Crazy Christmastime

The great Lorne Michaels is often quoted as saying this about being ready to put on a new episode of Saturday Night Live:  “The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready, it goes on because it’s 11:30 on Saturday Night.”  Well, it’s almost 8:30am on Sunday (my self-appointed time to publish the weekly essay), and I am far from ready to share much in the way of coherent thought on any specific topic.  So, the essay portion of this week’s post will be short, but I’ve still curated some food and music ideas for you.

I think it is safe to say that my year is going out with a bang.  This week our offspring returned to their suites at Hotel Bell, my work was fully engaging, and I attended a personal development program that spanned Friday evening and both mornings of the weekend.  A couple of “yes”es to holiday invitations and voila - every waking moment of the week was fully allocated.  Hitting the snooze bar this morning meant that I would have very little time to crank out this newsletter.

Falling short of our own expectations is inevitable, and understandable from time to time.  When this happens, all we can do is regroup and move forward.  Perhaps I will have something more thoughtful and focused to share this time next week.

Sunday Supper
Lori made this Vegetable Korma yesterday, and was super-satisfying.  And these Chicken Enchiladas will feed a crowd - but can only fall short of the standard our friends set each year.  Having grown up in Arizona, they “know a guy” who ships them hatch chiles, which they roast and put in their freezer, using them to serve the best enchiladas I have ever had.  (And I can say this definitively, because I had the good fortune of enjoying them again last night.). Both recipes will help you feed a crowd as family trickles in over the next week.

Sunday Music
Today is a musical choose-your-own-adventure.  On one end of the spectrum you can enjoy the stripped-down sound of Billie Eilish at NPR’s Tiny Desk, or this recent stadium-pop set from Coldplay.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

A Good Question

As I look at my calendar from now through the holidays, I find myself thinking back to the weeks leading up to our wedding, nearly 28 years ago.  Any time that I felt stress creeping in to our conversations, I would pose the question: “What would we do if it were our wedding?”

This gentle reminder that we were in charge framed things in a way that was much less stressful.  Our wedding was wonderful - exactly what we wanted it to be.  This holiday season can be too - if we remember who is in charge.

These next few weeks will offer ample opportunities to overdo things - too much socializing, too little sleep, too much consumption.  Sometimes it is fine to stretch and do more than normal to spend time with friends and loved ones.  But make sure it is a choice, and that your choices add up to experiences that you really want to have.

And here is the big reveal - this little trick works for lots of things:

What would you do if it were your job?
What would you do if you were the boss?
What would do if it were your company?
What would you do if it were your life?

We probably shouldn’t navigate life solely from the perspective of our own selfish interests.  But I’m getting reconnected with the question “What do I want?”  It’s a good question - one that doesn’t always point us toward the path of ease and comfort.

It’s OK to stretch yourself.  It’s OK to overcommit.  Just make sure its a conscious choice, and that you know why you are doing so.

I wish you a holiday season that makes sense for you.

(Note:  I recently discovered that I neglected to send last week's essay to those of you who subscribe to it via email.  So today you get a 2-for-1 special at no extra charge!)

Sunday Supper
I didn’t have the energy for the Candlelight Walking Tour yesterday.  Instead I made a big pot of this Birria Beef that we’re going to throw on tortillas or salad for the next few days.  I’m drawn to this Brussels Sprouts Salad w/ Pomegranate and Pistachios.  Topping it with the Birria will mix Latin and Mediterranean cuisines, but I think it should work.  (This is what I would do if it were my lunch today…)

Sunday Music
This chill performance in a forest outside of London by Yuuf is a nice listen on a relaxing Sunday.  And this recent performance by Morcheeba at St. Moritz is a great vibe as well.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Hard Thought

I saw this quote from James Clear recently, and it resonated with me:

“We need to define “hard work” to include “hard thinking.”  The person who outsmarts you is outworking you.  The person who finds shortcuts is outworking you.  The person who has a better strategy is outworking you.  Usually, the hardest work is thinking of a better way to do it.”

A robust work ethic is great to have - and is table stakes for most career situations.  But do not overlook the value of deep thinking to set yourself and your organization apart.  Since it is mostly revealed well after the fact, quality thinking is undervalued.  Some time before Jeff Bezos bought the cheapest office space he could find, and placed a door across a couple of saw horses to use as his desk, he had achieved sufficient strategic clarity to know that dominating the world of online bookselling would open vast, blue oceans for his startup to scale into rapidly.  It was only after this strategic insight that his aggressive work ethic mattered very much.

The first lawn care service that discovered how to access and use satellite photos of real estate earned a leg up over the competition - this allowed them to generate instant price quotesfor their services, while everyone else still required a personal visit to each property before generating their competitive bid.

The founders of Uber and Lyft were the first to connect the dots that the addition of GPS services to the millions of smartphones around the world would create the conditions in which a decentralized network of private car owners could utterly disrupt the market for taxi services.

