of things I have done with the people I truly love and care about this year has been amazing. From going to Chicago on St.Patricks day, to crushing the rapids on the 4th of July to showing up to Gilman Days and taking the softball world by storm. These are memories I’ll cherish forever.
2 – Time Defending Champ of “The Biggest Coach in the MIAC”: Truly an honor. Something I train relentlessly for.
Biggest Dance Coach In the Nation: Yeah at one point this year I coached more highschool dancers than I did football players, what about it.
1 - Foundation Build: and now it’s time to go forward with this foundation and look at what 2020 can be.
2020: The Year of Exploration:
After building up the foundation in 2019, my focus for 2020 is on expanding my view on everything in the world. This has been something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently. If I want to be the leader I want to be, I need to be able to see father and deeper than the people following me. It all starts from the top. I need to dive deep into different things and grow outwards as a human. I need to be able to see problems from all view points. I need to see things from different perspectives. I can’t be someone else, that’s already been invented. That means I need to travel. I need to talk to leaders of all professions. Continue to read and explore different fields. I want to master my own mind. I want to start Jiu Jitsu. I want to learn how to swing dance. I want to go to a silent retreat. I want to get the tattoo I’ve been talking about getting. I want to experiment, and I want to say yes to things, because I need to grow as a leader. 2020 is the year of exploration. Another year of growth. I can’t wait to see where it takes me.
Thank you for being apart of this journey. We are just getting started.
Keep Chopping Wood