Very bittersweet day today. It was the end of an ear that’s gone on for the past nine years or so. Each October is Spook O Ree for Cub Scouts. This annual event consists of heading out to Camp Decorah to have fun on giant inflatables, haunted hayrides, and have a great time hanging out as a father and son(s). Today was the last day of Spook O Ree for the Gavin as a Cub Scout.

The boys and I have had many great memories over the years at this event and have started several traditions like going out to eat before we head out to camp. There were so many crazy weather patterns including snow, rain, frost and wind. Regardless, we always had an awesome time together. Knowing that this chapter is now completed leaves me feeling thankful for the experience and a little sad knowing it’s over.

Keeping that in mind, one of the best things about something coming to an end is the new beginning that it results in. Tonight Gavin is out with the Boy Scouts camping. This is the first time he’s camping solo with Boy Scouts without Dad. Similar to the feelings of the end of our Spook O Ree Cub Scout days it’s very bittersweet. Gavin is growing up so fast and then seeing Dominic in a leadership role has me seeing how quickly he’s growing up as well. It’s also pretty cool seeing them together as scouts again.

Seeing Gavin grow from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts has effectively started and I’m very thankful that it will keep going like this for the next four months or so. It will give me a chance to fully grasp the transition and appreciate the growth of the boys. In the meantime I’m so thankful for all the time we’ve already had together at Spook O Rees in the past and all the adventures for us yet to come.

Thanks!!!

Today I’m reminded of the power of clearly defined values. Decisions are just so much easier to make when run through the filter of values. Let’s not get overzealous, it’s still brutal to take difficult action when warranted, but the decision itself is so clear.

Today’s been filled with many wonderful moments including time at Spook O Ree with my bestest buddy Gavin (the term he calls me), fun growth conversations with teammates, and little moments of appreciation like the smell of pine needles on a fire and perfectly cool sleeping weather. There were also difficult moments like having to let go, having some tough conversations, realizing mistakes I made. When I think about almost all of those moments they were shaped by little decisions based on my values.

While I haven’t lived perfectly today there’ve been so many times I’ve caught myself going back to my “values playbook” to help make a decision. In one instance in particular I was reminded of the importance of living a specific value so other eyes watching me were able so see that we live our values even through difficult decisions. In so many times throughout the day I rely on those values to guide me, and today I’m thankful for how they’d made my life easier.

Thanks!!!

In prepping for my week I realized there was a problem headed my way.  Becky was going to be out of town on Tuesday night for work and I had to be out of the house early on Wednesday morning to get to a training for my teams.  This meant I had to be in two places at once…  in the car on my way to Chippewa Falls while simultaneously making sure the boys were getting ready for school.

Fortunately for me the lightbulb went off I and I had a plan!  Taking a cue from Extreme Ownership I remembered the concept of Decentralized Command.  The boys have pretty much been training for getting themselves ready for school for the past year and change.  I walked through the possible scenarios with Gavin and he had the contingency plans down pat.

Instead of micromanaging the boys I only got them up and moving and then let them go from there.  I was a little nervous, but I knew that everything would work out…  and they would both most likely end up at school 😉

Sure enough, everything went smooth!  No issues, no problems to anything.  They proved that they’d learned another way to take care of themselves.  I’m thankful for trusting them to get ready on their own, and really, it didn’t take much trust.  They’d been preparing for it for a while and they followed through exactly as they’d done in the past. It has me realizing that they can do this more often in the future if needed as well.

I’m so glad I had that spark of insight to take a deep breath, trust the boys, and let go.

Thanks!!!

This evening Dominic had a cross country meet and continued to improve.  His Grandma Mary & Grandpa Ken made the drive down for the race and he gave them a wonderful one to watch.  Of all of his races this year it was the one in which he went out of the gates the fastest, held a consistent pace throughout the middle, and finished with his usual blaze of glory.

I’m always so excited to see the boys work hard at something, learn from their experiences, and improve the next time.  This was has been even more special to watch as Dominic is taking in some great running coaching from his mom.  Seeing her help him get better at cross country has had me smiling from ear to ear.  Her relating of past experiences has had a direct positive impact on his performance.

I’ve often said that Becky is my running coach, it’s cool to see that she’s wearing the same hat for Dominic and it’s paying off big time for him.

Thanks!!!

Tonight we had parent teacher conferences for the boys and they were awesome!!!  Each teacher shared how well they are doing in class, but more importantly, they shared how hard they are both working.

In many cases they talked about the additional challenges the boys were taking on when they finished their normal work.  It made me smile seeing that they were trying things outside their comfort zone and not just focusing on having right answers.  As we tell them often, if you’re not doing things that are difficult enough that you don’t get some questions wrong you aren’t pushing yourself enough.  Once you get them wrong you learn from them and then take on something more difficult and repeat.  We are so fortunate to have teachers for both boys who continue to help them push themselves harder like this.