You get the point - insights large and small can create a competitive advantage.  That’s why it is so important for leadership to step away from their organizations a few times each year, to examine their base-level assumptions and open themselves up to the possibility that there are better ways of doing things.  Essentially, advantages gained from stepping away and thinking deeply are proof that you care just a little bit more about who you serve and how you serve them.

The same opportunity exists for how we manage ourselves and our households, if only we take the time to think about it.  Good ideas often sneak up on us.  Conjuring them is not as easy as picking up a shovel and digging a ditch.  You’ve got to pose the right questions to yourself, and if nothing immediately arises in response to it, you can be sure that some portion of your subconscious brain will continue to work on the problem, delivering an answer in the not-too-distant future.

So don’t just work hard.  Take breaks, get away and think.  Ponder good questions.  Create more surface area for inspiration to arise.  When the answers bubble up, they may crack open whole new areas for you to explore and then apply that strong work ethic that the world more easily sees and values.

Sunday Supper
If you didn’t try out that Kings Ranch Casserole last weekend, you’re missing out.  I made it last Sunday, and it was delicious.  With the temperatures continuing to drop and the Superbowl of Cooking (Thanksgiving) behind us, now would be a good time to make this simple but satisfying Tomato Rice With Crispy Cheddar from Priya Krishna.  (I sometimes substitute a can or two of Rotel for the diced tomatoes to save myself some food prep.).  I think I’m going to make this Lemony White Bean Soup with Turkey & Greens today to use up the last of our bird. Rather than make a salad, perhaps roast a pan of sturdier vegetables today.

Sunday Music
I love April Varner’s voice.  Here is is her 2023 submission to the Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Vocal Competition.  And here is John Batiste playing some Christmas music on the piano.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

School Of Pain

I just wrapped up an intense, but very positive week of full engagement.  The gratitude that I feel is perfect for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. 

This time last year, I knew that I would be embarking on the EOS journey, but I didn’t know exactly what it would entail.  Now I know - and am pleased to report that I am very much on the right path that I was envisioning.  It feels good to type those words.  It’s been a lot of work to gain this certainty, and more work still to fully realize my potential as a coach/facilitator/teacher to entrepreneurs and their leadership teams.  But I’m off to a good start, and know that I can be very good at this work I’m pursuing.

It’s from this position of earned certainty that I’ve been reflecting on some of the lower points in my life.  The meta lesson from all of life’s adverse events (random or self-inflicted): Lessons learned from adversity really stick around. 

This stems from our evolutionary heritage. We're simultaneously equipped with a powerful drive to avoid anything that might lead to failure (survival instinct) and an equally powerful capacity to learn deeply from our mistakes (adaptation). This is why failure feels so terrible in the moment - it's supposed to. But it also explains why those lessons stick with us so permanently. We're literally wired to learn most deeply from our most painful experiences.

That’s quite a paradox - we do everything we can to avoid the embarrassment and costs of failure, but when it occurs (and it will occur to all of us) there is a massive learning opportunity.  

Switching as quickly as possible from self-pity or grief to curiosity is a tall order - but I encourage you to make this transition as fast as you can.  There is nothing to be gained by wallowing around in negative self-talk, wish-casting, woulda-coulda-shouldaing.

When things absolutely fall to shit, asking ourselves why this happened, and how we will choose to move forward is absolutely critical.  I nibbled around this in my post Bounce Back at the beginning of the year, but I’m feeling it again today, with a different kind of clarity.  How often have you felt “Man, I wish I had done X sooner…”. I’ve felt this too.  But I’m also mindful of moving forward too quickly, without soaking up all the lessons from my missteps. 

As a parent I sometimes worry that I didn’t expose our children to enough adversity.  Building that bounce-back muscle is really important.  Heaven knows the universe is going to test us all.  No matter how well-prepared we may be, it has a knack for throwing us unanticipated curveballs.  By definition, if we had anticipated something, it wouldn’t be able to deliver as powerful a lesson.

There’s a silver lining in all the unwanted circumstances in life.  We’d never seek them out, but they end up shaping us into more powerful versions of ourselves.  Maybe they reveal us, stripping back the artifice.

When pain wants to teach you a lesson, make sure to take good notes.

But this week is all about gratitude.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Sunday Supper
As family rolls in, lean on recipes that are both simple and can feed a crowd.  This King Ranch Casserole fits the bill, as does this Polish Hunter’s Stew.  For something less meaty, this Korean Soft Tofu Stew looks hearty and soothing.

Sunday Music
This Sunday I offer this tribute to the late, great Quincy Jones who left us recently.  Enjoy!  (FYI - for some reason the audio doesn’t kick in until about one minute into the video.)

