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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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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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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Seth Godin has attributed his success to the fact that he has failed more than anyone he knows. If you don’t know Seth Godin, he has been writing daily on his blog since 2002 and is one of the leading thinkers of our time.
When I heard him share this idea in a podcast I listened to, it made me think of something that wasn’t immediately obvious to me.
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Last week I was asked a fascinating question by an experienced facilitator that taught me something new about learning. I was describing a process and methodology we would follow for an exercise and then afterwards he pulled me aside to build on the structure with a question.
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It is only appropriate that I report back on my becoming list for 2022 and then share the new list of what I would like to become.
Rather than goals I want to strive to become something. My actions are a reflection of who I am and who I am becoming.
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Years ago, Mark Zuckerberg took the world by storm with Facebook and the internal motto of “move fast and break things”. The motto was shortened in the industry to “fail fast”.
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Take a moment to think about something that you use many times a week. Why do you use that thing? What value is it providing to you?
One of these things for me is Microsoft OneNote. I use it as a place to capture all of my thoughts, study, and notes. It synchronizes to the cloud, is free, available on all my devices and even allows me to draw my ideas and concepts with a pen. I do not have to pay for storage (like some services) and it is effectively my second brain. If I want to make sure something does not get lost, then I will jot it down in OneNote.
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The leadership flywheel I wrote about recently also can also be converted into a cycle of learning.
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A while back I took my son out camping in the mountains. At the time he was about 5 years old, and we were both excited to have some one on one time. We brought the fixings for s’mores and picked up some firewood on the way in so we could have a proper campfire and treat after dinner.
As a youth I grew up in the scouting program and earned the Eagle Scout award so camping and fire building is not a foreign task. The wood was large logs, but we did not have any kindling. My son and I explored the campsite and surrounding area for twigs, sticks, and anything that we could use to start our fire.
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I teach and invite people to act. Proud husband, father and amateur pizzaiolo