If you’re a longtime reader of this poorly updated blog, you’ll know that our lives went through some peculiar twists and turns in the last twelve months. 2011 was a turning point in our lives: in fitness, in focus and for the future.

I start with fitness, because Lisa and I both dropped an enormous amount of weight and started exercising. Our wardrobes changed as our waistlines contracted, and our self-confidence grew: partly due to being so successful at the seemingly insurmountable task of losing weight. Imagine you discover the self-discipline to lose 30kg – what else can you achieve when you put your mind to it? Of course we were also much healthier and feeling energised because of our new lifestyles.

The reason I titled this post “Metamorphosis” is because it feels like we’ve changed as a result of all this. The new energy is everywhere. I feel a revitalised love of life that makes me excited about the future again. I think Lisa feels it too.

We’ve transformed from the lethargic, overweight, work from home parents into two dynamic individuals who want to pack as much fun into life as possible from now on. Personally, I’m loving walking in the mountains, road running (meep-meep) and keeping my fitness levels high. I love all of this, but I want to transfer some of that success from 2011 into my professional life in 2012. But more on that later.

Life’s too short! If you’re one of those people who obsesses over the underwhelming minutae of life then you’ll be seeing a lot less of us this year. No, we don’t want to hear the ins and outs of your grocery list or the tedious details of your phone call to your car insurance company. If this stuff makes up 90% of your conversation, then you’re doing life wrong. Those are the tiny insignificant details. We’ve found ourselves surrounded by too many of these type of people. People who make life a grey, depressing, boring place. But on the other hand, we’ve (re)connected with some amazing people in the last year – friends who don’t burden us with the small stuff, who value our company and who we look forward to seeing.

If we don’t look forward to seeing you, then there’s something broken in our relationship. We’ll either fix it or walk away.

Which brings me to my next point: we’re not going to be craven wusses this year. If we’ve got a problem with you, you’re going to hear about it. That doesn’t mean we’ll be strapping on boxing gloves at the first sign of a disagreement or putting severed horses heads in your bed at night. But we won’t be bottling things up anymore. Two reasons:

• When we bottle things up, we become more resentful. And resentment eats away at us. It makes us look for more things to be annoyed about and then things become a mess of gripes and complaints so seemingly insurmountable that we end up ruining relationships. I know this sounds incredibly vague, but we’ve had first-hand experience of this in the last year.
• It’s better for everybody. It removes the need for resentment – if you do something that upsets me, I tell you and we move on. You’ll be aware of what my boundaries are in future. Likewise, I’ll have spoken my mind, so I have no excuse to be resentful. This difuses tension and allows us to continue our relationship.

Lisa and I are in a unique position – we run a fairly successful business from home and we’re lucky to spend lots of time with our three kids, who we love dearly. We’ve come out of what feels like a four-year long funk, and we’re ready to play! Our goal is to surround ourselves with fun people who enjoy life and to pack in as much adventure into life as possible. We’re going to dwell less on the negative experiences we’ve had and set our sights on enjoying life as much as possible.

Hopefully in the next 12 months we’ll be sharing some of that fun with you guys! Happy 2012! Let’s make this year a great one!