TMI - Sound Reaction

 I have a special water bottle that I use almost daily and for some reason the sound of filling said water bottle instantly makes me want to pee. I fill waters for the kids or in other bottles without the same reaction. I fill my special water bottle in different dispensers without the reaction. 

It is some combination of our fridge dispenser, the shape of this bottle and the sound it makes that is such a reaction almost without fail I don't get to fill it all the way up before running to the bathroom.

I am somehow afraid this sound will be honed in on and used as kryptonite against me at some distant point in the future. 

Missing the Point

 I always love the holidays the drunken political armchair expertise that goes with them. 

Slight nerve got touched when I said it might be in the nations best interest to fund college for everybody.

"That is socialism. Why would we pay for people to go to school? I had to pay my own way. I had to pay for my own kids and now you want to make it free? You going to pay me back? Why cant everyone just go to trade school and earn an honest living?"

I was hoping the following points might have won them over 

1. College was way more affordable in previous generations.

2. You should want the world your kids and grandkids to live in be better. 

3. If other countries invest in education and get people degrees without becoming indebted or have a $100k barrier put in their path where do you think the US will be in 20 years?

4. Trades are important but so is a lot of other stuff that requires education.

Don't get me wrong the university system needs a major overhaul. We have to do a better job at teaching people to think and solve problems. But what makes me nervous for the whole of us is it seems like most people don't want to think any more.

Not sure how we fix this but seems like you would want a stockpile of smart people around.

Letter to MSP Board

It would greatly increase numbers if the schools adapted some incentives for families and kids to go get the shot. 

If we reach x% vaccinated we will stop the mask mandate in the schools

If we reach x% vaccinated we will stop the quarantining of class rooms or individuals 

While we have chosen to vaccinate our kids many families are not going to because there is no upside or added incentive. 

What are we reaching for\trying to get to and what happens when we get there? 

We are missing a vision or end state. 

Best regards, 

Something About this Time

 It is the middle of October. I walked around the neighborhood with my kids yesterday. Sun was shining. Warm on the skin. Listening to them chat back and forth. Exploring the world, this pine cone, the shape of this stick. 

There is nothing to justify it but I have an enormous sense of peace. I feel calm and happy in a way I never knew would be possible. 

I am on the cusp of another massive change I feel like I should be scared and nervous but I have never felt as balanced and centered as I have in this period of time.

No One Is Coming to Save You

 No One Is Coming to Save You 

It is up to you to get in shape

Get your house in order 

Get your life right and make it happen

Love my kids

 Getting ready to fly across the country for a vacation away from my kids for the first time in 4 years and the thought of it makes me nervous. A part of me never minds traveling all together because if something happens we are all together. 

The thought of some of the events of the last few years unfolding and me not being there with them gives me dread. 

I hate imaging a world where they would go on without me and through this realization I know I need to work on health and longevity on my return.  

I am so proud of them and love them so much I want to be able to be a part of them for much longer than I am currently on a path too do. 

Daddy loves you 

Daddy will be back stronger than before.

Don’t make it about you, give credit where credit is due

(I wrote this post almost 8 years ago. I have been reunited with the person who inspired the originally ire and am shocked these things are still working for him.....although since he has not left the last couple places on his own accord maybe they arent working?)

-------------------

Don’t make it about you, give credit where credit is due

 

At some point I am sure we have all worked with someone who is a shameless self-promoter, even at the expense of others. While not exhaustive these are actual “career development”  tips I have received from people like this:

 

1.)    Make every compliment about someone else also about you. For example Tina did an excellent job at X looks like my coaching is working.

2.)    Show up early and stay late to every meeting when the crowd is thinner at the beginning and end you stand out more and will get chances to influence and make sure there is less opportunity for people to critique you. 

3.)    Compliment people via Chat on virtual meetings. It will make them feel good and it gets your logo there in Print for others to see the whole meeting. Especially effective if not a chat is occurring and it is a mix of leadership levels in the me

4.)    Don’t be the first person to speak, let other people speak and then value add or thoughtfully critic. Then constantly remind people how you either saved a ton of work or it was successful because of your suggestion.

