2024: Plot Twists, Gym Fits, and Emotional Hits

Sitting in Lagos, Nigeria over the holiday period, I kept asking myself, how bad do you want it? 
While everybody picks a word or picks a guiding principle to explore the year or to navigate their year – you have people saying, “this is my year of glory”, “this is my year of joy”, “this is my year of favor”, upliftment and things like that. That and more can and will be true in Jesus’ name. 
But at the same time, I can’t help but get the understanding or the revelation of the concept of how bad do you want it.

You see, there are certain things that are ascribed to us by just being children of God. There’s another tier of things that are being given to us by being diligently serving children of God. And then there are certain things that are given to us by being actively serving, improving, being impacting and fruit-bearing children of God.

So you see, at the end of the day, there are certain things that God will give you for just being present. And then there are certain things that God will give you for the work and in showing that your life is of reverence to him. 
And what do I mean by that? I’ll give you an example.

In this piece, I’ll try to use as many examples as much as possible as I reflect on even some of the previous things from 2024. A good example is living in the same zip code or in the same, like, cal-de-sac of a former president, right? 
Let’s use the great Joe Biden as an example, right? 
For those of you, I hope none of the people that are reading my content every week are people that voted for the felon that’s in power right now. But if you guys remember that frail old man that tried to keep our democracy and make sure we didn’t lose our minds, imagine living on his street in Delaware, where his family home is based.

Now, let’s just assume that in the last four years while he was president and he was in the White House, you happen to buy a home on that street or in the adjacent street. Now, he now finishes his tenure as president and returns back to his home, obviously this time around. He has the Secret Service monitoring his area, there’s always light because even though he’s not directly in power, he still influences national and global security.

So they put more effort and emphasis in making sure that he’s safe. Now you, who owns a home on that same street or two streets down, you kind of get the protection of having so much focus on his safety. So by virtue of it, sometimes when you’re driving down your street, there might be cars parked, there might be secret agents even living around the area, just making sure that everybody’s being safe.

That is what I meant by the first layer of by just existing in that space, you’re benefiting. Now imagine if you and one of his grandkids were friends. And you are welcomed into their home, you would need to get vetted and go through security checks. Now there are extensions of things that would come from being that close and building the relationship with his grandchild. Maybe you’re the grandchild’s best friend, for example, right? You’re helping them grow.
You’re pouring into them. Naturally, your status continues to grow and the likelihood of you getting blessings or gifts from that relationship becomes higher. And for many of us, the goal is to get to a point where we are actively serving, improving our lives and the greater rewards that come from that.

But the truth is for a lot of people, you’re just okay with okay. So while you pick your great words for the year, and they’re all important, you know, this is the year of breakthrough, joy, favor, upliftment, everything. This is also the season that I want you to start thinking, how bad do you want it? People, it’s very easy to post things like, this is the year that my life will change forever.
You know, “I just feel something great about this year”, but how bad do you want it? 
How willing are you to give up the things that won’t get you there, for the things that will most likely get you there? 
As I review my life today in terms of where I am, I feel gratitude and, you know and pride that by the grace of God, I have some of the things that I have. And I was telling someone recently that when I speak on some of the things that I have, I don’t even mean them to be material things. Sometimes it’s knowledge, lived experiences and the grace to have some out on the other side.

Sometimes it’s a friend talking to me about an issue, and I had experienced it before or I know someone who has experienced it. One of the things that I think our parents love about growing up or becoming older is they have more in their bank.
And that bank could be a few different things. It could be emotionally, it could be financially, it could be socially. They have a little bit more to give to the people that they love and care about.
I was thanking God for that recently and it got me thinking, there’s so many sacrifices that I had to make to get to that point. I’ll share something with you all.

2024 was a big year. I moved to Austin. As a matter of fact, it’s been pretty big since 2023, I would say.
But 2024, if you put it in a time frame, it’s probably the most impactful window I’ve had in my life since 2017. 
2017, I finished my MBA, I started preparing to move into tech. I had surgery, traveled the world, started traveling the world consistently.
I kind of caught the bug that I have now. So if you see me, you know, around the world, just know it started from that window. 
The point I’m trying to make is, as 2025 is starting, I have big goals again.

