New Year · New Level · New You
- Dean
- Jan 15
- 4 min read
What Got Me Here Won’t Get Me There — And Why the Cold Keeps Teaching Me
January has a way of amplifying everything.
The noise.The pressure.The feeling that we should already be further along than we are.
For a long time, I thought change happened because I planned hard enough, learned enough, or pushed myself far enough.
What I’ve come to realise — slowly, often painfully — is this:
What got me here won’t get me there.
And that’s not a failure.It’s a signal.
From being guided… to holding the helm
Before my injury, and even after in the early years, life had a structure.
There were roles.Job descriptions.Projects assigned.
Someone, somewhere, was telling me what needed doing next.
Then everything changed.
When you move into leadership, entrepreneurship, or founding something of your own, the ground shifts under your feet.
You’re no longer just the captain.
You’re the admiral.The deckhand.The crew.
At the same time.
And that’s before you factor in:
fatherhood
being a husband
friendships
family
health
recovery
your own inner work
You’re suddenly holding a lot of plates.
I tried to keep them all spinning.Over and over again.
And I got lost.More than once.
The pattern I couldn’t ignore anymore
Here’s what I noticed — and maybe you’ve noticed it too.
I’d push.Overcommit.Spin more plates.
Then something would happen.
Burnout.Illness.A family situation.Life stepping in and forcing me to stop.
And when I finally slowed down — often flat on my back, exhausted — I saw something clearly:
The world didn’t stop turning.
Day still followed night.People adapted.Life continued.
That pattern repeated enough times that I couldn’t ignore it anymore.
Eventually, I realised something important:
If I didn’t consciously choose which plates to put down,my environment and my body would choose for me.
That realisation changed everything.
Choosing what to carry — and what to let fall
Choose Life, to live it, love it and laugh with it.
There’s a strange freedom that comes with this awareness.
When the plates fall — whether by choice or by force — you get to see which ones actually matter.
And you can pick those back up.
For me, this is where the cold became something much deeper than a health practice.
How stepping into the cold changed my relationship with myself
I didn’t start cold exposure to become disciplined or “hard”.
I started because I was broken.Lost.On medication.And I just wanted to feel like me again — whatever that meant.
In early 2019, it began simply:Turning the shower to cold at the end.
That’s it.
Over time, I embraced fully cold showers.Years later, I began going colder using CryoShower Ice Blast — not chasing intensity, but responding to a call for deeper contrast.
And here’s the important part:
I’ve stepped into the cold every single day since.
Not to chase numbers.Not to prove anything.
But because it keeps teaching me.
The cold as silence, stillness, and space
What the cold gives me now isn’t toughness.
It’s:
silence
stillness
space
A pause in the noise.
When I step into the cold, something resets.My breath slows.My nervous system settles.My body and mind start to speak the same language again.
And from that place, clarity emerges.
I don’t need to solve my whole life in that moment.
I just need to show up.
One day. One step. One cold / colder shower.
This is the part I want you to really hear:
You don’t need to overhaul your life.
You don’t need a perfect routine.
You don’t even need to love the cold.
You can start the same way I did:Turning the shower to cold for a few seconds at the end.
That small action compounds.
Think of the butterfly effect.
Tiny inputs.Massive downstream change.
That’s how habits actually rewire the nervous system — not through force, but through repetition and safety.
From milestones to rhythm
Somewhere along the way, I realised something unexpected.
What started as “let’s try 100 days”became 200…then 365…and now I’m moving toward 1000 days.
But it’s no longer about the number.
It’s a rhythm.
A daily ritual where I step in and choose to show up as my best self:
for my family
for my work
for my health
for my energy
When I step out of the cold, I feel it — like a frequency shift.
My body, my cells, my nervous system all start singing the same tune.
I call it stepping into my 1000% best self.
And that energy doesn’t vanish.It carries through the day.And with small pauses — a breath, a moment of awareness — I can rise back into it again.
Why I’m building Inbox Coaching (and why it’s slow)
Over the years, I’ve spent hundreds of thousands on personal development.
I’ve learned a lot.
But what actually changed my life wasn’t information.
It was practice.
That’s why I’m building something quieter now.
Inside the Cold Path Collective, I share inbox-style coaching designed to fit into real life:
Mondays — a seed to reflect on
Fridays — a way to embody it
No sprinting.No pressure.Just small steps toward habits and beliefs that serve:
you
your family
your work
your mission
If you’re leading, building, healing, or simply trying to live more intentionally — you’re not alone.
👉 You can join and get the free Morning Mastery Guide here:https://thecoldpath.com
Tools that support the path
Cold therapy has been my anchor.
CryoShower Ice Blast exists to make that anchor more accessible — helping people go colder, safely and consistently, no matter the season.
👉 Explore CryoShower here (January offer available):https://cryoshower.shop
And if you want to hear from others walking their own cold paths:
👉 Stepping Into the Cold — real stories, real people:https://www.youtube.com/@cryoshower/playlists
"One day.
One step.
One cold / colder shower at a time.
And the rest will take care of itself."
If this resonated, stay close.
I’ll keep sharing — honestly, imperfectly, and from lived experience.
And if you ever need silence, stillness, or space…
The cold is always there. Sign Up for weekly lessons learned and shared.
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