I am excited for 2024! We’ve got some big changes coming…

We plan to move to Bordeaux (France) once Calico finishes the 2nd grade (in late June). We will be sad to leave Viseu. It is a beautiful place full of amazing people and nature. It will be tough for Calico since this is the only home he knows, and all his friends are here. We are ready for a bigger city, and we know more about what we want from a long-term home.

My big 3 for the year?

1. Build a home in Bordeaux. This is a big move with a lot of moving parts.
2. Live a life full of adventure! I am hoping to do another big bike tour this year, but I am waiting to see if that is possible while doing this move. I am planning some smaller long rides in Portugal. I am also planning some weekend camping, biking, and weekend trips for Calico and I. I’d also like to plan a biking trip with my dad, see my brother and his family in July, plan a trip to Ireland with my mom/tony that we keep delaying… but until we get the move done I am not sure if that is feasible in 2024.
3. Keep working to keep my energy, stress levels, and overall health in a good place (some specifics in this post).

Bonjour 2024!

My theme of the year is Let’s go exploring!

You can view the full cartoon here…

Big 3 for the year?

1. Figure out Execution.com! We are trying to find our sea legs :).

2. Private goal.

3. Put together our family vision. Lindsey and I have been working on this for a while and want to get further. Basically a rough sketch of how we want to live, why, and a lot about how we want to parent.

I’ve got some smaller goals too… but mostly around habits, workouts, reading, etc. Anyway, onward to 2019! Nine is my lucky number so hopefully, that bodes well :)

2018 is going to be a pretty cool year :).

I am very lucky in that I have some free time and the resources to play with a variety of ideas on what I want to do next. For the last couple years, I have been thinking about how to help entrepreneurs “entrepreneur” better and also looking at ways to encourage people to start a business. It is a huge and ambiguous area, but one I am really passionate about and I want to see what I can do.

I really love what Vistage and EO offer entrepreneurs in terms of a face to face meetings, and I want to see what I can create online to provide some of those same benefits to the entrepreneur and their business. Plus I want to create some content sites that provide quality instead of the “top 10 ways entrepreneurs put on their pants” bullshit posts. I love INC magazine and the rest of that industry, but a lot of their online articles are utter shit.

Big 3 for the year?

1. Figure out what is next for me. To do that I need to ensure I have enough wide open time to try a bunch of things and see what feels right.

2. I want to help entrepreneurs “entrepreneur”, but I am just not sure how I want to go about that. I’ve got a bunch of ideas and I am going to spend my time exploring & testing those options. By the end of the year, I want to see what is resonating with me and others.

3. I want to spend a ton of time pursuing a new sport… specifically, mountain biking plus bike touring. I need a new sport since I gave up long-distance trail running in 2014 in order to keep my back healthy.

Onward to 2018!

2014 was the toughest year of my life, and while 2015 was MUCH better and WAY more fun… so many of the things that caused stress in 2014 were still there and still had to be dealt with. I had high hopes for 2016 finally giving me a bit more space to find my mojo but that didn’t happen quite the way I wanted.

All in all, 2016 was a bit exhausting. I was working 2 CEO gigs for 85% of the year, one of those gigs was booting up a brand new tech startup which is a challenge, our family bought a house and moved 9+ times while getting it ready to be lived in, Lindsey got pregnant and we had a baby in December :), and I had to deal with a few health scares. There is a lot of good in there, but it was a pretty intense year.

2016 felt a bit like this…

I sat down a month ago and made a big timeline of everything going on in my life from 2014 to 2016 by month. It is pretty crazy how much shit went down over that 3 year period. Even after reading it I feel pretty amazed I am still standing. I am very confident that 2017 will be a bit more relaxed :).

The Amazing
Lindsey and I have been married for two years and it just keeps getting better and better :). I made a great choice and I hope she feels similar. We found out Lindsey was pregnant on April 20th and little Calico was born on December 30th 2016. This is a pretty momentous change to our lives, and we are pretty excited :). I am incredibly excited to be a dad!

In February we moved to Colorado and by March had bought a house in Boulder. Lindsey worked like crazy to get the house ready and by July we were moved in. We are loving our house and it is so nice to have a home/office and be less nomadic for a while. Between February to July we moved 9+ times as we scrambled to find new places whent he house work was delayed.

