2022 is a Rebuilding Year!

2022 is a rebuilding year. The past many years I’ve struggled quietly trying to find my place in this world. A graduate school advisor a few years back asked me if I was still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.

She wasn’t wrong in asking. By the age of 47 that’s all but figured out, right? Not so fast! You all know I can still be redirected by a stiff breeze and the mere whisper of an adventure. I’ve made numerous career changes, pursued various graduate studies, and started several companies while yearning for exotic travel and heeding the call of service.

Ultimately the hiccup in this whole “grown up”conundrum has been trying to figure out how to be and do me while honoring my responsibilities to the very reasons that I get out of bed in the morning in the first place. Namely my H3 (Heather, Haven, and Hope), my family, friends, and the clients I serve. To this end I have worked hard to self improve in search of growth and peace and to be who others needed me to be while trying to balance who I am and who I’m capable of becoming.

Perhaps some of you can relate to desperately trying to make a square peg fit into a round hole. My life and career have been co-created to responsibly follow my interests and my hearts longing for service while honoring the promise I made to my children to be present in their lives. I want to be a great husband and father and have made choices to ensure that this priority remained number one. A close number two has been my work as a health and performance coach creating my own brand of fitness and wellness through functional exercise, whole food nutrition, and lifestyle medicine termed Live Balance Fit.

Grinding over the years through journaling, studying the whole self-help section at the library, pursuing advanced degrees and certifications, and remaining curious and reflective about what human potential (mine and yours) really is…. I’ve known now for years that what I want to be when I grow up is a better version of myself. Today, simply put…that version is to be healthy and happy while helping others be healthy and happy. Is that too much to ask? The past two years has definitely not seen this want exemplified. When asked… “How are you?”… I used to reply “Living the dream!”. It may have sounded sarcastic but I meant it. More recently I’ve replied “I’m okay” or “life is good” to avoid answering the question all together. Life is good but probably not where I or any of us want it to be at this moment.

2022 is a rebuilding year. This year I will be returning to my dream path and challenging my potential in my many roles. I’ll be working my way back to the “dream” and I invite you to come along with me. I’ll be stepping out of my comfort zone in 2022 to blog and post social media content at Live Balance Fit. I’ll be sharing tools, tips, stories, strategies, and research to help us all live the dream and to live balance fit. Join me.

Be well,

Garrett Stangel, MA, ACSM EP-C/EIM-2, ACE CMES/HC/CPT Health and Performance Coach Www.livebalancefit.com