Wellness Unbound
Posts
2024 Annual Review

2024 Annual Review

Looking back on a year of adventure, learning & experimentation

Aidan Weinmann
January 03, 2025

Hello & Happy Holidays!

It’s officially 2025. So here is a recap of the past year, in the form of an Annual Review.

Inspired by James Clear’s approach, I’ll be diving into three key questions:

What went well?
What didn’t go well?
What did I learn?

Stay tuned ‘til the end for some personal favorites - music, podcasts, photos, & more.

OUTLINE:

What Went Well?
What Didn’t Go Well?
What Lessons Were Learned?
2024 Goals Assessment & Reflections
2024 Superlatives
2024 Songs & Podcasts of the Year
2024 Photos of the Year

WHAT WENT WELL?

2024 was a year of adventure

This year, I traveled more than ever before - and each trip left its mark.

The adventures began in May with a trip out west to Zion National Park & Las Vegas.

Zion offered a much-needed reset - a chance to reconnect with nature before diving into the hustle of Las Vegas, where Nadine delivered a keynote speech at the Institute of Functional Medicine conference.

That trip had unforgettable bookends: starting in a remarkable, off-grid Airbnb & ending with a bucket-list concert at the Sphere to see Dead & Company.

Little did I know this show would spark a trip back to the Sphere later in the summer, this time with my dad.

Between those Vegas trips came my first time back to Europe since 2017.

Switzerland had been on my bucket list for years, and it exceeded expectations in every way. From the majestic beauty of Lake Geneva to the country’s awe-inspiring efficiency, it was unforgettable.

The true catalyst for the Euro-trip, though, was my cousin’s wedding in the Netherlands. She & her new husband threw an amazing celebration that brought together traditions & people from across the globe.

Looking back, this year reminded me how much I cherish travel.

Traveling isn’t just about making memories - it stretches us. It encourages us to step out of our comfort zones & embrace new perspectives about the world & our place in it.

Further & More Expansive Learning

In 2024, I invested more money into education since college, and the return has been transformative.

In January & February I completed the altMBA - an online leadership workshop that reimagines traditional business education.

The course was writing & conversation-driven, with a focus on deep, thought-provoking prompts.

Nearly every day, I found myself writing or meeting with small groups.

I met some incredible human beings & learned a lot, which has greatly informed how I show up in & outside the workplace.

My interest in growth continued after attending the IFM Conference in Las Vegas, which inspired me to dive deeper into Functional Medicine.

Now, I’m enrolled in a year-long certification with the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy, learning to be a holistic health coach.

Balancing this coursework with demanding work hours hasn’t been easy, but it’s fueling a renewed sense of purpose & optimism that I’m excited to see unfold.

This year has reminded me that learning isn’t just about acquiring knowledge - it’s about evolving. It’s about becoming someone new.

From Striving to Thriving

I learned to love what’s in front of me this year.

For much of my early career, I struggled with perpetual discontentment.

Looking back, I see two key reasons why:

I was constantly striving - focusing on the future instead of appreciating what was in front of me.
I was focusing on what was wrong, which made me miss out on all the things that were right. This is the dark side of an optimization mindset… always trying to improve can create a quiet but constant sense that you’re falling short.

This year, instead of striving or nitpicking, I decided to put my head down & truly commit to the opportunities in front of me.

Jeff Bezos said it well: "You need to be realistic that any job, no matter how much you like it, is going to have maybe 10% or 20% that you don’t enjoy. If you like 80% of your job, that’s incredible."

I finally embraced the wisdom of the phrase, “The grass isn’t greener on the other side; it’s green where you water it.”

The results? A promotion, a raise, and - most important - a renewed sense of contentment.

I’m grateful to be working for a purpose I believe in, at a company where I’m learning more than I ever thought possible.

Get Strong through Experimentation

This year, my body told me something I didn’t want to hear: it was time to stop running.

Maybe turning 30 played a role, but my knees made it clear that pounding pavement was no longer sustainable.

This was tough news, because for the past decade, running has been a pillar in maintaining my mental health.

But instead of dwelling on what was lost, I leaned into experimentation.

In January, I took a 30-day break from caffeine & alcohol, and the results were impressive… it completely reset my energy levels & reshaped how I approach both.

Over the summer, I bought a bike & rediscovered a love for bike riding. It felt like I was 10 years old again… wind in my face, landscapes flying by, and getting a great workout in the process.

And throughout the back half of the year, I dove deeper into strength training. I worked with a coach to incorporate new modalities & push myself to get stronger than I’ve ever been.