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Architects & Contractors

A week and a half ago I had the privilege of seeing Jason Henkel speak.  Jason is Founder and Chief Balance Engineer of Focus To Evolve, a company dedicated to illuminating a path to meaningful output and piercing the “trance of busyness.”  The title of Jason’s talk was “Spacious Productivity:  Work Better Hours, Not More Hours,” and it couldn’t have been more well-timed.  As my EOS practice has been ramping up, there has been plenty of busyness in my world.  (FYI - I’m giving a talk about EOS at 11:45am this coming Wednesday at Innovate New Albany.  Come check it out if you are interested.)

Rather than try to replicate Jason’s talk, I will share the specific actions I have taken as a result of the talk, and how they have worked out so far.  If you are a leader of an organization, or simply someone looking to make better use of your most precious resource, I highly recommend checking out the Focus To Evolve website that is linked above.

I should share one basic concept that Jason discussed:  The concept of managing our calendars like Architects, then executing each day in a Contractor mindset.  Plan your days in advance, with a holistic perspective that accounts for all of your priorities.  When you wake up tomorrow morning, follow the plan that the “Architect” has drafted for you, much as a Contractor shows up on a construction site to build a portion of the plans that the architect has drafted for the project.  I find the distinction between these two modes to be very helpful.  Even prior to seeing Jason speak, I recognized that some of my best work happens when I make sure to have a clear plan for tomorrow before my head hits the pillow tonight.  

So, without trying to explain the many WHYs that Jason explained so well, here are some of the WHATs that I have implemented in my life that I highly recommend:

TURN OFF ALL ALERTS:  Pings, chimes, bells, and even the little red dot with the ever-growing number tallying up the number of emails you have not yet examined.  All they do is diminish your ability to focus.

DEFAULT TO CALENDAR:  If you use Google or Microsoft Outlook, you can and should revise your default setting so that your Calendar is the default starting page - not Email.  Email is an abyss of endorphin-based distraction.  Strategy does not live in our email.

TASK LIST:  Anything that I owe anyone (including myself) goes on a task list.  Much like the Issues List for companies that run on EOS, my task list gives me comfort knowing that I won’t forget anything important, because I have cultivated the habit of maintaining this list.

RECURRING WORK PODS:  I have two recurring 2-hour work pods each day on my calendar, one from 9a-11a and the other from 2p-4p.  The first 90 minutes is dedicated to Focused work.  For any given day, this will be some combination of the most urgent and important tasks on my task list.  I sometimes schedule meetings that supplant or push these work pods, but putting them on my calendar in advance increases the likelihood of preserving them.

PROCESS EMAIL:  I process my email in two :15-minute sprints each day.  Notice that I didn’t say that I “answer” my email in this timeframe.  Processing it means turning any email that requires minutes, calories and has some level of importance to me into a task.  Most emails get filed or deleted.  The few that require action are added to my task list.

GUIDED MEDITATIONS:  Rather than scrolling social media on my breaks, I am now listening to one or two guided meditations each day.  They help clear our brains of biochemical junk, allowing us to maintain a higher level of focus deeper into the day.

WEEKLY TRIAGE:  Once a week, look out at the next two weeks of your calendar.  For each item on your calendar, choose one of four things:  DO it (i.e. keep it on your calendar as-is), DELEGATE it to someone else, DELETE it (because it is no longer important, or DEFER it further into the future (beyond the 2-weeks you are currently reviewing).

RADICAL SABBATICAL: - I have not yet officially done this, but Jason recommends people to take one day for themselves each quarter -  a full day off (no working), engineered well in advance, with light days before it and after it.  Just an open day, by yourself, digital detox.  While I have not done this exact thing as described, my quarterly gatherings with my EO Forum serve much the same purpose for me.

TWO MORE THINGS FROM ME
Jason did not suggest these in his talk, but I want to add two more items to consider.  

The first is a Monthly Review, where I look at how I used my time in the prior month.  This will inform how I manage my self in the future.  

And the second thing is to allow a 3rd persona to live in our Architect/Contractor paradigm - I think we sometimes need to have a Surfer, for when the world throws us meaningful unexpected “curveballs.”  Sometimes we need to be open to the possibility of abandoning today’s plan, and surf events as they unfold.

Almost two weeks into this new approach, my experience with these changes is that they have given me a meaningful increase in “Spacious Productivity.”  I recommend an audit of your habits in this realm if you’ve been feeling too harried or hectic.

Sunday Supper
I tend to prefer a hearty stew over a pureed, smooth soup - but this Carrot Ginger Soup was really wonderful this weekend.  (I added a 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper to warm it up a bit).  This Lentil Stew with Bacon offers more texture and protein.  This Fall Green Salad is a perfect accompaniment to either.

Sunday Music
Last week’s musical selection sent me down a Kenny Kirkland rabbit hole.  Perhaps one of our most underrated jazz pianists, Kenny could do it all.  Here he performs a set with Branford Marsalis on saxophone, Jeff “Tain” Watts on drums, and Robert Hurst on bass.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Buckle Up

Donald Trump’s Presidential reality show has been renewed for a second 4-year term.  For the first time in three campaigns, a majority of American voters have opted for him over his political opponent.

