Making plans, breaking them

Disclaimer: This week's newsletter will be 99% personal (only 1% money). Tune in next week for 100% money chats.

Last Wednesday I got into a gym accident and went to the Emergency Room.

A quick 5-hours later. I left with a leg boot, some pain meds, and a diagnosis for a broken ankle.

The timing of it all is pretty classic.

Literally the day before, I wrote out 2024 fitness goals for my new sport: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

I planned to go over them with my coach later that week.

It’s almost comical how much time I spent thinking about my plans. And how quickly they came crashing down.

I know I’ll recover. But it’s a huge bummer.

I love January - everyone’s given a clean slate to close the gap between who they are, and who they aspire to be.

With this injury, it feels like my January won’t start for a couple more months.

Not only that. But along with lingering pain, I can’t exercise or do the sport that’s helped keep my schedule rigid and anchored. I’m not sure if/when I’ll return either.

Pity parties aside, I can’t ignore that I’ve also been given some opportunities.

Here are some silver linings I’ve been thinking about:

1. I met my health insurance deductible

It sounds silly to say, but now that I’ve hit my deductible in January, I plan to do everything that I’ve been putting off.

I’m talking scans, specialist appointments, ear wax cleaning, everything!

Nothing was stopping me before, except a small (mostly-mental) barrier. But now I’ll be playing a game with myself before 12/31 to max the benefits.

2. Opportunity to 10x

Any time I’ve shape-shifted into a much better version of myself, it was right after I went through a rough patch.

Getting dumped, failing a class, diagnosed with an auto-immune disease, parents getting divorced.

They all absolutely crushed me at the time.

But through the journey, I liked who I became.

3. I’ll learn to ask for help

There’s no way around this one. I’ll have to learn to put my ego aside and ask the people around me for help. Things like running errands or doing home projects for my wife.

This should be very easy.

But I’m not practiced with this, and I have a lot of pride about being the guy who gets things done. Now, I have no choice but to give in and accept help.

It’s always better on the other side

Maybe it’s because I’m in my 30’s and things are going pretty well. But I’ve been feeling grateful for my situation.

When the hospital asked for money - we simply paid it. It was an amount of money that could crush a working family, but we didn’t even blink. A luxury I couldn’t have imagined not-that-many years ago.

On the business front, I work for myself. I can take rest time off when I need. Heck, I’m typing this sitting on a bed while my leg is elevated (doctor’s orders).

Don’t get me wrong: I’m still pretty disappointed at the situation and in a bit of pain. But I’ve been through hard stuff before, and have always come out better on the other side.