In the last few days, I set new lifting PRs across the board:

Bench Press: 245 × 1
Squat: 375 × 1
Deadlift: 375 × 1
OH Press: 135 × 10

Letting go of running wasn’t easy, but it taught me a powerful lesson: strength - both physical & mental - comes from being willing to let go, adapt, explore, and grow.

WHAT DIDN’T GO WELL?

I fell off the Wellness Unbound Newsletter, hard.

This is the first piece of written content I’ve created since August 2024.

5 months is the longest amount of time I’ve taken away from creating content since I started four years ago.

2024 began strong with weekly Wellness Unbound newsletters through May.

But as life picked up, my consistency slipped - and eventually, fell off entirely.

At first, I was disappointed with myself & frustrated by the lack of inspiration I felt.

But over time, I realized I needed to give myself grace & reassess my priorities.

Just existing in the cultural shitstorm of the present day can feel heavy, and sometimes, stepping back is what’s necessary to move forward.

So while I think it’s important to go after goals that excite you, I believe it’s equally important to be gentle with yourself & be flexible in what you make time for.

I’m grateful to be writing again and I hope to find a better & more sustainable cadence in the new year.

In the end, I finished the year with 23 newsletters - about half my goal of 48. (More on that below).

My relationship with music continued to plateau.

Music has been my biggest joy for as long as I can remember.

I started playing guitar at 14, and it quickly became my favorite thing to do.

But when I stopped playing regularly in college, I fell into a cycle - playing the same songs over & over, without actually improving.

It’s frustrating, as you can imagine: doing something for over a decade without meaningful progress.

What’s interesting, though, is that this dynamic isn’t just a musical plateau; it’s a mirror - a metaphor for most things in life.

Growth doesn’t happen on autopilot. It often requires intention, experimentation, and a willingness to embrace discomfort.

So this year, I shook things up. I picked up the bass guitar for the first time, and jumped into a few jam sessions with friends.

Though I didn’t pursue bass as much as I initially hoped, those sessions reignited a curiosity I hadn’t felt in years.

Like any passion, there’s an entry (or reentry) phase. A time that feels awkward & uncomfortable as you figure things out (or remember what’s what).

But what I’m learning is that the key to music isn’t perfection - it’s play.

Music isn’t about mastery, it’s about connection, creativity, & having fun.

And in the year ahead, I intend to embrace that again.

I only completed 53% of my goals.

Discussed in detail below.

WHAT DID I LEARN THIS YEAR?

Ease Can Create Effectiveness. For years, I thought success came from grinding relentlessly. But working with coaches & therapists has taught me something counterintuitive: ease can be more effective than force. There is often a choice between acceptance & resistance. Resistance creates tension, while acceptance creates space for clarity & solutions to emerge. Ease doesn’t mean inaction. It’s about moving with life, rather than against it. Intentional action paired with trust is far more powerful than white-knuckled effort.

Our greatest strength is often also our greatest weakness. My analytical mind, for example, is one of my biggest strengths. But without awareness, it can limit my creativity. Carl Jung called this the "shadow side" - the idea that our strengths inherently carry hidden challenges. Courage, for example, is transformative when balanced. But too much becomes recklessness; too little, cowardice. The same principle applies to any virtue: when overused or unexamined, it can become a flaw. Growth comes from recognizing these limits, learning into self-awareness, and choosing to move beyond them.

No Mistakes, Just Jazz. What if there were no mistakes? What if everything was unfolding exactly as it’s meant to? This is the essence of jazz: it’s less about the note being played, and more about the next one. It’s less about structure & more about flow. Rolling with the punches. Improvising. Having fun. The older I get, the more I see how closely jazz mirrors existence. Mistakes aren’t failures or detours, they’re part of the process. So, why not live like jazz - improvising, adapting, and finding joy in the music?

Adaptability is everything. Last March, I was knee-deep in spreadsheets, stressing about a work deliverable due the next day. I took a break to accompany my partner on a drive to drop off our cat, Luna, at a friend’s place. What was supposed to be a quick errand turned into a serious curveball. After rushing through a visit & packing Luna into the car, the engine wouldn't start… so there we were. Stuck 40 minutes from home, on one of the coldest nights of the year, with no laptop in sight. Suddenly, my work stress melted away. The deliverable could wait. What mattered now was dealing with the hand we were dealt… figuring out how to get ourselves & the car home safely. After a few hours, we found ourselves in a tow-truck, being drove home with our car behind us. During that ride, I remember reflecting: adaptability isn’t just important - it’s everything. Life is f*cking unpredictable. We can rarely control the circumstances. But we can always control how we respond.