For personal things that I want to achieve, impactful things that I want to do. And I’ll just put transparently and share that with all of you – I’ve been saving.
Trying to save hard, trying to save a lot for certain things, right? 
It’s been hard. I’ve had to look at myself. 
I remember talking to my closest friends, trying to make decisions like “if I take this much out of my paycheck, would I still be able to survive?”
 Would I still be able to do all the things that I normally do? Support my friends, this, that, and the third.

And I had to finally just stop myself and have a conversation and say, look, just do it. You’re not going to die. It might be hard, but you’ve done hard things before.
And that is something I want to leave you all with as you go into this year. 

You are capable of doing the hard things. 

You’re capable of not calling that person.
You’re capable of eating right. You’re capable of saying good things about yourself, your body, your heart. You’re capable of not being walked over by your family.
You’re capable of exploring your dreams. You’re capable of posting that thing that everybody else thinks is cringe. 
You are capable, and you can do hard things.

So as I’ve started the year challenging myself, pushing myself to try and do these hard things, I feel, even with the knowledge of the things that I’ve done, and the fact that I know I have confidence in the fact that I can do hard things, I still feel the pinch. But every single time I want to doubt myself, I ask myself that question again, how bad do you want it? Do you want to look back at the end of 2025 or in the middle of 2025 and say, yes, I did that thing again? 
I did, I achieved that. I want you to ask yourself that question and answer honestly.

And in line with that, I’m going to use an analogy before we go into the breakdown of each area that I want to review from 2024. I’m going to give you the analogy of something that is very familiar to all of us. For some of you, you’re reading this blog post on your phone.
For some of you, you’re reading it on your laptop, in your bed. If you’re like my best friend, you’re reading this under the covers, in the dark, because she acts like a psychopath sometimes. But you are reading and I appreciate it.
So thank you for being here. Hopefully you drop a comment. It’s been a while since people dropped comments.

A lot of people send me DMs or reply me or text me in conversations that they like the blog post. 
If you’re reading this, actually, and you read diligently but don’t comment, can you please tell me why? Is it that the functionality on mobile doesn’t make it easy to comment? Or is it that you just have to enter your email? Or what is the deterrent? Because I kid you not. A lot of people will text me and be like, “oh my God, I enjoyed reading that. You’re such a great writer.”
 But I would love to see it on the blog so more people can be motivated to comment. I digress sha.

Soooo you are probably holding your phone or your device, reading this in your bed, on your couch. And very close to you is a pile of laundry that you have not folded. Yes, I’m calling you out.
Yes, nobody has come to your house all week or come in your room. So nobody can check you to fold them or put them away. But you know they’re there.

And this is how the analogy goes. And how I want you to think about this. We do laundry because we know that there’s work to be done.
The laundry is the cleaning out. It’s the refresh, right? We know we need to do it to stay in the game, to move ahead, and things like that. But then you do the laundry and you put the pile of clothes sitting in the corner, maybe on the side of the bed.

Or you put it on one side, you don’t want to fold it. And when nighttime comes, you shift it to the other side because you need to go to sleep. Yes, I see you.

This is a safe space. And then you need to go out. 
You have events, you have work.

So you start picking from the clothes, right, from the bed or from the couch or directly from the dryer. You start picking from the clothes. And then about a couple days goes by and all of a sudden the clothes are so little that now you actually have to take them out and sort them and then do laundry again.

For a lot of us, that process is working out. Oh, you work out for a little bit, your body gets right, then you stop because you have a trip coming. So you go on a trip and then you don’t get back in the gym again until the next time a trip is coming.

Your birthday is coming, your wedding or a wedding is coming and you want to look good. So you go back and do what? You start picking from it, you start doing, and you “do laundry again” and do the work again, right? But then what happens when you get into a system where as soon as the dishes are used, I wash them or as soon as the clothes are washed or dried, I fold them. 
That is the place of mastery you want to get to.

The ability to do the hard things effectively and quickly because you know that you don’t need to wait till there’s another need or opportunity for you to get ready, to be ready. So, no, if you don’t want to wait till you have a big buy to start saving again, what about saving ahead of time? 
What about diligently putting money in your Roth IRA? 
What about diligently adding to your 401k? 
What about diligently adding a little bit to the investment fund that you want to build? 
We need to do and focus on doing the hard things this year and beyond. So I challenge you and I tell you that you can do hard things as much as it might not seem clear all the time, being able to do hard things leads to joyful things, to easy things.