5.)    Use forceful language to take credit for forgone conclusions. For example when you know a deliverable is in hand, casually say I am going to force\make\ this delivery by Friday. Or is there is harmony casually say I am going to get alignment on this issue.

6.)    Poll people for their ideas on making the world a better place and sell the best ones up the chain as your own.

7.)    Put as little of your decision’s in writing as possible until you can see if they have been successful then write glowing reviews about them to massive distributions lists set the tone of the email along the lines of rule #1

8.)    Constantly remind people of how tough your job is. When they say how is it going? It has been grueling but we are coming out the other side. I can’t believe how challenging it has been but we made it. This has been a longest week of my life but worth it.

 

The problem with advice like this is it works, at least it appears to work in the short term. Long term it has consequences that can erode organizations from the inside.

 

1.)    It robs the credit\appreciation bank of employees.

2.)    Missed opportunity cost to invest in future talent because the source of the success is misidentified.

3.)    Good people start to leave as promotions favor people not bringing in the actual results\doing the work.

4.)    People stop being vulnerable, sharing ideas and taking risks which is fundamental to healthy teams.

5.)    People who are close to the work and see the behavior know it doesn’t match reality and start to lose trust in leadership.

6.)    As this is primarily a manage up issue Senior Leadership develops a skewed vision of reality that leads to poor decision making.

 

People do eventually see this type of behavior for the fraud that it is. So don’t give into it. Be authentic and big enough to help build others. I promise the pie does keep getting bigger.

 

The problem can be difficult to spot though if you aren’t in a position to move through a company. Watch for signs of “making it about them” or not passing credit on to the source. These are signs of an insecure leader who is going to leverage your potential for their own gain instead of invest in yours. If you find yourself in this position it is better to move on sooner rather than later.

 

If you are lucky enough to have the autonomy to move about the organization one of the best ways to insulate your organization from this is to take a page from Gregor Hohpe and ride the elevator(or better yet take the stairs) from the penthouse to the engine room of your organization every day. Build networks, encourage dialog and feedback.  Remember the best way to encourage feedback is to act on the information you are receiving. Expanding this horizon will make sure you understand what is going on and have the model to ask the right questions when what someone is telling you doesn’t quite match reality.

 

Call people on behaviors. The saying the only thing needed for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing applies to your company culture too. Make sure people are getting rewarded for the work they are doing. Nothing can drain a company faster than unappreciated or slighted employees giving up.

 

Appreciate people. Develop people and don’t make it about you. 

Under the Lights

My son is on his second season of football and absolutely loving it. It is not a sport I ever pictured him playing for some reason but it is something he cant seem to get enough of. 

I am not sure the reason for it but seeing my kids play sports and hearing them laugh and compete is one of my favorite things in the world. 

I think I enjoy watching them play more then I actually liked to play. 

He got a chance to play under the lights for his first time last week. Which was a big deal since the game started around out usual bed time. 

Seeing his face light up as they took the field was priceless. 

No fear. No worries. Just excitement to be there in that moment and play. 

I hope that feeling never leaves his side. 

In a weird feeling I felt my dad watching that game through me. Like we were somehow together transcending time and space to fulfill what he would have wanted to do with me. 

My wife in a chair next to me. My daughter curled in a blanket in my arms. There was something so complete about that moment I am not sure how to put it into words. 

Movie Idea for Netflix

 This was my dream last night and think it might make a cool movie\series  concept. 

The opening scene is seemly unassuming dressed person goes into a gas station and puts a serum into the coffee and squishy stations.

The person then repeated this at another gas station and another  

The serum is a time released formula that makes a person go crazily violent 8 hour after consumption. 

The premise would be at the start of the episode you see security camera angles of people coming in and getting coffee and or other fountain drinks. Each gas station is in a different neighborhood so the people getting drinks would be clustered around certain demographics or backgrounds. An episode would be able to the impact of the people going to that specific gas station. 