This decision by voters caught me more off-guard than when Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016, winning the electoral college by a margin of 304-227 (though losing the popular vote by 2.8 million votes).  Back then, it was easier to appreciate that some voters viewed him as an outsider who could shake things up in Washington.  This time around, he won despite losing a number of civil and criminal court battles since 2020, despite being indicted in both federal and state courts for a range of crimes, and despite nearing 80 years in age.

All of these factors made me skeptical that he could eclipse his vote count from 2020 (74.2 million).  This was basically correct - this week he earned 74.6 million votes.  But I didn't expect Kamala Harris to underperform Joe Biden's 2020 vote count by 10.4 million votes.  Trump’s ability to convince a majority of Americans to vote for him in spite of these many factors is nothing short of remarkable.  

While I fear that America has just been sold a bag of magic beans from the fable Jack and The Beanstalk, I must now root for Donald Trump.  My distrust of the man and his motives does not outweigh my genuine desire for a vibrant society.  So I hope that all of the actions he takes as president move us in a positive direction.  

I’m reminded of Mark Twain’s thoughts on worrying: "Worrying is like paying a debt you don't owe. I have spent most of my life worrying about things that have never happened.”  Hopefully this holds true for the many concerns I have.

I can’t say I will be rooting for the President if he tries to force Ukraine to accept an unreasonable peace settlement.  Or strikes down the Affordable Care Act, replacing it with “concepts of a plan.”  Whatever may come, I accept that as a nation we have chosen this man as our leader.

I will be managing myself far differently than I did during the first Trump term. Back then I viewed it as my civic duty to stay highly informed on his administration's activities. Not this time. No more “doom scrolling” for me. I will not abandon my civic duty to stay informed, but it will be done in a more disciplined fashion. I’m not going be as concerned about things that are far outside my control or influence. As the late Tim Kight would put it, I’m going to manage my “20 square feet” of the world.

In her concession speech, Harris said “A fundamental principle of American democracy is that when we lose an election, we accept the results.  This principle, as much as any other, distinguishes democracy from monarchy or tyranny.  And anyone who seeks the public trust must honor it.”  She models behavior that we did not see from her opponent just four years ago.  But so it goes…

America has bought the ticket.  Now we ride the ride.  Buckle up.

Sunday Supper
Perhaps all of us Harris supporters should enjoy some Barbecue Crow Sliders this Sunday!  I’d rather tuck into this comforting Swedish Potato Salmon Casserole instead, along with Roasted Pear Salad w/ Endive, Blue Cheese and Hazelnuts.

Sunday Music
This song by Chumbawamba feels appropriate this week.  This documentary of the making of Sting’s album, Dream Of The Blue Turtles brings back a lot of fond memories.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Fifty-Fifty

Here we are, two days before the next election, and all of the races look like they could go either way.  I voted a couple of weeks ago, and I have not seen anything that has me second-guessing my votes.

It’s been a good week, one that was a bit less demanding than many of the weeks preceding it.  But I have developed a head cold. It’s like my body waited until I had a little down time before it succumbed to the stresses of life, and the germs of Fall.  So far it’s not too debilitating.  A fair amount of sneezing and blowing of my nose, but I have plenty of energy and no fever.  So do I get on that flight later today, to surprise a friend celebrating their 50th birthday?  If I slug back some DayQuil to dry out my sinuses, I might be able to present a pretty normal version of myself.  But how many other people, between the plane and the birthday party, would receive the gift of my germs?

On any given day, I could be the friend insisting that my buddy with a head cold still come visit me.  I’ve also been the person wondering why that snotty, sneezy person didn’t just stay home.  Of course both Lori and I regularly intersect with older people, and don’t want to be the source of illness for them.

I’m still not completely committed to staying home or going to this party in another city.  But if I were to flip a coin, I know which way I would want it to land while it was still hanging in the air.  I think that is the best rubric we can apply when faced with fifty-fifty choices.  Toss the coin, then notice where your mind goes.  

Decide, then commit.  The very nature of the decision means that you will still feel you chose wrong fairly often - but that’s only from the perspective of hindsight.  Hindsight is always more informed than foresight, so don’t let that overinflate your inner critic.  Decide, then commit.

The concept of Fifty-Fifty also reminds me of Lovely’s FiftyFifty, the wonderful pizza shop in Portland, Oregon headed by Sarah Minnick.  When planning the restaurant, she expected the sales of Pizza and Ice Cream (in addition to Netflix-worthy pizza, they also make world class ice cream) to be split roughly evenly.  I suspect she sells more pies, but again - that’s hindsight.

So life gives us plenty of coin-toss decisions to make.  The randomness of it sometimes yields long streaks of either heads or tails outcomes.  Over and over, same result.  If you ever feel like you are caught in such a string, just keeping flipping those coins.  It will work itself out.  Somewhere down the line is another streak where the coin will land the other way, reverting the trend back to the mean.