What other fun stuff did I do this year?
– Lindsey and I went on a 2 week baby moon to Maui Hawaii which was needed. We also spent a few weeks in Key West and Florida visiting friends & family. It was great to finally introduce Lindsey to my grandma, even if we have to do it everytime she wonders who is in the car with her :).
– Lots of amazing hikes in Colorado with Daniel and solo.
– I joined Vistage early in the year, and EO toward the end. Both those communities have been great, and I trying to learn how to better execute on ideas. This is a huge focus of mine for the rest of my life.
– I’ve managed to cement my morning ritual and I hit 380 consecutive days of morning rehab, and 310 days of meditation. I am pretty happy with keeping that up amidst a pretty choppy year.
– I am back to doing workouts 4x a week which feels great! They are light workouts but it feels great to sweat. I am slowly accepting that medical peoples have no clue about my back, and it is up to me to figure out what I can and can’t do.

The Challenges!

Health:
2016 was not a great year in the health department, but it did end on a positive note :). In January I got hit with some liver problems due to some preventative meds they had me taking. I stopped taking them and was back to normal by late March. Then in May they saw some signs inflammation might be back so I switched back to a super strict Paleo AIP diet and I’ve been on that ever since (7+ months). In August I got a colonoscopy and they didn’t see any sign of the disease now or historically so that was great to hear! Halfway through the year I also got some tests on my adrenal glands and the doctor discovered I am pretty zapped and at the end of a long stress cycle (duh!). So they gave me a mountain of hippie pills to help put humpty dumpty back together again :). I am feeling better now from an energy perspective and I am looking forward to getting my mojo back.

Komorebi:
Site5/WWWH was sold in June 2015 and for the 17 months following that I have been working two CEO gigs, one booting up my new startup Pressed, and one at WWWH to oversee the transition to the new owners. That was very stressful/tiring and I do not recommend doing it. Saying goodbye to Site5/WWWH after spending 7+ years building and running it was tough. I hope it finds a good home, as I haven’t been too impressed with what has happened under the new ownership. I was able to line up new homes for 75%+ of the team too which I feel good about. And, I think another 10% to 15% found positions through referrals a few weeks later.

Trump:
Somehow the country elected Trump to be the president of the USA. Trump is someone I wouldn’t hire to manage a McDonalds bathroom, let alone hand a pair of childproof scissors too. God help us all :). I am still working through what this means… it has caused a lot of reflection on what the American dream is for me, and what it is for other people. I am a globalist, I have friends all over the world, I am someone who thinks this country needs a strong social safety net in FDR style, and I am dumbfounded to see the very people who need help in the modern economy vote for someone who is going to screw them over. Hopefully, from the ashes the country emerges stronger (at least we might get a territorial tax system for people/companies finally).

2017
I am really excited about 2017! It is going to be a great year :). You can read my plans/goals here (COMING SOON).

Onward to 2017, ARRRRRGGGGGGG!!!!!!

For 2016 I picked 10 goals, and that was too many (something I learn every year it seems) :). A year is too long too, so I am going to try 3 month periods as that seems better and try to help me connect to the big goals going forward. And, that will let me focus on only one new thing per 3 month period, which some studies seem to indicate helps the habit stick…

So for the first 9 months of the year how did I do?

Major Focuses:

1. Make my new business a success!!!
– I always want to go faster, but I am happy with where we are at. The next 6 months are going to be fun!

2. Do yoga 3x a week.
– I did decent here, although I only did 20 minutes of yoga three times a week and never converted to a hour long practice. With us moving ~9 times since we moved to Colorado I never tried to go to a class. In August I switched it over to Foundation Training as the Chiropractor wants me to avoid twisting my back for now. So I am pushing this into the morning rehab bucket for Q4, and starting to think about starting a new sport.

The Rest:

3. Further build my morning habit of rehab and meditation.
– Doing awesome here, although it has been hard the last couple months to do it all in the morning. I’ve done 198 days straight of meditation, and 268 straight of my morning rehab practice.