Their is an element of timely ness to the story. The person who has  tainted all of these wells tips the police off to the plan that the whole of the city is about to collapse as the effects of the medicine take hold. They have 2 hours to find the people before the people go mad.

Tainted people subplots

Some of the people are kids

Some of the people are on pass throughs 

Some of the people are executives 

Some are Soccer moms 

Some are all ready killers 

Some are the first responders responding to this call,  police, paramedics

The violence's is different for the different people, some are suicide, some are crazy killing, some turn inwards in an petrified state.

Some people are caught in time before any event happens, some are not.

Sub story lines of race, how violence is perceived in different neighborhoods, the impact of violence of the community socio economic issues, how people with draw in times of danger, how people step up in times of need. 

The city is getting ripped apart can the stop it in time?

 

This Summer in Minneapolis

 The joyful sound of my son playing basketball in the driveway. The echo of the ball bouncing off the garages, rim and backboard that is wearing loose and has a little jangle from a washer that needs to be tightened. The smile on his face as he heaves that ball toward the hoop is priceless.

My daughter talking to people on the sidewalk as they walk past our house. Her voice whether it is asking questions of the world or singing to herself as she hurdles cartwheels across the yard is the melody of my heart. 

There is a different hum this year. Very little rain. Crunchy grass or vibrantly colored out of control weeds. It is funny how that works. The grass that needs the most attention is the fake one that isn't normal and we some how all agreed on that standard. 

The smoke has moved on and you can walk outside without feeling like you are breathing in a Canada campfire from thousands of miles away. 

I started walking around the lakes this month. There is something too it. Something to seeing other people, all types of people bettering their selves that makes me want to continue to better myself. The smell of sweat, dead fish, lake water although independently gross somehow combine into life. It is kind of like a smelling salt given to someone who has passed out. It is a reminder to come too. That you are here and it is ok or even something better.

The rustle of wind through the trees and leaves has always been a comforting sound to me. I walked a lot as a kid when I needed to work through my thoughts a process that continues to this day. The path of Diamond lake, the Minnehaha parkway, Nokomis, Harriet, Veterans Part and later around Normandale Lake. As I mulled things over in my mind it was always like a choirs in the wind and leaves would answer me back. It would smooth my thoughts, calm my stress and somehow lead me out of what ever path I was on a little bit better than when I went in. For a long time I used to believe this feeling was my father returning to comfort me. In some cases maybe that is true. The never-ending wind blowing that carries a part of all of our breath, all of our sounds, songs and words, echoing in a pattern played in the tall grass and leaves. A pattern we are not meant to understand maybe just feel. I feel connected to eternity when I hear the rustle of the wind in the leaves. 

Advice #453

 I don't know who needs to hear this but one of the best pieces of advice I can give the world is to not use the bathroom in your dreams. No matter how cool the toilet looks, not matter the context of the dream how good you can imagine it would feel. Do not use the bathroom in your dream. 

You can thank me for this later.

My Mom Part 1

It is weird how differently you think of your parents after you have kids.  I spend a lot of my young adult life disconnected and angry at my mom for what I know now was just her trying her best to keep her head above water. 

After my dad died when I was young it was like a moment in time froze in her. 

To this day 30+years have passed since that moment and on my birthday she still brings me things I liked at that time. There is a guarantee I will get s Star Wars card or some other such offering that will be of that period. 

I think she feels responsible somehow for so much that was beyond any of our control. 

I think it is the broken-est of us that spend so much time trying to fix others. 

I always though this was because they wished someone would help fix them but I don't think that is the case anymore. Lest 30 years of therapy, outreach and compassion would show the world of phycology to be a sham. 

We have drifted in and out of each others life's for sometimes years at a time. 

It took my own kids to finally understand there is nothing in this world that you wouldn't do for them. There is no worse feeling in the world than feeling like you let them down. 

How do you tell someone they didn't let you down it is ok. I know you did the best you could have have them acknowledge it in their soul to a point of forgiveness?

I have given that pardon, asked for forgiveness for my part in it, yet I still feel her self tortures' after all these years.

I see part of her in my mirror.