Keep flipping, keep deciding, keep moving.

Sunday Supper
This Texas Chili Con Carne sounds good on a chilly Fall day.  And this brassica-centric Fall salad might deserve an audition for your upcoming Thanksgiving table.

Sunday Music
A few weeks ago, the guitarist Julian Lage joined the jam band Goose in Chicago and the result was pretty magical.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

A Few Words

Friday night, Game #1 of Major League Baseball’s World Series Championship.  The New York Yankees playing the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Bottom of the 10th inning, Yankees leading 3-2, bases loaded, two outs already secured by the Yankees.  First baseman Freddie Freeman steps up to the plate.  He turns on the first pitch - an inside fastball, to hit the game-winning, first-ever walk-off Grand Slam home run.  Dodgers win, 6-3.  Bedlam erupts in the sold-out Dodger Stadium.  The anthem I Love LA starts playing over the PA system.  The cosmic timing couldn’t be more perfect.

The song was written, performed and released by Randy Newman in 1983.  A new biography of Newman just came out, sharing its title with one of its subject’s songs:  A Few Words In Defense of Our Country: The Biography of Randy Newman.  The author is Robert Hilburn, who served as the chief pop music critic and music editor for the Los Angeles Timesfrom 1970 through 2005.

Hilburn writes that Newman is “torn between two impulses as an artist:  He wants to have hits.  Writing Pop music means after all it should be popular.  And he wants to say something, to express opinions on racism, sexism, and the always-fraught grandeur of the American Dream.”

Words ascribed to Newman on a recent NPR piece include “lovely,” “eccentric,” “oblique,” and “abrasive.”

His first Pop hit was 1977’s Short People.  Newman’s role as an unreliable narrator in the song was lost on many listeners.  They thought he really didn’t like short people.  This mistake was repeated in the songs Sail Away (where he plays the character of a slave trader), and in the character of an unabashed racist in the song Rednecks.  His satire has sometimes flown over peoples’ heads.

Newman’s character sketches of the exploited and creepy live in a ZIP Code near Tom Waits’ storytelling.  His lyrics often rise to a Twain-like level of cleverness, and some of his melodies are as sweet as Aaron Copeland’s Fanfare For The Common Man.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans, Newman’s song Louisiana 1927, became an anthem.  “Louisiana, Louisiana they’re trying to wash us away…”

His songs span a wide history of America, and pull no punches.  The 1972 song Political Science features a jingoistic character that suggests that America should “Drop the Big One now,” using nuclear weapons in a way that eerily sound like certain modern American politicians.  

And some lyrics from his recent biography’s namesake song ring as true today as when they were written in 2008:

Just a few words
In defense of our country
Whose time at the top
Could be coming to an end
Now, we don't want their love
And respect at this point's pretty much out of the question
But in times like these
We sure could use a friend

You know, a president once said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself"
Now it seems like we're supposed to be afraid
It's patriotic, in fact
Color-coded
What we supposed to be afraid of?
Why, of being afraid
That's what terror means, doesn't it?
That's what it used to mean

The end of an empire
Is messy at best
And this empire's ending
Like all the rest
Like the Spanish Armada
Adrift on the sea
We're adrift in the land of the brave
And the home of the free

Nearing 80 years of age, it is certainly time for this retrospective of Newman's life and work.  Let’s celebrate him while he is still with us.

Sunday Supper
This Sunday I offer this Shaved Brussels Sprout Salad, with Toasted Hazelnuts along with this simple Beef Stew, ladled over a bed of cheesy polenta.  For dessert I’m making these elevated Rice Krispie treats (with a little bit of caramel added, because I always have to futz with these things).

Sunday Music
Here is NPR’s recent review of the Randy Newman biography, as well as a retrospective of past interviews with the artist.  Here Newman performs Sail Away with the London Symphony Orchestra.  Here he performs I Think It’s Going To Rain Today when he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.  Lastly, here is Newman performing with Lyle Lovett the iconic song written for Pixar’s Toy Story, You’ve Got A Friend In Me.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Staying Busy

I can’t believe there is only one more regular outdoor Farmers’ Market session next weekend.  (There will be one last outdoor session on Saturday, November 23rd to help us prep for Thanksgiving).

It occurred to me recently that I could prep and freeze raviolis prior to Christmas, which would make Christmas Day that much easier.  Plus we could enjoy a wider variety of fillings.  This video remains my go-to pasta recipe.  It’s had fresh sage and butternut squash from Birds Haven Farms, so I made this recipe last night.  It was great.  It took me about four hours to make about four dozen ravioli.  Four hours in the kitchen, music playing, cooking away…not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon.  In just a few afternoons between now and Christmas I should be able to stockpile a nice assortment.  “Strategic Ravioli Reserve,” I like the sound of that.

