Thankful for Sharing Dreams, Great Teammates, & The Wave

Thankful for Sharing Dreams, Great Teammates, & The Wave

Day 3,789

Growth:

There is a power in writing down and sharing our dreams and goals. Thinking them is one thing. Writing them down makes them more real. Sharing them with others dramatically increases our odds of reaching them.

How did Becky and I end up going to The Wave last week? She had the dream twenty plus years ago and shared it with me. I wrote it down and started applying every month in the permit lottery until we finally won. Had she never shared that dream I wouldn’t have written it fine and worked towards it. She hatched it when she first dreamt it, but she brought it into being after she shared it.

Appreciation:

During a planning session with other Express franchisees today I shared our path for my teams for the rest of 2026. In doing so I had someone comment on how “different” I sounded compared to past years, and they asked what had changed. This quickly helped me realize just how grateful I am for my teammates. Over the past year and a half they have inspired me in so many ways. It brings me great joy to be able to work with them daily. The right teammates with shared values and purpose make life so much better in so many ways!

Presence:

This moment still blows my mind! I’m putting the video together today I was reminded of how awesome the moment was!

The Wave, AZ

Thanks!!!

Thankful for Endurance, Batching Bore, & a Morning Run

Day 3,788

Growth:

I’m re-reading Endurance and this quote still bends my brain in so many ways…


And so November was drawing to a close. They had been on the ice just a month. And for all the trials and discomforts, these weeks of primitive living had been peculiarly enriching. The men had been forced to develop a degree of self-reliance greater than they had ever imagined possible. After spending four hours sewing an elaborate patch on the seat of his only pair of trousers, Macklin wrote one day, “What an ingrate I have been for such jobs when done for me at home.” Greenstreet felt much the same way after he had devoted several days to scraping and curing a piece of sealskin to resole his boots. He paused in the midst of his task to write in his diary: “One of the finest days we have had… a pleasure to be alive.”

In some ways they had come to know themselves better in this lonely world of ice and emptiness, they had achieved at least a limited kind of contentment. They had been tested and found not wanting.

Alfred Lansing, Endurance

Appreciation:

We all have tasks that have to be done for work and life that we are not big fans of. These are the things that drain us of energy, typically aren’t strengths of ours, and are voted “Most Likely to Happen Last.”

This afternoon I bundled up about a dozen of those types of tasks, beared down, and hammered away until they were all completed. Not the most exciting hours of my day, not the most energizing moments, but much needed productive ones for sure. Here’s to knocking them out all at once.

Presence:

Getting our first run in since a vacation was invigorating this morning! Sooooo much warmer than the runs before we left, I appreciated not having to bundle up while taking in the fresh air!

Thanks!!!

Thankful for Acceptance, My Adventure Partner, a Busy Day with a Chaser of Yoga

Day 3,787

Growth:

This insightful quote on acceptance was included in The Book of Joy and caught my attention this time around:

.. deeds are done which appear so evil to us and people suffer such terrible evils that it does not seem as though any good will ever come of them; and we consider this, sorrowing and grieving over it so that we cannot find peace in the blessed contemplation of God as we should do; and this is why: our reasoning powers are so blind now, so humble and so simple, that we cannot know the high, marvelous wisdom, the might and the goodness of the Holy Trinity. And this is what he means where he says, “You shall see for yourself that all manner of things shall be well,” as if he said, Pay attention to this now, faithfully and confidently, and at the end of time you will truly see it in the fullness of joy.  ⁃ Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love

Appreciation:

So much to be grateful for today, but I what I am most grateful for is a life partner who has a passion for experiencing the outdoors in all its splendor, who is always up for an epic hiking experience, who finds joy nature, and who experiences a profound sense of awe and reverence for all things in the natural world. I couldn’t have found someone who fits my shared passions so well! So thankful our paths crossed so many years ago and who is so willing to join me on trails around the world!

Presence:

Holy buckets, today was a nonstop thrill ride of fun and excitement at work! For reals, it was one continuous stretch of high energy activity from start to finish. After leaving work late I had to cruise home quickly in order to get to our Monday Yoga Date Night, the perfect chaser to the crazy busy day. The chill kicked in so quickly and was a wonderful counter balance to my day!

Thanks!!!

Thankful for an Excellent Start and Dinner with a Friend

Thankful for an Excellent Start and Dinner with a Friend

Day 3,783 – another short one, I’m zonked and we’ve got an early morning start to the day tomorrow.

Always awesome catching up with a friend you haven’t seen in a while! We were able to do just that this evening with our tour guide from our Grand Canyon backpacking trip.

Our first day of hiking was stunning! The colors, the landscapes, and, of course, the sun and warmth were amazing! And this was just the appetizer, bring on tomorrow!!!

Thanks!!!

Thankful for a Long Day and a Cover to Cover Reading of Fight Club

Day 3,782

Long day, short blog! More to follow tomorrow for sure, but it’s time for this guy to get some sleep.

I made excellent use of the travel time today and read Fight Club cover to cover. One of those books that somehow gets better with every reading!

Here’s one of the quotes I copied down to save:


One minute was enough, Tyler said, a person had to work hard for it, but a minute of perfection was worth the effort. A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection.

Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

Thanks!!!

Thankful for Memory Vessels and Days Prepping for Time Off

Day 3,781

When Gavin and I started driving back from our backpacking trip in Canada we fired up an audiobook and then proceeded to complete the series throughout our college visits later in the summer. When I think of that book series one of my first thoughts goes back to the stretch we drove as we left Kootenay National Park and Radium Springs, driving the campervan across a majestic landscape. Funny how certain memories can attach themselves via various vessels like books and music!

Today saw me pulling out of the garage a few minutes after 6am and pulled back in a few minutes before 6pm. It was a nonstop day, a lot of work backed into a long day, but well worth the time to be able to wrap up everything before getting a little time away! Crazy how quickly days can fly by before time off!

Thanks!!!

Thankful for New Perspectives, Friends Who Push Us, & a Moon Lit Run

Day 3,780

Growth:

Reading and re-reading books, amazing at how everything strikes just a little different each new read. As I’ve written before, I love the phrase, no one steps in the same river twice, the river is constantly changing, as are we. Re-reading The Book of Joy has already caught me slightly differently than in the past. In the past thirteen months I’ve read a handful of books which have helped to shift my perspective a bit – including The Choice, Man’s Search for Meaning, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, and Endurance. As I read The Book of Joy this time through I keep finding myself drawn in more and more deeply.

Appreciation:

There are some people who will push us outside of our comfort zone, they push us past the edge of where we think we can go, and help us grow. Whether it is something like coaching us through a difficult professional challenge or helping us look at the world through a slightly different perspective or as simple as helping us stretch a little further in a yoga pose, the friends that are willing to push us to better than we were are the friends we should surround ourselves with.

Presence:

After a week of frigid weather we got our first run in with the three of us together in over a week! Having Becky with Leia and I made the pack feel complete, what a perfect way to kick off the week! Regardless of how the rest of the day would pan out we started with a cool run under the full-ish moon and on fresh snow – can’t go wrong with a start like that!

Thanks!!!