Our friends Jeremy and Katie had a very awesome idea…  Starting a rotation of dinners together with our group of friends at their houses.  Each time the hosts cook a favorite meal from back when they were a kid.  Think about it…  If you were going to cook one of your favorite childhood meals for your friends, what would it be?  Talk about a fun walk down memory lane!

Tonight we had pork chops with stuffing and gravy on top, baked potato, and an assortment of Little Debbie treats for dessert.  As we ate the conversation was fantastic.  I learned things about the childhood of friends I’d never known before and it was great sharing some personal memories.  I’m continually amazed at how similar some of our experiences were growing up.

Fantastic food, great conversation, and wonderful friends…  What else could I ask for this evening?  I’m so thankful for this time together to just hang out and get to know each other better (while eating some tasty food!).

Thanks!!!

Yup, today was another day in which there were a handful of things I am thankful for.

First off I’m pretty sure it’s the lead measure of working with great teammates when you catch yourself missing the ones you’re not spending time with throughout the day.  It was pretty wild, throughout the day I caught myself thoroughly enjoying the time with the teammates I was with while at the same time wishing all of my teammates from other offices were in the same office with us.  We’ve got a really special group of people and I love them tremendously!

With the additional driving I’ve been doing lately I’ve been able to read many books (thank you Audible.com!).  Up until this week almost all of them have had a business focus to them.  Today I fired up one of my all time favorite fictions, Good Omens.  Just like when I read it the first time I caught myself literally LOL-ing!

One of the books I read recently had a wonderful concept called “Habit Stacking.”  This is when you take something that you already do or enjoy doing and use it as a way to encourage another habit.  The concept is essentially “if I do this, then I can do that.”

The habits I’ve started stacking are running on the treadmill and watching the new mini-series of the aforementioned book, Good Omens.  Long story short, I really wanted to watch the first episode tonight and one way or another I was planning on doing it.  Instead of sitting on the couch to watch it like I would have defaulted to I opted to only watch it while I was on the treadmill.  It worked like a charm and I got a great run in AND enjoyed watching my show!  That felt way better than just one or the other.

Thanks!!!

As I walked into the office this morning the scent of fresh blooming lilacs stopped me dead in my tracks. I paused, took a step backwards, and then drew in a nice long breath through my nose. What a wonderful smell!

Later in the day I walked past them again and went through the same routine. On the way back in I did it again and then a lightbulb went off in my head. Taking a lesson from my friend Jenn I grabbed a pair of scissors and made a small bouquet to put in my office. Within no time my office had that wonderful smell of spring permeating through it. I could feel my shoulders relax as the scent filled my nose.

Ahh…

Thanks!!!

Sometimes The Big Dude Upstairs leaves all the help we need all around us, right? Today I was driving to work, listening to an audiobook (We Carry Kevan: Six Friends. Three Countries. No Wheelchair.) when out of nowhere a memory of a very useful piece of advice. As I thought through the memory a smile crossed my face as it was exactly what I needed to hear and ponder at that time.

Steve Jobs commencement speech at Stanford is the stuff of legends. There are so many wonderful nuggets of life advice that are easy to remember and apply to my own life. One of them in particular really hit home today. I listened, took action, and was full of joy. It doesn’t get much better than that!

https://news.stanford.edu/2005/06/14/jobs-061505/

Thanks!!!

A little while ago I sat down to start writing my blog when I heard the boys holler for me to join them in the basement.  I wasn’t sure what they had in mind, but Becky’s mom-senses were tingling and she warned me that they might be setting up a Nerf gun ambush.  As is typically the case, she was 100% right.