The closer you look, the more you see. Artistry lives in the attention to detail. As Julia Cameron writes in The Artists’ Way, the smallest observations - those we’d usually overlook - can hold the deepest beauty. Consider a walk outside, for example. At first glance, it’s just a street or park. But if you slow down, you’ll notice the way sunlight dances off the leaves or the trees cast shadows. There’s always far more to see - if you’re willing to look deeper.

Care for the small things x Don’t take shortcuts: My traditional (financial) education has trained me to think in terms of optimization: how can I achieve the best results with the least amount of effort or cost? But efficiency without awareness is dangerous. This year, I nearly checked off my meditation goal (below) based on hunch. But I knew that I’d be lying if I published that claim without accountability. So I sat down, ran the numbers, and discovered I’d only meditated about half the days of 2024 - much less than I set out to. Accountability matters - even in the smallest things. As Kevin Kelly writes in his book, Excellent Advice for Living, “Tend to the small things. More people are defeated by blisters than by mountains.” The little things - keeping our tiniest promises to ourselves & the world - are what really matter.

Not by appointment do we meet delight. These words, written on the guestbook at a Zion Airbnb, have stayed with me ever since. Delight isn’t something we plan for. It surprises us - like seeing a double rainbow or finding $20 in an old jacket. It’s a reminder to loosen the grip of control or expectations, and rather, remain open to what life offers.

Love is a fuel we can pour on others. It functions like gasoline - it fuels growth, connection, and transformation. But it’s powerful, and how we use it matters. Poured recklessly, it can overwhelm or explode. Poured with care, it becomes the spark that lights up lives & the world. The beauty of love is its compounding effect. It’s win-win-win: giver, receiver, and even bystanders benefit. Less Mind // More Heart.

HOW DID MY GOALS GO?

Coming into 2024, I intended to slow down & focus on what’s in front of me.

My Compass Question was, “How can I show up to focus, expand, and refine?”

So my goal list for 2024 seemed pretty realistic. Ambitious but achievable.

Well, this year became one of flexibility - moving through the wins, losses & lessons above.

I finished the year finishing 9/17, just a 53% achievement score.

No bueno but I’m giving myself Grace.

I choose gratitude for what was accomplished.

Here’s how things went.

🏋️‍♂️Physical Health // Wellness:
- ✅Stop Eating After 7pm (80% of the time)
- ❌ Complete a Sprint Triathlon and/or Spartan Race
- ❌ Practice Martial Arts (Even Once, Ideally More)
🧠Mental // Personal Development:
- ❌ Publish 48 Newsletters (Every Friday)
- ❌ Read/Listen to 1 Book/Audiobook Monthly (24 Total)
🧘‍♂️Spiritual // Emotional:
- ❌ Practice Yoga >100x (twice per week)
- ❌ Practice Meditation >300x (daily with some wiggle room)
- ❌ Volunteer (Even Once, Ideally More)
🎉Recreational // Fun:
- ❌ Learn to Sing
- ✅ Travel More (& Take Photos There)
💼Occupational // Career:
- ✅ Complete the altMBA Program
- ✅ Get Promoted
👫Social // Relationships:
- ✅ Weekly Date Nights
- ✅ Bi-Weekly Phone Calls
- ✅ Monthly Social Outings // Dinner Parties
💰Financial:
- ✅ Become Debt Free
- ✅ Increase Income by 20%

Key Reflections & Takeaways:

Avoiding late meals is one of, if not, the best hack for getting good sleep.
I’m no longer sure how I feel about endurance races… sometimes it feels like I’m paying good money to run in circles (often in bad weather). In this season of life, I believe that the biggest value races give me is having something on the calendar to train for. The question I’m asking myself now, is “what can I build/train for if not an endurance race?” Updates to come.
Not trying martial arts this year was my biggest L when it comes to goal-setting. I set out to do it “Just Once, Ideally More,” which was such a low entry point. Yet I still ran out of time. In some ways, martial arts feels intimidating, which is probably why I’ve put it off so long. It came up in my ‘Fear-setting’ practice a few years ago… a process Tim Ferris gave an epic TedTalk about… very worth looking into around year-end 👀 Martial arts will be a priority for me in 2025.
I finished 20 books this year and it’s wild that I feel slim/no sense of accomplishment because I set out read 24. That is plain silly. I’m done with book-number-goals from this point forward. When it comes to books, I’m embracing Depth > Width. Rereading & learning deeply from the best ones. And not feeling guilty for putting down ones that are no longer of interest.
2 minutes of meditation is better than no minutes of meditation.
Doing the small things well & consistently - in the workplace & beyond - generally leads to good results.
Connecting with a friend is a surefire way to turn a day around.
Tracking income & expenses is a best practice for building wealth.