“You’re face looks different.” She said.

The comment surprised me because my head was covered by the hood of what my father-in-law calls my “severe weather jacket.”

My family and I were headed to the golf course for a walk and run with the dog, Allie.

“People keep saying things like that to me.” I said, with a good deal of satisfaction.

The comment came from my neighbor who knows what we’ve been through as a family over the last few years. Struggling to make a fitness studio that was dying work long enough to prevent losing EVERYTHING. She noticed a feeling that is starting to make it’s way slowly back into my life – contentment…

Earlier last week, a colleague sat down for a meeting at my new downtown studio location and said to me, “Dude, you seem a lot more relaxed.” “That’s good.” I had said, again with a great deal of self-satisfaction.

It’s taking some time, but my life has already improved exponentially now that I’ve sold my old 3,100 square foot fitness studio and moved in to another one that’s 1/3 the size, but that puts me directly in the catbird’s seat. I landed 4-5 new clients in my first two weeks of being open in the latter half of December. Not bad for a guy who could boast no more than a half dozen walk-in clients in 5 years at the old place. The place I now refer to often as “The Bunker.”

No regrets, simply lessons. Lessons I plan to share with you as we move into 2012. I look forward to the work. And mostly, I look forward to being more relaxed…

-John