2025 Yearly Review
From depressed to thriving
This time in 2021, I was depressed.
In 2022 I was burnout.
In 2023 I was stable.
In 2024 I was rising.
And now in December 2025, it’s safe to say I’m thriving!
2021 Review | 2022 Review | 2023 Review | 2024 Review |
Wins
Family
Jen moved teams at DFAT and loving it. So proud of her and how she manages everything. She even got back into the gym, and been more consistent than me!
The girls are absolutely thriving. All improving at school, swimming, and loved their 2nd season of soccer.
But the biggest win of the year was the change in Anna (my youngest). I learned ADHD is the result of parental stress, and the more Jen and I managed our stress better, the more her symptoms disappeared. The video below was hard to watch and accept that I contributed to my daughter’s symptoms. But glad I owned it and now she’s going great.
Work
Talks exceeded goals and hit yearly target by Oct. Read full review here
Started working with a talk’s coach who helped me understand that “human thriving” is at the core of everything I do.
Pushed thru the fear of saying “Mental health is just nervous system health” and glad I did. Had lots of people reach out to say how that reframing was useful and helped them make sense of what they’re going thru. Will talk about this a lot more in 2026.
Running for Resilience
Suicide rate went down again in the ACT.
Started first year of doing paid work on R4R.
Grew from 5 to 16 weekly events
Launched Yoga, Pickleball, and Stand Up Paddle Boarding for Resilience. Even have a donating blood team!
Launched Recess for Resilience with Canberra Grammar. Now in 4 schools.
Launched a lunchtime walk with the Federal Police
Launched Volunteer Mental Health training sessions with the Medicare Mental Health Centre
Launched the R4R Podcast
Uni of Canberra started conducting research on R4R. Read more here
Hosted first community forum on mental health. Watch here
Awesome gala
Had another epic City2Surf trip
Another great offsite at my folks farm
Helped accidentally uncover the Parliamentary Sports Club (PSC) being sponsored by gambling, which sparked Senator Pocock getting booted from the PSC saga. Read here
Plus helped organise Canberra’s first Not-for-Profit Innovation and Collaboration Day.
Overall, R4R had an amazing year. Bit it’s not been without growing pains. Confident the team will address them and narrow our focus to what truly matters and I’m hoping to participate in more events without always having to organise them.
The Dock
Record year!
Huge ANZAC Day and function for the Brumbies v Lions game
Won 3 awards including Best Pub and Heart of the Community.
Somehow the place just keeps going from strength to strength. Can it continue?
Holidays
First overseas family holiday to Fiji with the girls and my family for the Brumbies season opener
Went to Singapore with Jen’s family for her Nan’s memorial.
Melbourne with Jen and my coach Ben for the 2nd Lions test.
Couple of ski trips to Thredbo. Girls loved it and had lots of amazing childhood memories come flooding back! Hadn’t skied in 30 years!
Gold Coast with Dock crew
Other
My mighty Owls won their first premiership is 34 years. All is good in the universe!
Great Uncle Tom’s Prisoner of War Diary from WW2 was accepted into the national Archives
Won ACT Local Hero for the Australian of the Year Awards
Got inducted in the Uni of Canberras Sports Walk of Fame
Losses
First year without Marley. Still no urge to buy another dog.
Anna broke her arm for the third time
A very good friend got diagnosed with cancer 😞
* not a loss, but put on 3kgs this year. Goal for the year was to run a lot less as I’d become over dependent on it. Also worried my joints will start to blow out. Have done great in terms of running less, but need to focus on diet and other forms of exercise more in 2026.
Learnings
Doesn’t matter how productive I am if it’s in the wrong direction.
The more I slow down, the better life goes.
What will help me slow down most will be to keep getting better at saying “no” to stuff. Gotta say “no to the good to leave room for the great”.
Looking Ahead to 2026
Haven’t set any goals yet for 2026. Absolutely pumped for the next month off to just recharge before setting my sights in what I want to do. But a few things I’m already keen on:
Restart food tracking
One-on-one dinners with my daughters
Set clearer boundaries with talk requests and R4R work
Go to Seattle to see the Socceroos take on the USA at the football World Cup
Watch R4R to continue expanding across the ACT, Interstate and beyond.
Basically, just keep making life simpler and keep spending my energy where I get the most return.
Thanks for reading.
What an arc. Been great reading the developments over the last few years. Learnt a lot and applied it to my life. Keen to see where you go from here.
Ben, thanks so much for sharing. Especially about ADHD and how you noticed a change in Anna's symptoms. I try to explain this to people, but it's easier to blame ADHD than it is to look at the environment/ how you may be contributing to the environment. Fantastic that you were able to put your learnings into practice for Anna's benefit.
Wishing you a wonderful break!