AuthorJosh Nicholls

I teach and invite people to act. Proud husband, father and amateur pizzaiolo

2023 Year in Review

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The year of 2023 was my year to focus on living a healthy life. At the beginning of 2023 I decided a healthy life consisted of several buckets. Alongside each bucket, I documented my intention. Below you will find my buckets, intentions, and learnings/reflections.

Not documented in my post last year were the measurements that I was using to track my progress on these buckets. About halfway through the year I stopped tracking my progress. This happened for two reasons.

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Pause to Focus

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If you have read any of my posts over the last few months then you’ll know I’ve been focusing my efforts and energy on four things: marriage, memories (with my family), health and home. This has proven to be a valuable activity and has been the catalyst for deeper reflection. This reflection has led to some changes I am making with my writing practice.

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Squeaks Come Before the Music

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This year my oldest daughter is in 6th grade and if you have had a sixth grader before you know students in sixth grade have the opportunity to experiment with band or orchestra.

We talked it through with my daughter and she thought the violin would be a fun instrument. For the first two weeks of school, they learned about the instrument and plucked at the strings. This week she came home and with some excitement shared she got to try out the bow for the first time on the violin. She laughed saying that she’s learned how to squeak on the violin but eventually she will be able to make music.

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What is Your Source of Validation?

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Everyone on earth has a need for validation. And by validation, I mean a need to “check” the accuracy or validity of who you believe you are as a human being on this earth. As I have gotten older and been exposed to more adult challenges, I have learned we all have a need to be validated.

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It’s Urgent, Slow Down

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Earlier this month I had a conversation with Simon Lamb who is a dear friend of mine and brilliant thinker. He pushes me to do better and be better.

We were both discussing our need to focus on family and other things beyond our work. We talked in the context of the famous 2×2 matrix of urgent and important made popular by Steven Covey and we realized that today, that matrix doesn’t serve us as well. The pace of change and the speed at which we are demanded to get things done is dramatically different than it was in the 80’s. There are more things that are urgent and important so that quadrant is being filled with fewer and fewer urgent and not important items.

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Shared Leadership

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Recently I went rappelling with a large group and I observed some interesting archetypes of leadership. Specifically, what it looks like to share leadership. 

Our repelling expedition, if you can call it that, consisted of a group of 25 people. Most of which were novices or had never been rappelling before. I am in the novice group. As we spent time together it was fascinating to witness clear leadership roles come out.

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Increasing Confidence

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I’ve been thinking about confidence and how one can build confidence. There is a lot to learn in this space and I found something that feels durable and has given me a practical way to think about building my own confidence.

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About Me

Josh Nicholls

I teach and invite people to act. Proud husband, father and amateur pizzaiolo

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