Welcome back everyone and happy 2026! Here's to a great year ahead.

In this episode, I reflect on 2025 and talk about preparing for 2026. I discuss things I learned in 2025 and things I'm looking forward to in 2026.

Join me on the journey this year to getting 1% better every day.

As always, love yourself, love others, and go put joy into the world!

--TRANSCRIPT--

00:00:21.549 --> 00:00:51.549 What's going on everybody? Welcome back to Mental Health is Wealth. It's been a while Sophie, forgot. I'm your host Justin Katzen and it's been it's been a long time so welcome back to Mental Health is Wealth. In this podcast I talk about mental health, what mental health means to me, um being an advocate for mental health, letting people know that it's okay to talk about your feelings and it's truly okay not to be okay and just try to change that

2 00:00:51.549 --> 00:01:21.549 stigma about mental health one episode at a time. Whether you are a first time listener for the new year or someone who listens regularly, like I say every episode, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy lives to support me on my journey and just to listen about mental health and if I inspire one person out there I truly lived my purpose. So thank you so much, welcome back, I hope

3 00:01:21.549 --> 00:01:45.249 you enjoy this episode. Happy twenty twenty six happy, new year. I can't believe I'm saying that and when I'm recording this, it's almost the end of the month. Um so we're almost we're almost a month through, it's almost February. Um I hope twenty twenty s I hope twenty twenty six brings my listeners happiness, health, and great memories to you and all of your loved ones.

4 00:01:45.669 --> 00:02:15.669 And this episode, this is just a quick episode about um a reflection personally for me on twenty twenty five and what I learned, some cool things that happened and to look ahead to twenty twenty six what it haves what is it what what it has in store for me and some things that I want to take in to twenty twenty six For. as we get started for twenty twenty five twenty, twenty five was truly a fantastic year

5 00:02:15.669 --> 00:02:45.669 for me with a capital F_ and exclamation point at the end. Uh I'm not saying that nothing challenging or I didn't face any adversity in twenty twenty five because um I did and there was tough times don't, get me wrong there, was dark days there, was long days um but I had so many positives that outweighed them that it made it such a fantastic year where I look back and reflect on it. I'm so grateful for it and I grew for I grew in twenty twenty five but, I also experienced

6 00:02:45.669 --> 00:03:15.669 pretty damn excuse my language pretty damn awesome things and when I say that the number one the number one thing um that happens I have like a s the hugest the biggest the hugest I dunno that's a word the biggest smile on my face right now um I got married to my best friend and I still can't believe I get to call Danielle my wife um by now my listeners know what Danielle means to me um so to get married to her truly meant the world to

7 00:03:15.669 --> 00:03:45.669 and it was the highlight of my life and to this day it was the happiest um and truly the best day of my life and it's a day that I will truly nev never forget Um. I'm getting emotional talking about it because it's just something that I always jumped upon uh since I was a little kid and having my mom and my dad be married for thirty five years and having Michael and my sister um be married for I don't even know how long now, maybe

8 00:03:45.669 --> 00:04:15.669 shoot I should be knowing this over five over five years now just having those two role models in my those two relationships those that are role models in my life um it's made me want to strive to have a mar uh uh marriage like that and now the fact that um I do have that it's truly amazing and it's something I don't take for granted um every any day and every day I just realise how blessed I am um I could talk about it literally for forever but I'm just so

9 00:04:15.669 --> 00:04:45.669 and so grateful for such a beautiful day. Um and every ti every d every time I reflect on the day I just feel so blessed and grateful and I wouldn't want the day to go truly any other way. To have the people that mean the most to both me and to Danielle all there um in one space to celebrate our love um was truly amazing. Um and quick shout out to my cousin Sarah um who was the officiant. Um she was truly amazing and she

10 00:04:45.669 --> 00:05:15.669 mean so much to me personally. She means a lot to Danielle also but she just means so much to me personally. She's my um prayer buddy, she's been there for me through s through some of my hardest times and I thought looking back it was so fitting um to have her up there because she's been there for me and Danielle at some of some of mine like I said and our hardest times and to have her there um by our side doing doing the wedding um and the happiest day on a

11 00:05:15.669 --> 00:05:45.669 happiest day of our life was a truly full circle moment. So 'cause um I'll keep you short because I don't wanna get too emotional but thank you so much um you truly did an amazing job um I love you so much and shout out to my shout out to her son Clay, my cousin Clay, he was the best ring-bearer out there um I love you buddy. Um I kinda touched on it a little bit when I was talking about the wedding but I just gotta take a moment because Danielle truly looked like a queen that day

12 00:05:45.669 --> 00:06:15.469 I just can't wait for what life has in store for us. Um the highs, the lows, the ups, the downs, um the good, the bad, like I said in our in our vows, our endless dance parties, our love is blind dates, um whatever life brings um to us babe, I know it'll truly they make the most oh w I know it truly will make the most of it, so I love you so much and um that's a day that I'll truly never forget for the rest of my life.