4. Read two books with Lindsey on marriage to spur discussion and to improve/learn.
– In progress and should be good!

5. Update: In January the doc told me i need to stop running due to my back. So I am shifting this goal to: Bike 3x a week and see if I can shift over to that.
– With so much moving this one was a total no go. I originally had run 3 to 5 miles, but due to what the doctor said I changed it to biking. I just got a cheap stationary bike setup, so I am hoping to start that. I really want to get back into shape, I miss trail running.

6. Build up to 10 minutes of non stop ball rehab workouts by the end of the year.
– Dropped this one as no room in the places we stayed. And, it was too much to throw in on top of other things.

7. Go mountain biking or sledding at least once a month.
– Totally missed this one.

8. Read 100 books.
– Going slow but going well, looking forward to my vacation so I can read a bunch more. I flew a lot less which hurt this number.

9. Make sure to make time for friends & family in Arkansas & Colorado.
– Did well here.

10. Join Vistage and EO once I am living in Denver.
– I joined vistage in Feb, and EO had some delays due to conflicts with their dates. I just did the new member part, and putting in an application soon.

So, too many :)

Working to plan out Q4 and do a bit of a reset, especially now that some other stresses are winding down.

I am trying to do a better job of connecting the daily and weekly activities I do to the yearly and monthly goals I want to achieve (2016 goals here). I want to make sure I am wisely choosing where my time goes to advance those big goals. This is the first year I’ve done this a bit more actively, and after the first 3 months of the year I def am changing some things.

What have I done so far to do this?

1. At the end of every week I make my plan for the new week, which I keep in a Google Doc. And, I translate it over to the mac app Things, which I use for keeping track of everything work/personal.

2. I am a huge fan of the Streaks app! I use it to mark off when I do my daily morning ritual of rehab and meditation. Plus a general one for once I do my daily goals. This really helped when I found the app last year. Now when I wake up I don’t do anything until I complete those things. Eventually I want to burn in the habit of a morning workout, but that is pushing it a bit too far right now (sometimes I get yoga-lite in that mix).

What have I learned 3 months into 2016?

The big week by week google doc is not super useful, why? It doesn’t connect the big themes of the year in a way I can see the steps toward that goal. I am going to try a spreadsheet with the columns as the big goals, and either a weekly or monthly pace to it.

Something like this (click to enlarge):

I also struck one of the fit goals, it wasn’t something I could do without living in a permanent place. Plus it was just a bit of an overreach, and I am trimming down on the yearly list. It is always hard to know where to draw the line :).

Beyond that I am just excited about Spring/Summer and being able to spend more time outside in the warmth. And, I can’t wait till our new house is ready for us to move into!

Happy new years!!! I am really looking forward to 2016 :)!!! Lindsey and I get back from our year abroad in January, and after a month in Fayetteville we are moving to Boulder or Denver for a year. I’ve lived 3 of the last 4 years abroad, and 2 of those years I was moving to a new place every 1 to 3 months. I am ready to settle down a bit, and have a little more routine (crazy I know!!!).

I like to plan and I wanted to share my 2016 goals. I am trying one new thing this year, I am building out a weekly / monthly plan for how I am achieving these goals. I read a book that suggested this so I am going to give it a shot. In previous years I did this but in a very haphazard way.

For 2016 here are my 10 goals:

Two Major Focuses:
1. Make my new business a success!!!
2. Do yoga 3x a week.

And, eight more:
3. Further build my morning habit of rehab and meditation.
4. Read two books with Lindsey on marriage to spur discussion and to improve/learn.
5. Update: In January the doc told me i need to stop running due to my back. So I am shifting this goal to: Bike 3x a week and see if I can shift over to that.
*Previous goal: Be able to comfortably run 3 to 5 miles soon.
6. Build up to 10 minutes of non stop ball rehab workouts by the end of the year.
7. Go mountain biking or sledding at least once a month.
8. Read 100 books.
9. Make sure to make time for friends & family in Arkansas & Colorado.
10. Join Vistage and EO once I am living in Denver.

2015 In Review…
2014 was a very bipolar year for me… it was the most difficult year of my life, and also one of the best (because of Lindsey). 2015 was very challenging as well. A lot of the chaos and anxiety of 2014 leaked into 2015 and my list of goals was super focused because of this pressure. I accomplished a lot, and a lot changed. I learned a TON in 2015, especially about being married.