And with that said, there’s still a lot of knowledge to share with you all. I know I’ve talked for a little bit, but let’s get into reviewing 2024. It was a fantastic year on all fronts.

FAITH

Spiritually, it is amazing how some of the unassuming conversations can provide insight into who you are, where you are and where you’re going.

I had a conversation with a dear friend last week about our faith and somewhat about ensuring that we don’t get comfortable with certain flaws or sins. The person asked me that, were there certain things that I just didn’t think that I needed to work on because I had just accepted them as part of who I am? And for you and I, that could be sexual immorality, that could be anger, that could be depression, that could be self-sabotage, whatever the case may be. Oftentimes, in this new era and age of accepting and loving ourselves for who we are, we almost allow ourselves to just accept anything and that we are not as strong or able to withstand certain things.

I resist that. I think it’s important to give yourself grace for who you are and how you evolve. But I think more than that, it is incredibly important that you do not allow yourself to become okay with not the best version of who you can be.

So 2024, faith-wise, was different. I truly appreciated the opportunity to be alone in my home, to share community and commune with God one-on-one in the privacy of my home without worrying about being too loud or if anybody could see me. But at the same time, I also realized that I didn’t pray in my home altar as much as I would like.

I had initially dedicated an area to be my war room, but I realized that I didn’t pray in there as much. Now, that’s not to say I didn’t pray at all, but I definitely didn’t use that space as much as I would have liked to. Faith was also weird in general all year.
I went to church less while I tried to find a new church in Austin. I found one and then I also was trying to be balanced in my approach to selecting a home church, not just one where I had friends or one where I knew people or one where I could go in and join the choir. I wanted somewhere that I truly felt a pull and also a calling to be in.

And after 30 plus years of being a pastor’s kid, I genuinely felt fatigued and I just wanted to just be in God’s presence, show up, praise him, worship, try to live right, but not over commit to anything. And that is one of the things that I want to speak on while I work on this review.
It is very, very easy to get comfortable not working particular muscles.

So when it comes to service, when it comes to fellowship, I definitely feel like I lost an edge on the momentum I had from 2023 because I wasn’t in the space as much. I wasn’t obsessively in service to God. So it is something I want to encourage you this year, join that Bible study group, read that chapter of your Bible, even if you’re not consistent, even if you dropped on your Bible plan streak, like I continue to do, just add a little bit extra because it definitely will serve you in the long run more than you would recognize in the now.

That being said, God showed up in immense ways. I felt like I was able to be more honest with God. In some cases, I questioned God.

I have been battling with something medically for a few years and there are certain times where I just sit there and I’m just like, God, why? And finding comfort in the fact that he’s a repeater of miracles has been something that has kept me going and I definitely feel like will continue to push me further. So this year, I definitely want to get back into the full swing of things, make myself more vulnerable to the journey of faith, the depths of where it can take you to and the highs that it can exalt you to. I want to feel like I have a direct line to God about everything.

I saw a meme recently that said, make it a habit to consult God, even before the smallest decisions. And I want to get to that place in my life. I know it’s not just by saying it, I know it’s by action, it’s by actively committing to it.

So that is where I want to see myself more in 2025, in that community with God. 

2024 Expected Score: A
2024 Final Score: C-
2025 Expected Score: B

FITNESS

I really enjoyed fitness in 2024, similar to 2023.

And I believe this is epitomized by an exchange that I had with someone random earlier in 2025.
It was a random Sunday, I was walking through the farmer’s market when I observed this woman that I have seen at my gym pretty frequently.
We’ve never spoken to each other.

Matter of fact, I think I noticed that she noticed me and she probably noticed that I noticed her, but we just never had a reason to speak. And I was doing my local weekly shopping when she noticed me and I noticed her. 
We walked over and chatted real quick.

And she was like, “hi, gym friend”. And she proceeded to chat with me for a bit.
Halfway through the conversation, she mentioned, she was like, “oh, you always look like you know what you’re doing at the gym”.

And in that line lies what I believe to be my progress in 2024 when it comes to fitness. And the testament is not highlighted by the random weekend where I thought I had put on 15 pounds because I was using a cheap scale. It was encapsulated by the fact that I do feel like I’m making progress around the gym.