13 00:06:15.469 --> 00:06:45.469 As you could tell, I'm probably rambling about the wedding, but I could talk about my wife and the wedding um for the rest is for for for the rest is episode. But the day was truly special. Um Danielle means the world to me. That day meant the world to me. And I'm just forever grateful for th that day and what it meant for all of us. Another great thing that happened in twenty twenty five that I am so excited for is I found out that uh my

14 00:06:45.469 --> 00:07:15.469 was pregnant and that brings so much happiness to me and happiness I have for my sister and my brother-in-law is endless and I can't put into words in this episode how excited I am. Um I'm beyond excited, I don't have words to say it, there's no word to say how excited I am because um my excitement is endless and once I found out I was a baby boy, um I had to get the baby some shoes so, that baby was gonna be a stylin' um just like just like his uncle

15 00:07:15.469 --> 00:07:32.489 And um when I say this, I truly mean it. My sister and Michael are gonna be the best parents out there. I'm not saying that because it's my sister and my brother-in-law. If you know them, you know how lucky that baby boy is gonna be um, because they're truly gonna be the best parents out there.

16 00:07:32.769 --> 00:08:02.769 And even though my sister is older than me, um as I get older, everything I do is tr I try to um love my sister as much as I can, I try to protect my sister as much as I can, and I try to support her in any way and every way possible. Um so now that she's gonna be a mom, it truly hasn't hit me yet, um I'm just so ex oh my God, um I'm just so excited for her, I'm beyond proud of her, and I know that she's gonna be uh she's my

17 00:08:02.769 --> 00:08:29.449 but a damn good mom and that baby boy is gonna be so lucky and sis I'm just so happy for you, I'm so proud of you and just know that your brother's always here for you but that kid's gonna be between you and Michael, that kid's gonna be have so he's gonna have so much love and I am so thankful for you and I'm so thankful that you're gonna be the best mom out there, so I love you so much.

18 00:08:29.449 --> 00:08:59.449 And just as we talk about twenty twenty five, the thing that makes me feel um so happy and so grateful about twenty twenty five is was my f my family was healthy, my family was happy, and they got to live twenty twat twenty twenty five to the fullest. Um everyone knows that my family means the most to me. So if my family had a good twenty twenty five therefore, I had a great twenty tw twenty five. Um so that's what truly meant the most to me this year was my family was happy and my

19 00:08:59.449 --> 00:09:29.449 family was healthy, and they got to live a great year. We had some great trips. My dad and I went to Seattle. Um but I'm just so happy that my family was h happy and healthy during twenty twenty five, so therefore I was happy. And if I describe if I are described twenty twenty five um in one word, the word that I would say um is blessed, and I wrote this down in my notes. I wrote it all d I wrote it in all capi all capital letters and I

20 00:09:29.449 --> 00:09:59.449 it, because I'm just so grateful for everything that twenty twenty five was, and it just makes me so excited for twenty twenty six. And as I reflect on twenty twenty five, like I said, there was challenges in it, there was adversity, there was some very hard days and some long days, there was a lot of cries, um there was sadness, but overall twenty twenty twenty twenty five was just such a great year, and as I reflect on it, something that I learned in twenty twenty

21 00:09:59.449 --> 00:10:29.449 was to fully believe in myself and whether that's with and that's not in the egotistical way, but I just realised I had to trust myself m trust myself more, whether that was at work as a Project Manager uh at the gym or um as a husband. I just need to believe in who I am more. Um in twenty twenty five I accomplished some great things and it showed me that I am capable um but more

22 00:10:29.449 --> 00:10:58.689 importantly I'm worthy of success and so are you guys. Um so that's something that I wanna take into twenty twenty six is just and that's something that I wanna take into twenty twenty six is just to um be more confident in myself, believe in myself and just trust my instincts because I did accomplish some great things this year um so I need to stop doubting myself and just believe in myself more so that's the energy I want to take into the new year.

23 00:10:59.089 --> 00:11:29.089 So enough about twenty twenty five uh enough about twenty twenty five. Um for twenty twenty six one of the goals I have is to get back into routine with this podcast. I wanna do um back like I when I started I was doing one epis one episode a month and the reason why I wrote this down the reason why I'm saying this out loud now is because I don't wanna l I don't wanna leave let my listeners down and I wanna keep myself

24 00:11:29.089 --> 00:11:59.089 to getting back in routine and doing this podcast um and yes I hope at least I it's I when I do this podcast I hope I at least inspire one person out there and at least one person took something out of this episode but it's also great for my own uh mental health when I do this epi when I do these episodes and it's almost free therapy for me so I wanna get back into the routine like the beginning like when I started this podcast of doing it once once a month

25 00:11:59.089 --> 00:12:26.709 really keeping that momentum throughout the whole year and doing one episode a month like I said, and trying to inspire and touch at least one person out there and teach someone about mental health that didn't know something. So that's my goal with this podcast, to get back to doing it once a month and just to do my part in trying to change the stigma of mental health like I say, one episode at a time.

