The Annual Review: 2017

Every year, I try to do a yearly look back on the good + bad of the year. I’m not perfect, but you can read previous past review below here

2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016

Note: If you prefer podcast form, you can listen to this post here.

2017 had a ton of things happen (many of them very, very good), but first:

The Bad: What Didn’t Go Well

There were a few things I was frustrated with throughout the past year.

I Spent a Lot of 2017 “housekeeping”

Because of everything that went down on the legal side of the business in 2016, I spent a lot of time this year “cleaning up the mess” that 2016 created. That meant I didn’t get to create as much as I’d like and that much of the year felt like I was digging myself out a hole.

Thankfully, I’m out now, but it was quite frustrating at times and a headache to deal with.

The Business Had a “meh” Year

The business this year was “meh.” It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t great. It was “meh.”

I had several projects I’ve moved to 80% complete, but have farther to go still. I’ve made good legwork on much of it, but due to distractions + housekeeping, I have a lot ready to launch in 2018.

I don’t have a home.

After being on the road for 18 months, the answer to the question “where do you live” has been an interesting one lately. My standard answer is something of a mix between San Diego, Chicago, Boston, and New York.

Vague I know.

It’s led to a lot of interesting experiences when I’m on the road, but always having to figure out my living situation when I’m stateside has been a pain. More on that soon…

Lowlights

• Not having a “base” started bothering months 9-12 more than I thought it would.
• I felt like I was “playing business” more than doing business. I had a come-to-jesus moment and started to change some things for next year.
• I got stuck in Doha for 48 hours. It’s a good story now, but was probably my biggest travel related headache today.
• On an first-world-problems + slightly annoying note, due to the way that American changed their loyalty program, the miles that I flew with them would have counted for 120,000+ miles only counts for some 80,000 odd miles which means despite spending half the year in a plane, I’ll only have Platinum Pro level status. world’s smallest violin

The Good: What Went Well

Despite all the stuff that happened, 2017 was pretty awesome. A few things that stood out:

The 777 Project: Finishing What I Started

The first half of 2017 was all about finishing what I started. I wrote this at the end of last year that I was going to pick up the ball and finished my quest to run 7 ultra marathons on 7 continents and build 7 schools for Pencils of Promise

777. I’m happy to report that I did just that. I finished 5 races in 3 months and visited a ton of countries (as I listed out below). We also raised almost $20k more than our initial goal and I found out that I’m the youngest person to have run an ultra marathon on every continent which was cool.

I was on a mission and focused and it felt good to finally complete what I had set out to do almost 3 years ago. #boom IMPOSSIBLE

Making the Discomfort, My Comfort Zone

This year I feel like I fully embraced the world traveler identity. I visited dozens of countries I had never been to before and regularly bought one-way tickets without an exact idea of how I was going to get myself out of it.

I regularly was comfortable in a lot of places that would not be physically comfortable, but I ended up getting really good at it and having a good time.

Rediscovering Routine

Despite still not having a base, I found I was able to get back into things on the back half of the year. Whether routine meant finding a workstation popcorn routine or just getting back into lifting heavy weights again – it’s been good to get my feet planted into some routine with some concrete plans going forward.

It’s also been an impetus to get back to writing and creating – which I’ve found is a lot easier when you have a desk you can work at rather than playing Digital Nomad Hunger Games when it comes to finding a desk at a coffee shop.

Relaunching The Podcast

I relaunched the podcast at the beginning of the month and have published an episode every week since. BOOM.

If you want to get inspired with a new interview every week (and occasional intermissions from me), check it out at ImpossiblePodcast.com

Highlights

Due to the travel and 777, this year had a bunch of highlights. Stuff I’ve found myself looking back on over the last 2 month include:

Finishing 777

• Visiting Union Glacier Antarctica and running a 100k
• Running the 66k in Finland and having everything go wrong.
• Running the last race in South Africa with Alan.
• Working with Jesse’s WeDoHardStuff.com group and raising $36,000
• Doing Hell on the Hill

Traveling

• Running Liechtenstein + Monaco
• Italy + Lake Como Trip
• The Farm

Rang in the New Year with 12 hours on my feet at the Narrabeen All Nighter. 1.5 mile trail. Out and back. As many times as possible. Go. # Finished the race and saw we passed $112k on our fundraiser this morning. Makes all the blisters and muscle cramps worth it knowing we're going to make education possible for 7 communities in 2017. 3 races down. 4 to go! Happy New Year! 🎉 #777project #dosomethingimpossible

A post shared by Joel Runyon (@joelrunyon) on Jan 1, 2017 at 1:00am PST

3 weeks ago, I ran the Ice Marathon 100k as race #4 for the #777project. . It was the farthest race I've run to date, the coldest one, and did I mention it was in Antarctica? . I had been trying to run this race for 3+ years and now that it's done, I finally took the time to write up the race recap on ImpossibleHq.com (check it out). It was epic. . Oh and if you're keen on helping us build another school with @pencilsofpromise, we're less than $1,000 away from building school #5 and I'm matching every dollar donated – so we're super close! Just hit the link below and I'll double your donation. #boom . http://impossiblehq.com/777 . Reminder: If you want to do something, set your mind on it, expect it to be hard, work your tail off and go after it. The more #impossible it sounds, the better. . . . . #antarctica #icemarathon100k #ultra #ultramarathon #running #pencilsofpromise #pop #impossible #dosomethingimpossible #pushyourlimits #athlete #fitness #instafit #instatravel #travel #racefinish #unionglacier #impossiblemindset #impossiblefitness

A post shared by Joel Runyon (@joelrunyon) on Feb 14, 2017 at 6:13am PST

"Relax", breathe, and try not to freeze. . . . . . #coldtherapy #coldshowertherapy #cst #wimhof #iceman #pushyourlimits #dosomethingimpossible #estonia #winterswimming #iceswimming

A post shared by Joel Runyon (@joelrunyon) on Feb 23, 2017 at 6:51am PST

This place is ridiculous. Lake Como might be one of my favorite places on earth.

A post shared by Joel Runyon (@joelrunyon) on May 10, 2017 at 11:15am PDT

Everything is better when you earn it. You can take a 10 minute tram up Harder Kulm or a 2 hour hike straight up the mountain. . Do the hike. You'll enjoy the view that much more. . 📸 by @tbrown30 . . . #pushyourlimits #dosomethingimpossible #wedohardstuff #dohardstuff #impossible #getafterit #rogerthat #switzerland #harderkulm #interlaken #resilient

A post shared by Joel Runyon (@joelrunyon) on May 12, 2017 at 10:46am PDT

The farm sees the San Diego sunset and raises it one.

A post shared by Joel Runyon (@joelrunyon) on Nov 24, 2017 at 2:32pm PST

Travel Total

I visited a whole bunch of places I’d never been before (and got to visit some old favorites) as I mentioned in this post.

1. Australia
2. New Zealand
3. Chile
4. Antarctica
5. Thailand
6. Finland
7. Estonia
8. Sweden
9. England
10. Hong Kong
11. Indonesia (Bali)
12. Singapore
13. Laos
14. Kuala Lumpur
15. Qatar
16. South Africa
17. Austria
18. Slovakia
19. Italy
20. Switzerland
21. Liechtenstein
22. Monaco
23. France
24. Spain

If you prefer podcast form, you can listen to this post here.

January 1st, I’ll share some of my goals for 2018 and an outline for you to share yours too.