I do feel like I know my way around. I do feel like you know, when I go into a week, I know how to take care of my body and how to, manage my workouts to get the best out of myself.
And not just out of fitness.

I think that with it connected to the understanding of fitness and health and wellness, I’ve been able to understand that more. Now, I feel like I would also have a lot more runway if my health, particularly my insides and my knee, didn’t bother me as much. But I do find myself able to push myself more.

I’ve been able to understand what growing my muscles look like. I’ve been able to understand how joy factors in to my progress. So yeah, it’s been a great year so far.

But I’m looking forward to more in this coming year. And I’ve said it to myself that 2025 genuinely is the year that I fully, fully change my body. Not just for a period of time, not just for a few weeks on end.
This is the year that everybody sees the behind the scenes progress and work that has been going into who I am and how I show up.

2024 Expected Score: A++
2024 Final Score: B-
2025 Expected Score: A

CREATIVITY

It’s very weird to say this because when you look at my total follower count on Instagram and on TikTok, you’ll probably be able to point to the fact that I now have many thousands of followers. But I truly believe that my creativity might have suffered in 2024.

I think a combination of settling into a new city, finding my footing, sometimes just being alone with myself. I don’t think I expressed myself as much as I would have liked to through my writing. And by the grace of God, there was another edition of Ijinle in Dallas in late 2024.

I look forward to more in 2025. But when it comes to writing or creating, I just certainly don’t feel like I did as much as I would have liked to. And sometimes that’s okay.

Sometimes that’s okay to have a year off or a few months off, whatever the case might be. I will say though, that I was very glad to have unlocked different tools to aid my creativity. For example, I use TurboScribe AI to transcribe my voice memos of ideas that I’ve written down.

I also use Podcastle AI to edit the sound and videos to make them more crisp in videos. So yeah, there are a few things and mediums that I’ve pleasantly unlocked and hopefully can work on more in 2025. One thing I’m determined to do more of is posting the content that’s already in my phone this year.

I think a lot of times I hoard things. So as you’ve seen with the start of the year with my trip to Belize, I am doing less of the hoarding and more of the pushing out content, even if it’s not perfect, so I can do what I will do. So more to come in 2025.

I hope you and yours stay close enough to witness it all, but very excited for what the year holds and what creativity I will be able to share with you all in the world today. 

2024 Expected Score: B+
2024 Final Score: D
2025 Expected Score: B

FINANCES

No Billionaire Status, But We Move

2024 was a different kind of expensive year, not in the sense of wasted money or big things, although buying a new car and moving halfway across the country is certainly not light work.

But I will say it was a good year all around. I think that I was able to sensibly manage a lot of things and manage a lot of things within my finances. And I’ll tell you this.

One of the ways that I realized that I had a great 2024 when it came to finances was how I was able to enter into 2025. So I had more aggressive saving goals.

As of today I am 65% towards my target goal for the year, which tells you a lot about how I was able to enter into this year. So I came into this year with the luxury of being able to be more aggressive around my saving, around my finances and things like that. And it’s been very refreshing to experience, you know, not coming into a year with chaos and nerves and concern.

There are some areas of improvement. I will definitely admit, I think there were certain pockets where I probably should have done things a little bit different to arrive at different outcomes. For example, you know, using a particular card over another to get better rewards and things like that.

I’m getting more in tune with that. Also investing more in the sort of areas that would help grow my finances. So, you know, my wealth savings, my high yield savings accounts, my Roth IRA, knowing my investment portions for my 401k and things like that.

I want to be able to give my wife and kids, the financial footing that they deserve. So, yeah, I think I’m very grateful for how I came into 2025.

And I’m very excited about where things are going to go in the future because I feel very good about the state of things. I do not feel obligated. Oh, another thing I will say when it comes to finances is historically, I always felt like I needed to do more.

Like I needed to spend more. I needed to use that as a way not necessarily as a way to show my love, but more so I felt because I had it, I needed to like use it to care for the people I cared about. And I think that is a trap that a lot of us can fall into because, you know, it’s important to be balanced in your approach when it comes to that.