26 00:12:26.709 --> 00:12:56.709 And a goal that I have for the first quarter of this year is to get back to running, but also listening to my body uh while I rehab my knee. The pr for the people who know and l um follow my Instagram, podcast, um I got a procedure on my knee in December and I haven't ran since December first and it's been tough. I've wanted to run I've wanted to run and I wanted to try to push myself and see where I am, but I'm also trying to balance um my rehab

27 00:12:56.709 --> 00:13:26.709 and still doing cardio um and this time um I'm doing my rehab, I'm taking it more s I'm taking it more serious. Um but as the quarter progresses I do wanna start get I wa I do wanna start to get back to running because running means just as much for my mental health as it does my physical health. So I wanna balance that kind of um that scale of on one side it's still listening to my body and doing my rehab but also

28 00:13:26.709 --> 00:13:56.709 to push myself and get back to cardio but balancing that um so we'll see how that goes. And a goal that I have for twenty twenty six for the whole year is to um enjoy the average Tuesday and this comes from my sister and my brother-in-law and this is something that they told us in our um at our wedding um and what that means to me is well first of all when they said this this is something um

29 00:13:56.709 --> 00:14:26.709 um that hit me im immediately and something I never wanna forget and what it means in my words is uh yes I have great things planned for twenty twenty six and Danielle and I have Danielle and I have a lot of fun things planned for twenty twenty six but I also just wanna be grateful um for the average Tuesday um whether that's just having a home cooked meal, having a movie night or waking up or whether it's just waking

30 00:14:26.709 --> 00:14:56.709 up and being grateful for another day. Um I wanna be grateful for it all because like I say um a small blessing is a huge blessing. Whatever whatever you're grateful for, that's a huge blessing and we can't take those small blessings for granted and that's what it means for me to enjoy the average Tuesday. Um we can't just get so excited about getting a dog or going on a trip or how we're doing a fun activity

31 00:14:56.709 --> 00:15:26.709 weekend. Instead we can just be grateful for having dinner with your wife on on Wednesday night or going to a basketball game with your friend like we need to be grateful for those small things and not just be so excited for those huge things because if we're just looking forward to those huge things, we're gonna miss the small blessings and those small things that we should be grateful for each and every day. And when you are grateful for those small things um you're just happier

32 00:15:26.709 --> 00:15:56.709 you're more grateful for life every day and you're more excited to attack every single day And. this year in twenty twenty six throughout the whole year I just wanna continue to push myself and grow in all ways possible. I always wanna be a student whether it's as a Project Manager or learning to exercise at the gym or just reading self-help books and realising how I can be a better husband or a better son or a better brother um I just wanna get one percent better every

33 00:15:56.709 --> 00:16:26.709 single day and every aspect of my life as I can and with that I wanna continue to take care of my well-being um by doing my reading doing my r doing my reading um and meditation I wanna exercise and more importantly something I'm trying to do this year um more often is eat healthier more. Um so those are things that I just wanna do throughout the year to take care of my mental health because my mental health is just as important as my physical

34 00:16:26.709 --> 00:16:56.709 Um for twenty twenty six there's um great things I'm looking forward to. Well the biggest thing I'm looking forward to um is our honeymoon and that's coming up in May. Danielle planned a just beautiful European cruise and I truly can't wait. It's something that um we both deserve and as a couple we deserve it but individually we deserve it too 'cause we worked so hard. Um but I'm just so excited just to um

35 00:16:56.709 --> 00:17:24.449 from everything and just enjoy Europe with with my wife. Um and she's so excited because she's been to Europe so many times. Um and obviously I've never been but just seeing how excited she is and all the work that she's done for it makes me so excited. So that's something that's just kinda getting me through those hard days is we have a just a great trip planned um in May and it's something that we're both looking forward to so I truly can't wait.

36 00:17:24.789 --> 00:17:54.789 And as we just come to a close, I'm excited for um whatever the year brings, the highs, the lows, the good, the bad, because I truly know that whatever life brings whatever life throws at me, um I'm capable of getting through it And. something I'm just reminding myself is during those hard times, take a couple of deep breaths, smile, and just realise how blessed I am, because there's people out there that would love to be in my situation

37 00:17:54.789 --> 00:18:24.789 They would love to live in a beautiful home that I live in. They would love to have a beautiful wife like I do. They would love to have a good job like I do. They would love to have the great support system and family that I have. So during those quote unquote tough days, I try to remi remind myself that they're really not tough days when you put in perspective because there's people that would kill and die to be in my situation and they would kill to be in your situation too. So just remember how blessed you are, how grateful you are and never take

38 00:18:24.789 --> 00:18:54.789 for granted. So as I come to a close, I hope twenty twenty six is everything you want, but more importantly, everything that you need. I hope you count your blessings and continue to grow and I truly can't wait for you and for all my listeners to follow me on my journey and whatever twenty twenty six has in store for me this year. As always, love yourself, love others, and go put positive it all in the world. I'll talk to you all next month,