Fall colors are popping, and the leaves are dropping.  It’s much harder to find one’s golf ball on the course these days - even balls that find the fairway.  The tug-of-war between sneaking in one last round of golf and getting the leaves collected is here.

My desk is a mess.  I intend to reclaim it from entropy today.  Laundry, a run to Costco, meal prep for the week ahead.  Going to Dawes Arboretum, for a walk-and-talk with our youngest offspring (home from school for Fall Break).  Indian takeout from Shan E Punjab Dhaba.

Making sure that all of my friends who are curious about EOS attend this upcoming event if they can.  Drafting a spreadsheet containing Lori’s and my “wish list” of things to accomplish with a future home renovation.  (It’s just a twinkle in our eye right now, but a fun thought exercise.)

Cleaning out and reorganizing the garden shed.  The same for my closet and dresser drawers.  Prepping for upcoming coaching sessions.  Mowing the grass.  Fixing the drywall in the bathroom (a year-old remnant of a plumbing repair…I can’t have the boys return home for the holidays and still have this issue.)

I think this about covers it - my list of productive ways to avoid thinking about the upcoming election.  I voted this past Wednesday.  My contribution to the process is now over.  I suppose I could do some sort of campaign work, but I’m not sure that there are any “undecided” voters left to influence.  Early voting was very convenient, but I understand that some people prefer to cast their vote on Election Day.  However you do it, I hope that you get it done.

I’m choosing to listen to more music these next two weeks.  More book reading.  Less television and social media.  Nova and I will probably walk a bit more often, and a little further than normal.  Enjoy this beautiful Fall weather while it lasts.

Sunday Supper
Since our youngest is a vegetarian and home for a couple more days, my meal prep work this Sunday will be focused on vegetarian fare (I’ll also grill some chicken and steak to supplement these dishes for the meat eaters in the house.).  This Lentil Soup looks nice.  So does this Mac & Cheese.  So does this Fennel-Apple Salad w/ Walnuts.

Sunday Music
This hour-long performance by Derek Gripper and Ballaké Sissoko in Gümüşlük, Turkey from last year is a wonderful listen on this beautiful day.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Hard Fall

I spent much of the past week traveling to and from Eau Claire, Wisconsin to meet with an entrepreneur and the leadership team his business.  What a beautiful town, and a great group of people that I had the privilege of coaching.  That part of the world is about two weeks ahead of us in terms of Fall colors in the trees.  It was gorgeous.

Thursday was when I led the team through an all-day session - our first such session together, and the first time I was facilitating this particular batch of exercises.  I was prepared, and the meeting went well.  

During a brief break in the afternoon, I peeked at Facebook on my phone, and saw a post from a friend announcing a family tragedy that had happened earlier in the week.  I couldn’t believe it.  My heart sank into my stomach, sad for my friend who had to be experiencing unimaginable pain.

The meeting resumed in just a couple of minutes, demanding my full focus (and receiving it).  In hindsight, I’m surprised by how easily I compartmentalized this information.  Maybe it is evidence that I have experienced enough grief to know that it would still be there, waiting for me when the meeting adjourned.

I drove to Minneapolis after we were done, as I had to catch an early flight home the next day.  I thought about how seldom I’ve seen this friend over the past few years.  How COVID disrupted all sorts of social patterns.

It’s all so fresh, so raw.  I want to be sensitive to my friends, and their loss.  I fear I see a trend forming, one that I will write about when I have more composure, and more time to properly address it.

A tough end to an otherwise good week.  It serves as a reminder of how hard life can sometimes be - and how grateful we should be when things are going well.  It is so easy to take many things for granted.  I encourage you to take inventory of even the smallest blessings in your life, and feel gratitude for them. 

Experiencing loss in the Fall is extra hard, I think.  Grieving as the world gets colder, darker, more stark just magnifies the whole experience.  Go inward, friends.  Tune out the cold world and keep the home fires burning.  Spring will return, someday.

Sunday Supper
Lori was out of town visiting our first-born this weekend, so I indulged in a dish that only I enjoy - this simple Spam Kimchi Jjigae is so satisfying.  I loved it.  I’m also going to roast a Pork Shoulder using this method, to start the week with plenty of protein.  I’ll pair it with this Kale Slaw With Red Cabbage & Carrots.

Sunday Music
This Sunday I share with you a number of selections.  First is the inimitable Eva Cassidy singing Autumn Leaves.  Next is film composer Hans Zimmer performing Time (from the movie Inception), and the theme from Interstellar.  Finally, here is Pat Metheny performing The Truth Will Always Be.

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Attention, Please

I kicked off the fourth quarter in Portland, Maine this week.  It was the final gathering this year for my entrepreneurial peer group.  The city made a great impression on us.  We dined at David’s 388 and Luke’s Lobster and visited the Portland Head Light.  Lunch from Monte’s Fine Foods was so good we patronized it two days in a row.  It is everything I had hoped for Maamos Kitchen, but focused solely on Italian cuisine.  The custard at Red’s Dairy Freeze was well worth waiting in the long line.  I look forward to returning to Portland with Lori some day.

