Things I’ve Learned

All your kids want is time with you.

Sometimes all the big plans you make are fun, but more than you really need. If all your kids want is time with you think to yourself, “what is the simplest way to get that time together while teaching life skill they can learn from me that will prepare them for their future?” (Bonus points for helping them realize they can always come to you for help first. Then they’ll still come to you when they’re older and feeling more independent and you are wishing they’d talk to you more.)

Things I’ve Done

Trick or treating in the neighborhood with the kids. Catherine met up with two of her friends from school and they walked with us too. That was a fun new experience for us. The kids are growing older and coming up with more ideas of things to do on their own. It is awesome to see!

Books I’m Reading

Atomic Habits

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Favorite Videos

The best 4 minute video I’ve probably ever seen. The Cost of Comfort. Go watch it now. You can come back here after. We need to get out of our comfort zone and do hard things.

No only should we do hard things, we can do big things. Like starting a car company in an old car factory. No one needs to give you permission. Just find some people that want to do it do, and go do it!

With all this talk about hard things, sometimes a good short joke is all you need. How about one about politicians, by a politician?

Hard and big things need to be done despite all the opposition. No matter how good your idea, there will be people out there saying it can’t or shouldn’t be done. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t listen to any of the feedback you receive when you announce your big thing… like with the Neo home robot that 1X announced this week. Lot’s of promise, and lots of dangerous consequences to think about. Check out MKBHD’s video on the Neo to get a great take on their announcement and what is coming next.

Things I’ve Built

The web app I mentioned last week is on hold. I learned a lot from building what I did, but polishing it a bit more to make it ready to make public will take a bit more work than I have right now.

Why don’t I have the time? Building that the app was just practice for a ‘real’ thing I’m working on, and my time is going to that instead. It won’t be public for a while, but as soon as it is, I’ll be sure to announce it here (and everywhere). For some thoughts about why I’m not “building in public” check out my latest video about giving seeds time to grow before exposing them to the harsh world.
(NOTE: I’ll update here as soon as it finishing uploading and it is actually available. How about you subscribe to my channel to get an alert when it is up?)

You might have noticed a theme in my favorite videos section. If you want to hear my thoughts about doing hard things check out my video from Wednesday about choosing to do hard things now to make things easier later.

And if you want to make hard things easier (as I talk about in that video) consider what it takes to build habits, and program your mind to do things automatically by building habits with help from my video from Monday.

It has been a blast sharing my experiences and what I’ve learned in these videos each week. I hope you get something out of them that is worth sharing with the people in your lives you think need it most.

Places I’ve Gone

Trick our treating around the block. This week was a good ‘stay at home’ week. Lots of recharging and rest.

At least in the second half of the week. On Tuesday my wife and I learned that something as simple as going out to the store can be an exhausting endeavor when all the kids want is to stay at home and spend time with dad. Lesson learned.

People I’ve Met

One of my daughter’s friend’s parents walked with us to when we were trick or treating. It was a lot of fun getting to know them. Your community is full of great people that are worth getting to know. Get out there and talk to them. I promise you it is worth it, no matter how introverted you think you are. I always thought I couldn’t talk to people, but as I’ve worked to get out of my bubble it has been worth it!