So, what happened in my 2015?
Lindsey and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary in December! Lindsey likes to joke that we spent this year 18 inches apart because of the super small apartments we stayed in :). We had some very challenging moments this year, and we learned a lot and are stronger for it. After one year of being married I am amazed by the depth of feeling and reward that it can bring. We also had some tough moments that made us both feel like utter shit, but thankfully they didn’t last very long, and we are trying to get better at resolving them fast and nipping them in the bud.

Joel and I sold the business we started back in October 2008. It was a very difficult decision and occupied a huge swath of my focus from February 2014 to June 2015. I am glad it is over and ready to move on. And, I started a new business along with some great people.

Lindsey and I spent the year abroad since I work remote and she was applying to grad school! We spent 3 months in Nice France, Split Croatia, Nottingham England, and Vienna Austria. It was a great year and I am thankful we got the opportunity. We did some amazing hiking in the woods of France, along the coast, and stumbled upon a lemon festival.

– Sandy (Lindsey’s mom), Lindsey, and me did a road trip through the Austrian & German alps. It was a blast!
– Lindsey and I visited Budapest for a weekend. It was only a few hours away from Vienna via train.
– Lindsey’s dad and stepmom visited us in England and Scotland and we saw a ton of London that I had never seen before. We had a good drive in Scotland too :).
– My dad and stepmom visited us in Nottingham for 3 weeks and we had a blast! We visited Ireland, parts of the UK, and even got tortured.
– I did a 56 mile bike ride from Nottingham to Sherwood Forest! I idolize Robin Hood and even did archery growing up in case he was a career option.
– Lindsey and I spent a week disconnected from the internet up in the Scotland Highlands for my birthday. It was beautiful and much needed after a difficult week telling the team about the sale.
– Lindsey and I visited a bunch of Croatian islands while living in Split. Croatia is tied for my favorite place in the whole world. Check out the pictures and then book a trip. I want to move there.

I walked all of Hadrian’s Wall which has been a long term goal. In 6 days I walked a total of 98.5 miles :). Pictures of Day 1, Day 2, Day 3,Day 4, Day 5, and Day 6.

I fulfilled a trip I’ve wanted to do since college too! Lindsey and I took a trip to the Cathar region of France. The castles there are mind blowing and I had such a good time hiking and crawling around them. It is a super remote area and one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. I hope I get to go back and do more exploring one day.

The world lost an amazing person in 2015, Ying passed away in June. I miss her. She keeps popping into my dreams every so often to say hello.

I am glad it is 2016, and looking forward to another exciting year. I hope you are too!

At some point in 2004 I started building and maintaining a rough version of a 1 year / 5 year plan. That doc served an excuse to dream about what I wanted to do and how I wanted to live. The doc has evolved each year, and it has been a huge help in making sure I stay focused and not wandering off the path (or at least trying not too). Right now I keep 3 docs: a 1 year plan that outlines my goals for the current year, a 5 year plan that outlines the next 5 years and what I want to achieve, and a big doc that outlines how i want to live my life as well as a list of past plans, challenges, and adventures. Each year I get a little better at it.

A 5 year plan shouldn’t be as rigid as train tracks where you are stuck going down them no matter what changes. It should be more like a dirt trail going through the woods. You might be two years down that trail and realize it is time to go another direction and reorient yourself.

I highly recommend that everyone build out a simple doc that outlines your goals for the current year, and for the next 5 years. I think you will find it very useful. Need some help getting started in your plan? Here are some recommended articles and books to help you start!

LifeHacker has a really good post on creating a 5 year plan. The book Your Best Year Yet is a bit cheesy but useful. I’ve worked through it with my wife at different points and the process was great for both of us. It will def make you think :). If you want to shortcut try this blog post as they use a similar process. Check out this post by Jeffrey Baumgartner on building a creative 5 year plan. And, the art of simple has a solid post where they share their process as well.

Living life takes a little planning, else you wake up 10 years later and realize life steamrolled you and you are stuck in your own personal groundhog day.