2024 Yearly Review
The year I learned to be kinder to myself
I’ll remember 2024 as the year I learned to be kind to myself, and became proud of who I am, not because of what I do or achieve.
It’s taken me a while to get here.
But I’ve never felt better, and so glad I’ve kept making the time to write, reflect, and get help when needed.
Personal Growth
With the help of a coach, I learned to be proud of who I am, and stopped tying my self-worth to my achievements.
He also taught me the power of self-compassion, which helped me stop beating myself up in the pursuit of achievements and productivity.
I accepted that I'm exactly where I need to be, which has brought me peace.
Overcame my fear being judged, as I use to hate public speaking.
Realised I’ve been forcing my career transition rather letting it happen naturally. Which I’m doing now, and ironically it’s leading to faster progress!
Family and Friends
Family Highlights:
Bought a low-maintenance home that’s walking distance from the girl’s school and Jen’s work.
The girls played their first season of soccer. Thanks coach Candice!
Took the girls to see Senator Pocock’s office and Dad’s research lab at Westmead.
Lowlights:
The deaths of Jen’s Nan, Pa, and our dog Marley 😢
Not enjoying my birthday party because I was exhausted.
Friends:
Spent most Wednesday mornings hanging out with good mate Tim Fulton aka
. As you’ll see, we did a lot and just getting started!Met my coach Ben Hudson when I emailed his website looking for a job. Will write more about this next year as it’s hard to put into words the impact he’s had.
Started an Elephants group with some close mates. We check-in on each other, do weekly reviews, and help each other prioritise for the week ahead. Wish we’d started it earlier!
Work
Overall, I took a more sustainable approach to my career transition. Went all-in last time trying to transition to meaningful work, which was painful when I fell short.
Talks: Review here
Finished up at KPMG in March and launched Ben Alexander Talks website thanks to the help of
Did 10 talks for organisations including the Department of Defence, WorkClub Global and CEA Technologies.
Presented at Mental Health Services Conference
Presented to the career transitions team at the Melbourne Demons.
Lined up 5 talks for 2025
Alfred:
Became clearer that Alfred is about helping people having more energy, not weight-loss.
Spoke with 40 people about finding a co-founder.
Learned to let go and stop rushing to find a co-founder. Focused on doing great talks instead, while enjoying the journey and trust I’ll find the right partner along the way. The time to work hard and navigate start-up stress will come.
Running for Resilience:
Doubled in size and became a formal charity.
Turned 5 last week and got 1000 runners across week with the birthday party and Santa run (see below)
Launched a run at my old uni Uni of Canberra and now have 5 students doing their internships with us
Launched another run at The Jetty on Thursday nights.
Launched Yoga 4 Resilience thanks to one of our amazing community members who was a Yoga instructor
Became an associate club of Capital Athletics
Helped
revamp the R4R website, which is awesome and getting lots of traffic.Hosted our 3rd City2Surf road trip!
Had some great merch designed by
Best moment: Watching a shy student become more confident over the semester. Was barely able to jog 1km week one. But was smashing the full 6kms by the end and with a huge smile on her face!
The Dock:
Turned 10 and going as strong as ever! 🎂
Had our biggest day ever on Anzac Day, plus our biggest week and month ever in December.
Kitchen won best Pub Food for the first time thanks to Jane and Pone!
- also did a great job redoing our website!
We shifted our focus from a “sports pub for women” to a “healthy pub”.
Health
Energy:
First year without burning out. Came close twice, with once because I took on too much R4R stuff trying to prove to everyone that I was useful.
Paced myself better by planning ahead and booking rest after busy periods.
Learned to say “no” to the good so I can save energy for the great.
Physical health:
Solved my back of knee pain. Had been hurting for 18 months and realised it was caused by a tight popliteus muscle.
Start strengthening hamstrings and glutes, which reduced knee pain and enable me to run longer races for firs time in years. Did 30kms for
and 40kms on my b’day.Did heaps of cold plunges and saunas to help with recovery and boost energy. Thank you Shannon!
Mental health:
Prioritised self-compassion through journaling and using my Self-CompassionGPT
Family time:
Locked my phone away in a kitchen safe most evenings, which made it easy to be present with the girls.
Other Highlights
Went on the Koko Show and hosted the lads at The Dock.
Did a road trip to Echuca with Jen for the Southern 80 and the Travla team.
Finally figured out how my blog fits into my life: a space to explore and share what gives and drains my energy.
Best Buys
Best Books
Looking Ahead
I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want to get out of 2025 while I was down the coast over Christmas. But after last night’s New Year's Eve celebrations, I’m feeling a bit tired and going to save writing about my goals for after I’ve had a good sleep.
If you've made it this far, thanks for reading! Your support and encouragement for my blog mean a lot.
And if you’ve written a yearly review, I’d love to read it—please share a link to it in the comments below.
Cheers,
Ben
I enjoyed reading your post.I enjoy reading all your posts.
Ben, you are pretty hard on yourself. Sometimes life is a score board, sometimes it's not.
Sometimes you play well but lose... look at our Wallabies. Sometimes you don't play well but win.
I quietly observed you working behind the bar at The Dock when we first met. I am a good judge and I have a good antenna.
You are a quality leader. Keep leading and stop looking at the score board. That will look after itself.
I will definitely be down shortly and contact you in advance.
James Mathers
Awesome review Ben and encores me to do something like this before setting my yearly and beyond goals. All the best for 2025