After boarding my first flight on the way there, I discovered that I brought the wrong headphones - I had the ones that fit my laptop, but I needed the ones that fit into my phone.  This took listening to music or podcasts off of the table.  So I pulled out my Kindle and opened up a new book I had downloaded - Who, Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy.  The basic assertion of the book is that we can often be more effective by enlisting others in our efforts.  I have been guilty of having too much of a “DIY” mindset, resulting in it taking longer for me to accomplish certain things, and sometimes completing them in ways that are far below their potential. Sometimes, I need to get more skilled people involved in my efforts.  As with many valuable books, its ideas aren't radical.  But they shine a light on an often overlooked tendency that many of us have.  If our default setting is always to do things ourselves, we miss an opportunity to get more done - and at a higher level of quality, by collaborating with others.  It was a refreshing reminder.

I read the entire book before returning to Columbus.  Thankfully I also had downloaded Robert Caro’s The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Master of the Senate.  I’m not very far into yet, but Brian Koppelman says this is essential reading to understand how legislative power works in America.

I can’t tell you the last time that I read an entire book and started a second one in the same week.  The absence of the headphones let me absorb knowledge in a different way than I originally intended.  It felt refreshing, like my mind was working better for having given my ears a rest, and leaning into other areas of cognition.

At the AirBnB, all by myself because my friends had left and my flight home was not until the following morning, I did listen to this podcast interview of Chase Jarvis.  In it, he speaks on the power of focus.  In this era of steady digital dopamine drip, focus is a real superpower.  Gurus of ancient wisdom, like Sadhguru and Dandapani have been reminding us of this for years.  A misplaced set of headphones turned out to be the best thing to happen to me all week.

Sunday Supper
This week I am prepping Thai Beef Basil with Coconut Rice, complementing it with a simple pan of roasted sweet potatoes seasoned with Maani’s Indian Spice blends.  This Slow Cooker Shredded Beef will be making its way onto some salad greens in the days ahead.

Sunday Music
Here is a wonderful set of Latin music featuring Rita Payés at the NPR Tiny Desk - a great way to get your body moving on a Sunday morning.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Golf Lessons

I’m a golfer.  It’s a part of my identity.  My first memory of playing the game, probably around the age of twelve, is with my father at the “executive” course at Blacklick Woods Metro Park, in Reynoldsburg.  It is now called the “Learning Course,” and it was a great place to learn the game.  I very much enjoyed golf in my youth, though I took a hiatus during a portion of my teen years.  The combination of hormones and rapid physical growth created the double-whammy scenario of diminished physical coordination with a hormone-enhanced temper.  I could not hit the ball very well, and got unreasonably upset about it.  By college I had settled down, and was enjoying the game regularly again.  A student membership to Ohio State’s golf courses was just $250 per year - which probably equated into about $3 per round.  

As I have matured, I’ve experienced mixed emotions about identifying as a golfer.  Its reputation as an elitist, country club activity doesn’t match my own self-image.  Aside from human status games, it also feels really indulgent to spend 4+ hours hitting a little white ball around a beautiful parkland.  Despite this dissonance, I continue to play.  Most of my closest friends play the game, so there really is no escaping it. The feeling of a well-struck shot is something I will always be chasing.

The game has a taught me many lessons over the years:

• Never be late for a tee time.

• You can learn a lot about a person by watching them on a golf course.  How they manage their emotions.  How they follow the rules.  How they treat other people.

• Golf is a walking game.

• The average person can hit a world-class golf shot - just not as often as Tiger Woods.

• Mind state affects performance.  When I show up to the first tee relaxed, grateful to be there, and free of expectations, I play better.

• Good swings sometimes produce poor results (and vice-versa).

• Play it as it lies.  Sometimes the ball is laying in thick grass, hard to get good contact with the club.  Just do your best, and try to advance the ball to a better position.

• Pre-shot routines can be helpful.  Consider the hazards ahead.  Have a clear picture in the mind for how you want the ball to respond to the shot.  A practice swing to prime your body, then swing free and accept the result.

• Forget bad shots immediately.  Dwelling on them only affects your next shot.

• The diameter of the hole on the 18th green at The Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland, is exactly the same diameter as the cups at the Blacklick Woods Learning Course.

• When all is said and done, golf is just a game.

One last metaphorical thought:  Life is a lot like golf - but our parents hit our tee shots for us.  The better at golf/life that our parents are, the better start we typically enjoy.

Sunday Supper
This Beef Vegetable Soup and Green Goddess Salad are going to be on our table this Sunday.

