A Year In Review — 2020. The Pandemic Year, Pt. 2

DO HARD SHIT: EVERY DAY

Listen, this might not work for everyone and in fact, most shrinks (head doctors — whatever you want to call them) out there would probably advise against this and I’m sure they’re right. This method is risky, but let me be clear: I’m not telling you to bottle it up forever and forget about it. Quite the opposite, I’m telling you to bottle it up and USE IT. Use it to your advantage when you’re good and ready.

This means that it will take time, just like all good things and that this time in between could turn against you. So reader beware: Do this at your own risk.

It took me a decade to figure out how to do this and use these things to my advantage. In part because I had bottled everything up so deep down in my mind, my heart, and soul that it was hard to get to. But when it was hard to get to, so was I. I was numb to literally everything — no feeling, no emotions but anger and rage, no meaning to my life, no direction, rock bottom felt like exactly where I belonged. So this will take time and it is most definitely a risky maneuver in life, but to me I only ever had two options:

“A life so driven, so focused, so on fire that nothing will ever stop me. Or the opposite — the fire engulfs me and the light is drained from my existence.”

I already know which path I’m on and hopefully my actions speak volumes as to which direction I’m headed.

In Pt. 1, I mentioned that the past year has been so much more than just bullet points and checks in boxes, but I also know how much I LOVE a good list and most likely you do too.

So here we go.

2020 goals that I set in 2019:

*Grow Anchor Kids Organization to $250k revenue
*Purchase new vehicle only if I graduate from Iowa State University
*Graduate from Iowa State University with B.S. in Exercise Science
*Train for and complete one mental/physical challenge every quarter
*Read one book every quarter

The only goal above that I did not accomplish was $250k in revenue for Anchor Kids Org. However, I set that goal on purpose because the year was built upon the premise that $250k in revenue is exactly where I’m headed. 2021 this goal will be the same and now that the systems and processes are in place, we’ll get damn close.

Below are the things I accomplished outside of those goals in 2020:

• Brought a beautiful, healthy, absolutely perfect baby girl into the world. Zeppelin Trinity-Rose Burns in July
• Won $10k plus in business pitch competitions
• Selected into the CYstarters funded business accelerator over the summer
• First ever awardee of the Ted Bair CYstarter award
• Selected to receive an entrepreneurship scholarship from Iowa State University
• Selected to attend Okoboji Entrepreneurs Institute to represent Iowa State University
• Selected into the Bunker Labs “Veterans In Residence” program beginning Jan 2021
• Made it through to the final stage of hiring (six month process) with the Des Moines Fire Department
• Build a team and shoot content for a week to build out the Anchor Kids Online Courses (much more to come on this in 2021)
• Attended annual entrepreneurship conference in Nashville, TN
• Built out the basement in our house (first time ever taking on a giant project like this)
• Began to build out Joint Venture Agreement with media agency that Anchor Kids Org is partnering with in 2021 and beyond
• Registered and accepted into the Emergency Medical Services program through local community college in 2021
• Embarked upon the 75HARD challenge that will take me well into January 2021
• December 31st, 2020 into January 1st, 2021 I will be pursuing my final mental/physical challenge of the year: Break the world record of chest-to-ground burpees in 12 hours from Noon to Midnight
• Built out the framework for what is now my personal brand: The Dillon Burns Method
• Impacted hundreds, if not thousands of lives with the work I’m doing personally with The Dillon Burns Method and with Anchor Kids Organization
• With funds from Anchor Kids Org, we partnered up with Children International and have began to use revenue from the business to sponsor two children in impoverished countries around the world (much more to come on this in 2021 — we will sponsor entire communities around the world by 2025)

So you see my friends, it’s not always about the goals. In fact, I’d say that more progress is made — IN THE SPACE BETWEEN — the goals.

This space is what we all know as The Journey.

GET BUSY LIVING.

Stay tuned in right here for part 3 coming later this weekend.

#TheDillonBurnsMethod