Changing the People in Your Circle

 

You can’t change the people in your circle but you can change the people in your circle.

 This idea was a game changer to me. The fact that I could actively change the people I had around me on a daily basis. There was a concept that I think is more prevalent in the Midwest that the majority of people you know and interact with are people you have known since grade school or family members. Your friend circle effectively being a proxy of where you were randomly inserted into the world.

 For people who might not have run with the best circle the act of finding a new one had a sense of betrayal and a feeling of freedom at the same time.

 It was a mix of loneliness and empowerment that I felt the moment that I decided to do something different.

 Every once in a while I will run into groups of people out and feel a tinge of envoy at he stories I missed, that they all staid so close but then I remember all the things I have done all the ground I covered all the growth that has happened and I tell you I would not change it for the world.

It doesn’t mean I look badly on the past it was a huge part of what made me who I am today.

 I just look forward to living with intent, working and building with new people and never ceasing to stop moving forward.

Flag Football and Practice

 Few things I am taking out of this weekend and reapplying to my own life again :

The discipline to practice is more important that the outcome of a game

Incorporate something new into each practice 

You have to work on yourself and the team 

Break the complex into the the simple 

Dont let a bad pay turn into a bad game, shake it off

Also I love my son:)

Action

 Creativity is not emotion, it is action. 

"Never has there been a map, however carefully executed to detail and scale, which carried its owner over even one inch of ground. Never has there been a parchment of law, however fair, which prevented one crime. Never has there been a scroll, even such as the one I hold, which earned so much as a penny or produced a single word of acclamation. Action, alone, is the tinder which ignites the map, the parchment, this scroll, my dreams, my plans, my goals, into a living force. Action is the food and drink which will nourish my success."

---The Scroll Marked IX - Og Mandino

I have spent a long time pounding a question of what is needed to act, to move, to do something. There is a wonderful mix of motivation, will, fear, belief , curiosity that come together to inspire and create the environment for action but the culmination of what is that thing that causes me to take another step, pick up a phone, reach out to learn seems to be just beyond the tip of my tongue and edge of my understanding. As I cross the bridge though between my thoughts and actions more frequently and more intentionally I feel its shape filling in.

Expiration Date

 "What makes life powerful and meaningful and substantive is the expiration date"

It is crazy how kids and the perspective of age can bring life into focus. 

Watching them play and feeling my own mortality makes every kiss and hug a little sweeter. 

I used to kick myself for wasting so much of my life without focus and intent until I realized that just causes me to waste more. Do better now, do better going forward. The point isn't cry over what was,  it is to not squander what is. 

Minneapolis Comprehensive District Design

 After finding out our children failed to get grandfathered into their existing school due to Minneapolis Public Schools. https://mpls.k12.mn.us/cdd

Send to Ed Graff, School Board, Jacob Frey and Jereemy Schroeder - 

We have been struggling with some difficult conversations with our children and would like to share equal parts of our sadness and frustration with this group. 

We have 6 families that lived within our four blocks that had children the same age as our kindergarten and 1st grader all who were set to or were actively attending Hale. 

The kind of friends that go bike riding together, play video games together that you picture your children growing up with. 

Five of those families have or are actively in the process of moving out of Minneapolis. While there are many reasons people choose to move all of them said the Comprehensive Design and new schooling system played a key role. 

I have been looking for ways to explain what is happening and why to my children so if there is anything that is age appropriate that is available I would appreciate it being passed. This is just showing up to them like their friends are disappearing. 

Also hoping it answers how this decision will give them a better education and lead to a better Minneapolis that people don't want to walk away from. 

Few things that would be helpful for parents like me.

1.) What is the hypothesis the CDD is testing and how are we measuring the results to know if it is achieving the right thing? 

2.) The placement process and the algorithm of what it is doing to assign children to a school or magnet should be transparent and public.  (We have two children who were placed at different schools and told our lottery had closed but they opened an new lottery for others)

3.) What steps are being taken by this group to address the root cause issue of distributing taxes to equally fund schools at a county or state level. Without solving systematically we are only treating a symptom that will just manifest itself elsewhere. 

Look forward to hearing from this group. 

Hack #3 - Power Hour

 

Hack #3 Power Hour

I have tried to do this at least a hundred times in my life to know avail I not sure why this time has been different but I have switched the first hour of the day to me time.

Before I pick up my phone, before I respond to the demands of another human being I respond to the demand of more for myself

20 minute walk listening to an audible

5 Minute work out – 33 curls, 33 should presses, 33 squats

20 minutes of reading

15 minutes of writing \ reflection

 

In just 45 days it has accounted for 6 additional books I never would have read

1485 curls, presses and squats I never would have done

67 miles I never would have walked

8 new articles I never would have written

Feeling better as it keeps building on itself.  

Pay yourself first. I feel more accomplished, less stressed and better interactions the whole rest of the day.

The biggest thing I took out of it is don’t let your self put up a zero and don’t make a bad day a habit. Cant read the whole time, read a page etc. Get back the next day

 

Hack #2

Mute the mindless.

Turn up the positivity

I made it a goal to do a few things

• 1   Mute, Unfriend, unfollow anyone that posting things that aren’t going to help me move in the right direction. Poor me posts, games, junk science, racist posts etc.
• 2.  Add and follow people that inspire
• .       @Finess People @CleanEating @WealthCreators @NewSkills
• 3.  The goals is if I find myself scrolling for it to be positive and incentive to stop and go do something better.
• 4. No Phone for an hour in the morning (More on that soon)
• 5. No phone for an hour in the evening to enjoy the company of my wife

 

I have cut my phone time in half. The phone time I have is more constructive and motivational. I feel happier and have been using the extra time to work on relationships and new skills.

Habit Hack #1

 Right around the start of this year I read Atomic Habits by James Clear. I have been off my goals for a bit and have been drifting the away from what I really want out of my life. I am way out of shape, wasting time and not making sure the future is better than the past. 

On April 15th I automated and incorporated a small series of changes that I am already seeing make a difference. 

Habit Hack 1 - Eat more fruit

Instead of three coffees each morning. I have a cup of coffee and a glass of pure fruit juice. 

Old belief: I need coffee and caffeine to get me going. 

New belief: I get energy from putting good things in my body.

Result - 45 servings of fruit I would not have eaten otherwise.

Courage to Make a Mark

"You can either be judged because you created something or ignored because you left your greatness inside of you. Your call."

- James Clear 

I choose to create. I choose to be open. I choose to evolve. 

You

 You are not the darkness you endured. 

You are the light that refused to Surrender.