Lesson Learned the Hard Way #235

I took out a bunch of student loans to put myself through school. All the way through school. As I was holding my MBA looking at a bunch of degrees and a bill for it all that was going to take me ten years to pay off I knew I made a big mistake. 

I thought I had to go to school with a name, get a big degree but the truth is I would have been fine without it or going just to a two year trade school. 

I learned much more from just doing and working with mentors that I ever did in a class room. 

Most of the textual stuff goes out the window in the real world once the complexity of organizations and people come into play. 

For my kids it is not that I don't want them to get an education it is that I want them to get the right one. 

If I was helping them foot the bill it would probably be something closer too...

2 Years of trade school or community college with Summers off to live abroad. 

I think living outside the us and learning practical skills would do most people more good than keg stands and frat parties.

The traditional path of life needs an overhaul. If we just do what we are supposed to all we do is shackle up with debt we don't really need following a dream we don't really want.

I spend 20% of my week working to cover something I was "supposed" to do. 

Shame on me for never questioning up front...but then what kid really knows they need to?

Dark Moment #1

 They say it is good to record these things so you can look back and know the truth aloud that you often wish you could brush under the rug. 

It was a summer about 5 years ago. Warmers than most. I don't remember the occasion but I remember the empty Angels Envy bottle that I through out the next day. 

I am a go to bed by 10 person with an airtight routine but was up later than normal this night. 

My routine was usually to let the dog out, brush my teeth, use the bathroom and let the dog in and we all go to bed. 

Tonight though I passed out before I let the dog in. 

We have sound proofing since we live so close to the airport so I didn't hear him barking. 

Around 2:00AM I woke up to the sounds of someone in my house yelling my name. 

Super confused, I looked at my phone about 20 texts and calls from my neighbors about the dog barking. 

Lucky one of them had a key and came over to let him in the house. 

They recently moved.

While nothing like that has ever happened again not a day went by where I would run into them in the ally where I dint feel a tinge of absolute shame from that night. 

Shame in front of a neighbor whose dog almost killed mine but that is another story altogether. 

Will To Be a Better Person

 

It is an odd place to be to know that you have to change, know how to change, know you will be better if change but still not make the change.

Health wise I am at a cross roads. I need to lose weight, a lot of weight. I walk bout 5-7 miles a day so it is not like I am missing a lot of physical activity. I eat well for the most part.

But I drink. More than most. If I am honest probably  5-6 drinks a night which usually leads to a snack before bed. The weekends will come with maybe more drinks, dinners, social events. None of it out of control but it is the thing in the way of hitting my goals. Of me being the best me and I know it. 

So much of my calendar is filled with these event it has become a part of identity I am struggling with changing over.

 

But like any act of courage, it just simply starts with change.

For the first time in a long time, I am ready to do that and ready for the consequences.

I have a date with destiny and my will to be a better person on the 26^th

Bed Time

 Somewhere along the lines I quit being a person who can be up past 10:00PM. 

There was no good decisions that happened and stuff isn't really fun if you don't remember it or you waste the whole next day because of it.

I am going to bed. 

Short Term Thinking

 Pissing your pants will keep you warm, for a while.

Keep your eyes pealed

 Keep your eyes pealed was an expression that always puzzled me for some reason. 

That is until I was watching my daughter peal a banana.

Your eyelids are like the skin of the banana. When you peal the banana you remove the barrier to the fruit just like opening your eyelids removes the impediment to your sight. 

The fact that the expression is keep them pealed instead of just keep them open makes me think that at sometime in the past there probably was a pealing of the eyelid maybe as a punishment for a watch guard falling asleep or something. 

That part is just speculation of course. 

Carry on and keep your eyes open for opportunity.

Breakfast

 

Is breakfast just a leftover from an outdated era? I rarely if ever wake up hungry let alone thinking I need to make a full meal before I start the day. I usually don’t feel hungry until around midday so I am good to go in the morning with coffee and piece of fruit.

 I remember my mom forcing me to eat in the morning. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Studies show you will fail out of school if you don’t eat breakfast.