We got to hear more about what types of projects they are doing and what they are learning about in their classes.  We even got to see Gavin’s robot which was pretty awesome and reminded me of the one we made way back in the day when I was in middle school!  There was a sobering dose of reality in one of Dominic’s when we learned that we’re not too far off from registering for high school classes – yikes!!!  When did that many years fly by???

There was als a very cool surprise that may have caused a little awesome to leak out of my eyes.  Gavin shared a project he’d made that was “The Gavin K Kreiling Times.”  One of the articles was titled, “Meet My Hero” and had a cool little paragraph and pic of the two of us.  It totally made my day!

Boys, thank you so much for working as hard as you do in school.  We are so grateful that you’re learning that there are some pretty great experiences in life when we push ourselves beyond our comfort zone.  Please remember to always work hard, push hard, and go beyond your self-imposed limits…  that’s where the awesome lies…  Love you boys!!!

Thanks!!!

This afternoon our Boy Scout troop had a court of honor to celebrate the successes and accomplishments of the scouts.  During the event Dominic was awarded the following merit badges: Astronomy, Fire Safety, Indian Lore, Kayaking, Music, and Swimming.  He also got his Star rank and was told that he’s only about a month away from attain Life Scout.

If I’m remembering correctly, he’s cruising towards Eagle at a rate much faster than I was.  I’m continually impressed and thankful for the strong work ethic he has in completing the homework he has for each of these awards.    Another thing that’s pretty sweet is that Dominic’s really enjoying trying out so many different things as he earns each of his merit badges.

I’m so thankful for Dominic’s progress in Scouts.  He’s busting his butt, having fun as he does, and is making serious headway towards a very big goal, earning Eagle Scout.  Keep up the great work Bud, I’m super proud of you and so glad you’re enjoying the ride while looking towards the destination as well.

Thanks!!!

Last night Gavin was willing to give up a sleepover in order to hang with his old man and brother for the night and watch movies.  We had a great time, but I also kind of felt bad that he didn’t get to hang out with his friends like he could have.  That sparked an idea…

Tonight our house is currently being raided by a handful of kids for a sleepover.  It worked out for a few of the boys’ friends to come hang at our house for the evening.  While I’ve been hanging out in the bedroom or on the treadmill I’ve heard a constant buzz of the boys joking around, talking, and giving each other a hard time.  They’ve gone between video games and Nerf gun battles and been having fun the entire time.  Remembering some of the great lessons learned from the past I made sure we were stocked up on various Doritos, Pringles, and soda to help them power through an evening of fun.

There are many memories of sleepovers at friends’ houses that still rank as some of my favorite childhood memories.  So many evenings of playing games and having fun just hanging out.  We could’ve been playing video games, watching movies, enjoying the current sporting events, rolling dice, playing various board games or even just sitting around trying to decide what to do…  seriously, we used to have a fun pseudo ritual we’d go through when deciding what to do if we were stuck in inaction.  Still cracks me up just thinking about it!

Anyways, it’s nice to think that hopefully the boys will have a great time and maybe make a memory or two that they’ll laugh at for many years to come.  This old dude may have given the sleepover idea a green light for the boys, but it’s been funny just how many times I’ve caught myself smiling at memories as I hear them laughing or giving each other a hard time.  My best friends and I still hang out often, I’m hopeful they do the same with their friends as they continue to get older as well.

Thanks!!!

Becky’s heading to a friend’s house this weekend so it’s just the boys and I at home.  Seeing as she is out of town we figured this would be a great opportunity to watch a slightly thrilling movie that she doesn’t have an interest in watching.  The boys and I have our popcorn fired up and are about to enjoy some quality movie time together on the couch.

What makes it all the more special is that Gavin had the opportunity to do a sleepover at a friend’s house but decided not to so he wouldn’t miss our movie night together.  How cool is that?

Time to cut this off and fire up the movie before the boys get restless 😉

Thanks!!!

A while back a client recommended the book Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. I picked up a copy on Audible and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The authors are Navy SEAL officers who share their leadership concepts through sharing stories of their time in the military. They do an incredible on of helping you see their experiences through their eyes while also showing what they did, both right and wrong, and sharing what they learned. The stakes for them in the heat of the moment are much higher than those in my business, it really set the stage on how important some of these simple to understand ideas are.

After a reminder of the book in a recent presentation and then an email sharing it as the book our leadership team is reading this month I was excited to fire it up again. Over the past couple of days I’ve been listening to it again and I swear I enjoyed it more this time! The first time around many of the concepts made sense, this time I could see a more clear application of them. There were several points when I had to pause the recording and think about what was just discussed, how I’d made mistakes in the past, and how their advice would have been very beneficial. It’s also been helpful to see how a couple of small changes could have a tremendously positive impact.

Thanks Jocko & Leif for an excellent read and for so openly sharing their experiences! It was great to read it again and I’ve already got plans to bring it back to the top my my reading list in the next couple of months.

Thanks!!!