Week 11-12 Review

Week 11-12 Review

Rolling 2 weeks into a single review, due to travel mostly. Really about half-way through the reset window. My observations this far:

1. I continue to firmly believe on the need to clear the mental deck after a prolonged period of work. For me, and I suppose many others, work never turns off. The mental side of it continues into the night and in the morning. It is forward planning, thinking about gaps to targets, what ought to be done vs. what can be done, and so forth. This mental focus creates a sort of a build up, like plaque, that I find is healthy to remove after some time. Probably could be done with extended vacations but in my case it was better to step away. Principally for #2 observation below.

2. My son Grayson is doing better, as a direct result of him being home with us. Jennifer and I have been supportive and pouring into him. Had I been travelling, it would have been too much for her. She has a ton going on with local real estate, coaching, her parents, Belize real estate, grandkids, and so my flexibility here has made the difference. Grayson -- just today -- has an appointment to have some small face tattoos removed. He met with an Army recruiter last week and I am so very hopeful he joins. He would thrive under the structure and getting away from this area. Not every day is perfect, but he is maturing and taking steps for himself.

3. Consistency is the key. In my early sales days, I listened to Hal Elrod podcasts, wherein he was found of saying top performers don't like doing the hard things any better than average performers, but they do it anyway. It is the same sort of thing Jocko Willink says in his podcasts -- discipline equals freedom. Have the discipline now in order to enjoy the freedom of a better life. If you can't discipline yourself, then life will do it for you (or to you) in a way you don't like. So, any progress on my goals is directly proportional to the consistency at which I apply myself daily.

4. In talking with my former colleagues, it seems they are in the land time forgot -- everything seems pretty much the same with no change, although a ton of time has passed from my perspective. Everyone seems to be staying in their lanes doing their thing. I find it fascinating in that it seems (to me) there are two streams w/ very different flow rates.

Physical Benchmarks

Stronger, faster. My lifts are up and my running 5k time is down. I will be finding an August race to hold self accountable for a time there. Running on the road has been easier than trail running and its feels pretty good, still sucking at the end though! But feels good to be done.

Spiritual

The Lord has been faithful to me when I have been distracted toward Him. They say the enemy of great is good, and I can see why many Christians are not as on fire for the Lord -- not because they are struggling with some shame -- but they are happily distracted with well-intended things. The Lord has been good to our family and any progress with Grayson I give Him the credit. I continue to pray for our friends and family that Jesus would have pre-eminence in their lives, as I would for mine. Have worked through Paul's letters of Galatians and Ephesians using Warren Wiersbe commentary, while reading Philippians w/ Jacob at night.

Family

Great couple of weeks with the fam. Got to play ball with Luke & Mil:

At the Y

Went to my nephew Tom's wedding in Clayton GA where I saw a lot of family I hadn't seen in a while. Brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, cousins.

All 1st cousins -- with several missing

Tom and Kacie

Went to the DMV with Jacob for Learner Permit, which -- for what its worth -- the Greensboro DMV on East Market were tremendous. They were so encouraging and positive, we sent them pizza the following day to thank them!

Cramming at the DMV

Spending time w/ family and friends at the Moose. Garth sings about friends in low places --- give me a chill meal at the Moose with friends than any dinner requiring coat and tie with upscale cuisine. I remain unimpressed with expensive wines and $100 steaks, but definitely digress. If people are into that, God bless them -- just not my thing.

Memorial at the Moose

Mental

I can't say the past 2 weeks have been really great for learning new things. Just not has not been that sort of vibe.

Geeking

We completed our 4th installment of the Shattered Circle campaign. Added background music and sound effects to the FGU platform. So, this is going well. A lot of learning actually on this -- had to install some sound editing program to manipulate .wav and .mp3 files and to get into right settings. Audacity is a free program that does just that.

We signed up for a packed schedule at Gen Con (www.gencon.com), so Justin, Jacob and I will be doing that at the end of July. Also got in a session of Dungeon Crawl Classics on the FGU servers.

My friend Steve Gosney has written some books while doing his public defending gig down in Florida, so picked up one of his books at Amazon. Love his heart ... very authentic dude. Glad to see he is doing well.

Richard Rhodes 'The Making of the Atomic Bomb' is simply an amazing read. Highly recommend. Re-reading that through.

We had some wins in trivia and accumulated some more $ toward the $500 goal. I have not added it up, but we are on track to hit this.

AV