But two, reciprocity is also a really big thing. You are not going to always have what you have if you keep spending it all the time on everyone. And that does not mean that I don’t think that you should be, you know, that doesn’t mean I don’t think you should care about your people, if that makes sense.

But I don’t think that we should, just keep spending on everyone, like people coming to you, always asking you for stuff, like that does not mean that you shouldn’t give and doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t care. But at the same time, we need to be balanced in our approach and making sure that you always have your future, you always have your present self and your future self accounted for and taken care of. So in 2025, I look forward to saving more, planning better with my travel so I can spend less on travel, and making time to show love and support to the people that I care about.

2024 Expected Score: B+
2024 Final Score: B+
2025 Expected Score: A

Relationships.

I’m starting to think romantic relationships are not something for me. By the number of people that have questioned my sexuality or the difficulty in finding people that will love you the way you want to be loved, I’m starting to think that romantic relationships are not for me. LOL nah I’m joking. See how that got your eyes all big and concerned? Gbeborun.
Relationships were interesting in 2024, for various reasons.
I think moving to a new city, forced me to have more intentional behaviors around keeping in touch, whether that was like sending a picture to my friends when I see something funny or responding to memes or Facetiming randomly, or even leaving messages now. I actually leave messages now.

Considering that I live far away, further away, I don’t see my friends as often. I was able to still stay connected to a lot of people. 2024 was also a great year because I got to see some friends that I hadn’t seen in a long time or meet people that I never thought that I would meet.

So I really enjoyed that perspective. But then it also brought some deep self-reflection, understanding the depths of my mistrust of people, my emotional fatigue in terms of feeling like I give more in relationships than other people. It helped me, living by myself and away from my tribe, if you call it that, helped me understand more closely what my everyday would look like as a single or married man.

And one thing that it challenged me to do was evaluate each relationship more closely. A big thing I really thank God for when it comes to relationships in 2024 is courage. The courage to say how I feel, the courage to act on how I feel, the courage to hold the line and hold people accountable.

I found that previously I would just be quiet because I felt like it was the right thing to do and because I didn’t want to appear to be too much. But in reality, I find that I give so much of myself to people romantically or platonically, and I don’t always feel like I get that back in return. Now, platonically, one area that I definitely allow things on is I never feel like the checks for a platonic relationship are to be cashed immediately.

In many cases, if you’re going to spend years being friends with someone, odds are the scale is not always going to be balanced. There are periods in my life so far where I have been less of the best friend, and there have also been periods in my life where I feel like I’ve given more. In platonic relationships, what you just want is when it’s all said and done, when it’s all evaluated and the sum of it is being considered, you feel like you and the person have given enough of yourself.

You hope that you and your friend have given enough of yourselves to each other in ways that you both recognize and value. But in romantic relationships, I’ve come to realize that what you don’t speak on, you tolerate. What you’re silent about, you accept.

In many cases, that just builds resentment because you get frustrated, and this other person is just living their good ol’ life, not knowing that something is missing. I find that I’m afraid of speaking on my demands in terms of romantic relationships because I never want to seem too much, but I also never want to seem disappointed. This is where I really want to thank my friends around the world.

Some of them I will name drop here, but Itafe, Ninz, Peju, Nnena, Dayo. I’m really thankful for the people that remind me of who I am, sometimes even in just passing conversations. But I also thank them for the direct reminders that, no, this is who you are, this is what you should expect, this is the line you should hold for you and for your joy.

So in 2024, we put a little bit of effort into trying to understand who we were when it comes to relationships. But at the same time, I want to be better in 2025. I want to be more patient.
I want to be more expressive. One area that I find that I’m continuing to struggle with in general is just answering questions. I think because I am a chronic mind my business type of person, I always find it amusing and sometimes intrusive when people just ask me random things about my life.

I’m always like, look, I let you guys have your life. I don’t ask you questions. Why are you bothering me about mine? But I’ve now come to find that I should just allow myself to be more open in that what is the worst that could happen.

I know that my upbringing also plays a factor because I grew up with a mom and dad who believe that your family are best friends and it’s important to keep your family matters and yourself private as much as you can because the world truly does not really care about you like that. But my demands, my expectations are higher in 2025. I truthfully wanted to start the year in isolation from every relationship and every friendship.

