At the start of 2023, I made the conscious decision to re-evaluate my life. For the months leading into that reflective experiment, I had been asking the famous Bruno Mars question “Whatchu tryna do?”. I had chosen the path to try and make 24-carrot magic in the air, and ultimately ended up unfulfilled.

It took just a chapter of Jenna Kutcher’s book How Are You Really? to grab my pineapple notepad and establish the core pillars of where I wanted my life to go, and how I could stay happy while still making money (meaningful money making opportunities as I call it – unfortunately it’s important).

From there, 2023 became the year of searching for meaning. I spent much of the year exploring career paths that previously felt like a fever dream. I taught a course at Western University, ran ‘part-time professionally’, and turned my long-standing soccer website into a legitimate business. Throughout that time, I continued working for my beloved home – ‘The Blue’.

I set up a life worth living, where I could chase all of my dreams at once. I even taught others how to do the same.

But entering 2024, I still felt unfulfilled. Meaning had been found. But I hadn’t been given the chance to live out those findings. I knew what brought me joy. I knew who brought me joy. I knew exactly where I wanted to go in life. But getting there still felt like a mountain to climb, despite my best efforts.

Until I changed my approach.

I changed my approach, challenged my own assumptions, re-strategized, shifted my mindsets, and stayed determined to achieve my goal of truly making it at ‘The Blue’. Until it happened.

Then it happened. Changing tenses, I’ve now finally achieved everything I’ve been working for the past three years, but especially the past eight months. There’s only one problem, and it’s something I’ve always known about myself.

I have a serious case of what Jenna Kutcher prescribes as what’s next syndrome. Even when I realize my dreams, I’m always searching for ‘what’s next?’.

When I taught Coaching & Leadership in 2020, I would have done anything to come back and do it again. Realizing that dream in 2023 felt like one of the coolest things to ever happen. But now doing it for the fourth time, I’m starting to see the ways in which it has made my life more complicated. I’m considering a future that does not involve that dream. I’ve lived through it, and it’s amazing. But I don’t ever envision myself moving back to the city, and in the meantime, I’m doing more driving than a golfer on an open green.

Similarly, I desperately wanted to get back to working with ‘The Blue’ after leaving. Once they allowed me back in, I constantly schemed about what would be next in my career path there for months until it finally came to a head this week. I could have just enjoyed the present. But I’ve never been one to live in the present. I’ve always been one to chase the future. Unfortunately, the future can often be discernibly uncertain.

But faced with the complications of the past few months, I’ve reached one of the most profound epiphanies. What I’ve learned is that uncertainty in life is incredibly fun, incredibly motivating, and not at all scary. ‘What’s next?’ isn’t ever a question that makes me shudder. But it is a question that keeps me motivated to fight for meaning and happiness. That kind of quest-finding is probably why I became the technical director of a soccer club at 23, and a legitimate university instructor (yes, I’m not your T.A.) at 25.

I have often said yes to every opportunity that’s come my way, and those opportunities have continuously led into other opportunities. But now fully knowing what it is that I want to have out of life, while being open for that dream to evolve, I’ve fully embraced Jenna’s advice. Nowadays, I only say yes to the “hell yes” opportunities.

I’m willing to be challenged on this, but I’ve also come to the epiphany that you can only go all-in on a maximum of four “hell yes” facets of life at a time. I’ve come to realize this through years of exploring different passions and pastimes. There’s an old saying about being a jack of all trades and a master of none. Even if you can become a master of some, I believe you can’t give everything in your power into the important areas of life if you’re trying to carry too many cups back to the kitchen. Eventually, one of those cups is going to break.

I think it is therefore important for everyone and anyone to establish what it is that they truly want out of life, what truly makes them happy, and how they see their life unfolding from this moment. Ask – what do I want to spend time dedicatedly focused on right now? Four me, four is that magic number to keep things in check, but going even less might allow you a better focus.

Since being a social butterfly, having a long-term relationship, and eventually having kids are always going to be at the top of my list under one umbrella, I only have three more slots. I’d like to continue making one of those slots trail running for now, as it not only brings me immense joy, but makes me feel as though I have hidden superpowers. The superpowers also extend to my work with children and youth, so that’s a third. Between my business and teaching at Western, I’ve had to make a sacrifice in spending less time on TMS in order to prioritize the pastimes, and the people that matter more.

But in knowing this, I think this year will only continue to be the year of opportunity. I’ve finally been granted what I’ve been working toward for three years with ‘The Blue’, and more opportunities could soon come as the chips continue to fall. Meanwhile, I’m going to have a chat with my soccer media idol in the coming days. I’ve already turned down an offer to interview for a position at a pro soccer club alongside my soccer coaching idol; and that presented its own tough dilemma. But in the end, it didn’t need to be a dilemma. It was never a “hell yes” opportunity. That’s what I’m going to be saying “yes” to in 2024, constantly answering the ever-evolving Bruno Mars question “Whatchu tryna do?”, as I find the balance in my life.

2024 is the year of opportunity. And if it’s a “hell yes”, I’m going to take it.