What are you optimizing your life for?

What are you optimizing for?

I try to ask myself this question a lot.

What are you hoping for?

What do you want to achieve in your life?

Is it money?

Status?

Fame?

A nice house?

A nice car?

A family?

Accomplishing your dreams?

What is it?

What are you optimizing your life for?

I’ve been wrestling with this question a lot this past year.

Gone through a bunch of changes.

Physically.

Mentally.

Spiritually.

And also just day to day.

My identity used to be wrapped up a lot in my job.

Now that’s gone.

So what do I want to achieve?

What do I want to do?

I used to think it was money-related.

Make as much money as possible.

Used to believe this idea that the West convinced us that money is the key to happiness.

Liars.

Sure money can make you happy, but only if you’re already happy.

But if you’re miserable, it will make you more miserable.

All it does is exacerbate your problems.

I’ve been forced to rethink my relationship with money and what I want.

To me now, it’s about time.

How do I want to spend my time?

We only get one life.

One shot at this.

Most of us think we’ll have more time.

But we don’t.

Life moves fast.

If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you’ll miss it. (Shout-out to Ferris Buehler)

So now my focus is time.

How do I want to spend my time?

Sure, I’d like to make money.

But that’s not the central driver anymore.

The driver is now about relationships.

About people.

About family.

About building a great life with those around you.

Life is about achieving great things with others.

Not alone.

Let me tell you a story.

Went to London a few months back to get away from everything.

Had an epic meal at a 3-star Michelin restaurant.

No one else was available so I went alone.

Amazing 10-course meal that took almost 3 hours.

Just me enjoying this experience.

Tried not to be on my phone.

Took in what I saw around me.

People watched.

Had a great time, but something was missing.

Would it have been better sharing it with someone else?

1 million percent.

It reminded me of a meal I went to with one of my best friends a few years back in Paris.

Went to David Toutain, a 2 star Michelin restaurant.

17-course only vegetarian meal.

It was epic.

A meal I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

Literally told my friend ‘This was a religious experience.

This was inspiring.

Now I want to work harder so I can do this again.’

A meal so good it’s inspired me to work harder.

But the best part of the meal was sharing it with him.

Now back to this recent London trip.

The next day I went to see Liverpool play Fulham at Craven Cottage.

Awesome game and incredible seats (was in the 1st row).

Unfortunate they lost but still, an incredible experience.

Again though, it was on my own.

Sure these experiences were fantastic, but they didn’t mean as much because it was just me.

This is when it hit me hard.

Why do you work so hard?

Why do you try and make all the money you can?

To spend it on those you love.

To enjoy experiences.

Not to conquer your own mountain alone.

But to do it with other people around you.

Success to me now is not about making money.

It’s about making an impact.

About sharing amazing experiences with those you love doing what makes you happy.

Even this Ironman journey.

I set out on this path to show myself what I could accomplish.

But really the biggest lessons were the learnings along the way.

This one was one of the most important.

So ask yourself.

What are you trying to accomplish with your life?

What do you want to do?

What are you optimizing for?

This week in training - (Rest week - Follow me on Strava here):

Swimming - 5k. Lighter week given the rest week. Good sessions. First pool session with the wet-suit as I prep for the Olympic triathlon this coming weekend. Felt good in the pool. Not as fast as I would’ve thought but was also very busy. Shoulders a bit tired with the extra weight but nothing crazy.

Biking - 98.2k - good biking sessions this week with 2 outdoor rides. Slowly building the long ride and the big volume comes up the next few weeks. Felt much more comfortable on the bike, especially with no problems with the tires. Legs felt good the next day. Excited to see how I do in the race this weekend.

Running - 19.2k - good run week. Cold this week so was indoors. Shoes feel good now. Pace is solid. No issues with the achilles or ankle so feeling good into this week.

Notes from Week 21 of training:

• Much needed rest week, even though we did pretty good volumes. Didn’t accomplish the workouts to the fullest extent, especially the bike, but still got good sessions in.
• Nutrition was good this week. Felt good on the bike but the big test will be once we get to the 100k+ sessions. Gut training working well though and still keeping up the diet. Not losing any weight but know this diet is needed to make sure I have enough energy and calories to be at my best.
• Good swimming this week. Felt good to wear the wetsuit in the pool. Was told off for being in the medium lane because I was going too fast so I’ll take the mini ego boost haha.
• Biking was good this week. Not as nervous, especially for the outdoor rides. Cold again being 4 degrees on Saturday morning with a ton of wind, but glad we got out. Bike fixed as well with the tires being flat/punctured so feeling good. Starting to understand why people do love biking. Still haven’t had the great weather yet so I’m sure I will enjoy it even more as it gets better.
• Decent run week. Nothing crazy, lighter week on the knees was good. No issues with the ankle/achilles so glad we got this rest week.
• Movies - watched Upgrade (decent Sci-fi, very Ex Machina vibes), Fury (good war movie, reminds you how destructive human beings can be, mostly for no reason). TV shows - finished Your Friends and Neighbours (not a great ending, wish I didn’t watch the show). Started Hacks, which is hilarious. Some great one liners. Crushed a season and a half in a few days. Definitely worth checking out.
• Good rest week, even with the volume being higher than what I used to do a few months back. Didn’t complete the full bike workouts but feel ok about that. Saturday long bike was 4 degrees with winds above 40k/hr and still got 50k+ so can’t be too upset. Bit nervous about the bigger volumes to come, but know I just need to take it one day at a time and I’ll get there. Big race this weekend so will be a good prep for how I’m feeling. Kinda funny because I don’t feel that nervous about it given the distances are so short relative to the full Ironman, but also know that finishing it will be an accomplishment in itself. Not many more weeks left before the big day.

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