But the truth is, no one is an island. That’s for starters. And two, no one is an island.

Two, we all need people. But three, it is important that you envision the life that you want for yourself, work hard towards it. But at the same time, do not drop your standards because of loneliness.

Nnenna called it out this year and said, I don’t like being alone. And the truth is, I like having people around me, but it cannot be at the expense of my current happiness or my future happiness. One area in relationships that I need to do much, much better is telling myself the honest truth and accepting it early. Sometimes I tell myself the truth but I lie into denying myself from accepting the truth.

The hope is what has killed me in so many situations because I keep thinking things would get better. I keep thinking that people will change. I keep thinking that people will try to love like I do.

But the truth of the matter is, not everyone is you. And for better or worse, you need situations and to be with people that are as motivated and as committed to your happiness as you are. No one will ever embody all of what you want for your happiness better than you.

You are the best person to be the driver for your own truth and your own happiness long-term. But at the same time, it is best and life is so much easier when you are driving down this highway of life with someone who understands you, understands the pace, understands the direction you’re going in, and is committed to the journey as much as you are. Another thing that I’ve learned when it comes to relationships through 2024 is that you make sure you are bound and bound with people based on the shared values that you have.

In this instance, shared values around work, around hard work, around commitments, around family. It is important that you align yourself with someone who sees those same pictures and wants those same things as you. Because if that person is committed to self-growth and self-awareness and improvement as you are, the hope is that they are challenging themselves in ways that you are as well.

For example, I just spoke about how I would like to be more measured in my reactions to things, my temper about things, being less upset about things. Imagine being with someone who just thinks that they just have to show up, and they don’t have to do any work. That does not present a joyful pairing, if anything, is going to lead to resentment.

Because ultimately what happens is if you stop improving, you start regressing when it comes to relationships and when it comes to self-improvement. So it is important that you are with someone who is as bought in to that vision as you and able to continue working at those things like you are. Because what ultimately happens is you want to be able to look to your left, to your right, and see them close enough with you on that journey versus you being so far ahead or so far gone on certain things, and they’re so far away from you.

Relationship-wise, 2024 was challenging. I definitely had many tearful nights. I definitely had to cut things off or cut people off.
I definitely had to have very honest conversations with myself. I went to God many times in tears. But like I said last year that I wanted to be more honest with myself and I want to do life with people who truly do it.

I want more of that in 2025. I don’t want people who see me as someone just to make the life they want easier. I want to be with someone who is biased towards action, not ideation.

I want people who come into your life and see and try to find pockets where there can be value adds versus, oh, wow, you have done so much work to better and improve your life – let me just pair myself with you and enjoy from that. And that’s not always an intentional thought.

That’s not always a selfish thought. But naturally, it comes from self-preservation. We want to preserve ourselves and our happiness that we come into situations with people and we look at the landscape and say to ourselves, wow, this is so nice.

Oftentimes when people go into a “this is so nice space”, there’s never a challenge or a need to make that space better. The best example I can give you is going on a hike and ending up at a great viewpoint, let’s say a little meadow. You see the flowers, everything looks perfect.

No one in that moment ever after enjoying the view, right, and appreciating the view, no one says, “hmm, how do I make sure that this landscape stays like this?” Or “how do I make sure that the trash gets picked up? Or how do I help out?”
That is human nature. We’re so focused on enjoying what we’ve been able to observe that we don’t always come in with the intention of aggressively improving something. And I think that finding someone who loves you and is as committed to you is the type of person that comes into that space and makes you feel better about life.

In 2025, I pray friends that are transparent. I pray people who don’t have to communicate through passive aggression or tantrums or being moody. I pray people who are actionable in their love and not waiting for the right moment or for the right thing to be.

I pray people who are quick to apologize for their wrongdoings. I pray people who understand that life and love require intentional and hard work. Yeah, and I pray a lot of laughter because I deserve it all.

2024 Expected Score: B+
2024 Final Score: D
2025 Expected Score: B+

I’m super excited for 2025 – it’s already started off pretty well.
Hard decisions have been made but I think I am working on the right path towards the full life that I want. There are still tougher conversations I need to have – with myself and others but for now, we are okay.

If you haven’t already, please check out my links to my playlists and SAVE + SHARE them!

Thank you so much and here’s to an amazing year!