A Look Back

A Look Back

John Derryberry

Entering 2025, knowing that my talk expanded its footprint by adding new states I have spoken in, my website broke a new record for traffic, and events are already on the books for 2025; it's easy to be intoxicated and think it will continue. Man, does it feel good to tell stories again, interact with audiences, and hear others' stories? I was reminded in 2024 why I set out on this journey 20 years ago. Telling authentic stories about emotional and mental health, people, and life's more vulnerable moments and connecting over shared or similar life circumstances is pure joy.

Yet we all must take a longer extended look back at our life accomplishments to understand the ups, downs, twists of fate, and luck that occurred to land on top of a life achievement or in the deep dark valley of failure. The uncountable hours of emailing people about my talk, the sheer volume of nos I received back, the months of never landing an event, and the amount of wondering if it was worth it. We all go through those moments with jobs, passion projects, relationships, and countless other life activities. We asked ourselves how I had ended up here. We tend to only do it when things have gone horribly wrong. We should always engage in that exercise when things have gone swimmingly well.

I climbed a mountain top in 2024; over the last couple of years, I have received numerous accolades and experienced moments that felt like I was on top of a peak with the view one commits to memory. Revisiting those moments can propel us forward in dark times because they remind us how great we can be if we keep going. The key is that those moments of success are tied to our moments of doubt, failure, and just pure luck. Just like our failures are always tied to our accomplishments, moments of confidence, and pure life luck.

I don't know if I'm still moving up the mountain of success or if 2025 will be a step backward for me. I'm pausing to look back before fully committing to 2025 to remember that whatever 2025 brings, it's all tied together. I might fail, succeed, or find something in the middle of two. My consent drive to stay resilient in the face of the success of success, or failure has led to my most significant moments. As I examined what led to 2024 being a banner year for my message, I kept coming back to the notion I never wavered in the moments when the events were few and far between.

The pause ended after I hit send this Sunday night with John. There are successes to chase, failures to learn from, and a life to live so I can come to terms with the outcomes. I will be constantly driven to get better and be a better person, never getting too high about my success and never getting too low about any failures that will eventually come. So, I'm ready to tackle 2025, and I hope you are, too. Whatever comes our way, because after all these years doing this, I have learned that just continuing to do the work leads to resilience, which leads to stumbling into something profound about life, looking back, examining the now, and peering into the next are all good exercises to do in life.