When I got to the bottom of the stairs there was a line of automatic fire of approximately a dozen Nerf darts flying right past my face.  Within a second there was loud giggling, the sound of a clip being changed quickly, and another barrage of darts flew right at me.  What I wasn’t quite ready for was the approximately 12 pre-loaded clips of 10-12 rubber tipped bullets they had ready for me.  While I can’t get into the full details let’s just say there was an epic, albeit short lived, Nerf gun battle that rocked our house.  By the time the dust settled there was a pile of Nerf bullets, remnants of quickly assembled weapons including brooms and dustpans, and a whole lot of laughter.  Nothing quite like an impromptu Nerf battle to keep us enjoying time together!

What I had initially started to blog about was a concept that Becky’s PhD advisor, Martin, shared over dinner this evening.  In talking about work, people, and communication styles he mentioned the Disney process of going from concept to reality.  It was pretty wild, as he shared the process I was able to quickly recollect several specific moments and projects that either failed or worked in accordance with that model.  The more Martin shared about the process the more the gears in my brain got turning about how to use this mindset in the work environment.  After dinner I pulled up an article about this process and was amazed at it’s simplicity and possibilities.  If you’d like the short version of what Martin shared this website covers it in about a 3-4 page document: https://www.designorate.com/disneys-creative-strategy/  Ever since dinner my mind has been racing on this strategy in how to use and share it with my teams.  How awesome to have dinner conversation that has the ability to have such a positive impact on several aspects of life!  

Thanks!!!

Every summer Nick and I would spend a couple of weeks in the Milwaukee area with family. One week was with my mom’s side of our family and the other was with aunts and uncles from Dad’s side. This was always one of the highlights of our summer (& as an adult I now realize it was probably the same for my parents!). During those two weeks we would usually see an average of two Brewers games with various aunts and uncles.

It’s funny, but even 30+ years later I still remember thinking Uncle Frank personally knew Ben Oglivie by the way he hollered to him while asking for a ball for Nick and I. I remember being shocked to be able to go out on the field to have my picture taken with real life Brewers like BJ Surhoff and Billy Spires at a game with Aunt Nadia and Uncle Mike. And how could Nick and I ever forget the late night rain delayed game with Uncle Buster and Uncle Kevin??? Amongst all of those I also have so many wonderful memories of games with so many other sets of aunts and uncles as well. Each of those memories put a smile of my face when I think of them.

I am so thankful for all those memories and moments that were created by our relatives at the games. It’s kind of funny when I look back at those games… I can’t remember if the. Resets ever won or lost, but I can still remember things like the smile on Uncle Kevin’s face when he told me I should eat the jalapeños on my nachos so I would grow hair on my chest! Thank you to all of my aunts and uncles who ever took me to a game, I appreciate all the memories you created and the time you spent with me.

Thanks!!!

LOL – how’s that for a jumble this evening?  To be honest I kept going back and forth on shortening it down a bit, but who am I kidding?  There are just some days that require several different topics to accurately capture the day.  Today is one of them.

Yoga early in the morning takes a little while to feel right, but after I get loosened up and focused in the first fifteen minutes I can totally get into the yoga goodness.  Starting off the morning with that sense of calm and a great workout is magic.  Throw in a cup of coffee and I felt like a million bucks before I even got to work.

After getting to work my day kept getting better and better.  Over the past week all of my teams have really stepped it up.  They’ve done an incredible job of living our values while busting their butts to help many people find new work.  Taking a moment to pause and reflect on all that they’ve done over the past week has left me filled with joy, pride, and excitement.  They’re making great things happen and I can’t wait to get back to work with them all next week!

With the plans we have for the weekend Becky and I opted to head out to the grocery store tonight instead of later in the weekend.  It brought back memories to when the boys were much younger and Becky and I would have our “date nights” that consisted of taking the boys to Festival Foods, dropping them off in the in-store daycare, and enjoying 45 minutes of quiet while shopping.  It was one of the only short periods of time in the week when we knew we’d have some time to the two of us.  Fast forward to today and we re-lived those memories by leaving the boys at home while we shopped together.  I know it sounds crazy, but I really enjoyed shopping with Becky tonight!

Time to chill on the couch and wrap up the night relaxing with the family!

Thanks!!!