 I started to wonder if Breakfast is like school, something that is outdated from our industrial\farming past where you might have needed a meal right away because you were doing vigorous manual labor the moment you work up until you were done. Where your body might have needed the morning fuel to sustain the activity of the day.

I sometimes find myself doing the same things to my kids….or feeling like a bad dad if I send them off in the morning without a full stomach.

 How weird is that.

 If you are not hungry don’t eat.  Listen to your body. Listen to your kids. 

 

 

Fathers Day

 It is an odd day for me. I am 10 years older than my father and my kids are still three years younger than I was when he died. I find myself starring in the mirror every so often and wonder if I see traces of him in me. I realize through the interactions with my own children what we missed with his absence. 

I think though on many levels I am a better father for it. Time is really the only resource that matters and it taught be to value time. Go to the game and cheer. Shut off the computer.  Don't put that thing off. Don't wait for the trip to happen. Don't wait until next time because it may never come. 

T.I.M.E 

Today is my everything. 

Lucky

I will forever be the luckiest man in the world that I get to be your dad. The two of you changed my life a a way I will never be full able to thank you for. I am grateful for everyday we have together. I love you.
 

Answered this in my sleep last night.

 

"What do you love doing so much that the words failure and success essentially become irrelevant?"

Writing is the thing for me. 

In Memorial

 Winne the Pooh once said, "How Lucky I Am To Have Something That Makes Saying Goodbye So Hard."

We were the luckiest people in the world to find you Bentley Boo because saying Goodbye to you was one of the hardest things we have ever done.

You ruined every family picture from this point forward but elevated every family moment. Thank you for every walk, snuggle, chuck it and kiss. Thank you for watching over our children. Thank you for being the calm gentleness in our lives we often needed.

While we are absolutely devastated that we had to say goodbye we will be forever lucky that you choose us and we have had all these years and that you have touched so many.

Goodbye Bentley Boo we love you

Goodbye Bentley Boo

 

Good bye my friend. 12 years you never left my side. I will never be able to put into words what you meant to our family. 

You radiated love and greeted everyone you ever met like they were the best thing in the world.  

My heart is broken 

Don't Let the Negativity In

  

There is an expression I love, I admittedly don’t always rise to the standard by try to use it to come back to the center  when I go awry.

 “An entire sea of water cant sink a ship unless it gets inside”

It is not an excuse for tough seas, the need for resetting a course, for denying the difficultly and hardship we are feeling in the storm. For me it is a reminder that when show negativity, when I am blaming,  when I show up without being accountable, I am spacing out the boards on our ship and allowing it to take on water. 

 When I show with sleeves rolled up, asking what can I do? How can I help? When I am at the service of team I bring the boards on the ship closer and tighter together.

 It is an  acknowledgement that as collective captains of the ship we are responsible for the integrity of the hull and seeing it to the destination no matter the storm we must steer it through.

 If there is something we can do to better show up for any of our teams please let us know.

 I am starting today asking how can I tighten the hull?

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.

Walking In to the Room

 I learned how not to walk into a room last night. I was invited to retirement party at a local country club for someone I greatly admire,  our outgoing CEO. Room was filled with colleagues, board members, other members of the club. 

It was 80 degrees in Minneapolis and I didn't think much of my attire and plan for the evening. 

Walked in in shorts and a polo to a suit and tie event. 

I have been stared at plenty of times walking into a room and I have never felt uncomfortable or uneasy about it until today. 

I needed that room today. It showed me I have gotten cocky. I wasn't ready. I have more to learn about my game at the next level. 

While I felt awkward at the time. I left feeling hungry for taking myself to the next level. 

I will never walk into room unprepared again. 

Till we meet again.

Before and After

 I cant be the only person that does before and after my morning poop weigh ins? 

Right? 

I was shocked at how little it weighed when I first started keeping track. 

8 Years Later

 I find myself in a place of reflection and wonderment. I think I am happiest when I am writing and transcribing the world. Digging through my old journals brought me back to this place. 

Is anyone still here? 

I have a desire to leave a set of worded bread crumbs for something not yet defined to find.

Here we go again 8 years later....