Sunday Music
This time of year, I always think of Neil Young and his song Harvest Moon.  While we're at it, here's a three-song set from Young's former bandmate, Graham Nash at the NPR Tiny Desk.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Seasonal Thinking

Happy First Day of Fall!  I was able to do a thorough gathering of leaves on Saturday - the first of many to come.  Things should be pretty tidied up by Thanksgiving, I figure.  Even as we slip into this new season, I was able to enjoy the last throes of summer tomatoes, in sandwich form on bread from 7/10 Bread Company with Nueske’s bacon, a little shredded basil from Birds Haven Farm and a dash of balsamic vinegar.  Man do I love that simple food.

The author James Clear was kind enough to speak at the Bryn Du Mansion this past week as a part of Bryn Du’s Life Localspeaking series.  Clear is best known for his New York Times best-selling book, Atomic Habits.  If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it.  The essence of the book centers around how to make building new habits as easy as possible.  Generally this means taking the smallest possible action, rather than piling on a bunch of perfectionist expectations.

For example, if your goal is to become more physically fit, building the habit of going to the gym - even if you don’t have the time or energy to workout.  Just building the attendance habit will eventually lead to more consistent exercise.

Clear’s visit was formatted as a bit of a "fireside chat” with Granville’s answer to Garrison Keller, Jeff Gill.  They had a wonderful back-and-forth, and then Gill did his best Phil Donahue impression (may he rest in peace), by fielding questions from the audience.

Something that Clear spoke of was the notion of “seasons.”  He’s working on a new book, but now has two young children with a third on the way - putting him squarely in the “season of parenting.”  As such, he cannot approach the work of this latest project in the same way he invested in the creation of Atomic Habits.  This isn’t the season for that kind of sacrifice for him.  It doesn’t mean he has to suspend being an author, he just can’t be as productive per unit of time as he was earlier in his career.  This current project will take more time to complete, but complete it he will, and I expect it will be very thoughtful, based on seeing him Tuesday night.

My experience has been that the “season of parenting” has many segments - the needs of a newborn are not those of a toddler, teen, etc.  Careers have seasons, and sometimes they overlap.  In the past 18 months or so, I definitely have entered a new season - one where three separate human beings (two children, one parent) either don’t need me at all, or need me to show up in the world differently than I’ve showed up for them previously.

Clear didn’t say this, but I believe that we should consciously review our habits on a quarterly basis.  Consciously thinking about “Starts” and “Stops” four times a year is a good practice.  By this, I mean:  What should I start doing, and what should I stop doing?  If we really want to add habits to our daily/weekly lives, it often means stopping something else.  Otherwise, where would the time come from?

Today is the first day of a new season.  A good day to reflect on who we need to be as the temperature and the leaves drop, the snow falls, and the holidays approach.

Sunday Supper
This Slow Cooker Asian Braised Beef recipe looks yummy, and pairs well with this recipe for Asian Stir Fried Vegetables.  Add some cooked rice, and you’ve got a nice meal.  These days rather than make a dessert, I am cutting up some watermelon as a light, sweet finish.  If you want to take this idea further, here is a recipe for Watermelon Sorbet.

Sunday Music
This nearly hour-long Jazz House Music Mix is not a bad way to relax on a Sunday.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Pattern Recognition

Still no rain in Central Ohio.  Being spared the task of mowing the grass is somewhat of a relief, but I’d prefer some rain, please.  Not much chance of precipitation in the days ahead, I’m afraid.

Humans’ ability to recognize patterns, pairing these observations with our past experiences gives us the ability to anticipate future events.  Whether it’s avoiding a lion attack in the Serengeti, or identifying a great stock investment, we use our brains to both avoid disaster and capitalize on opportunity.  First-mover advantage is real, but carries the risk of being wrong.  I’m reminded of the phrase “The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.”

This ability often proves itself to be harmful.  Scam artists take advantage of this trait, mimicking certain patterns (be they visual, numerical or verbal) to lure their targets into taking actions that are against their self-interest.  This simple IF/THEN rubric of “If you see pattern X, then you should anticipate outcome Y” has led many of us astray, resulting in large and small damages.

So how do we know when to trust our instinct, and rely on the prediction that a given pattern might suggest?  First, we should recognize the environment in which we are noticing the pattern - how stable is it?  The more stable the environment, the more likely the pattern can be viewed as reliable.  I would argue that most decision-making environments today are far less stable than they once were.  The information overload that social media and light speed communications heaps on us makes decision-making today much more challenging - because inaccurate information flows as freely as accurate info.

Our personal biases skew things further.  When we have a strong preference for a particular outcome, we become vulnerable to confirmation bias.  We start “connecting the dots” whether the dots are there to be connected, or not.  I’ve discussed such biases before, and they are closely related to this human ability to recognize patterns.  With the volume of information that is being generated every minute, there is no shortage of false dots to connect when you really want something to be true.

The COVID pandemic offers a great example of an environment with lots of conflicting information, lots of people who passionately wanted certain things to be true, and lots of decisions that might not have been made under different circumstances.

Our ability to recognize patterns is both a blessing and a curse.  It is probably a good practice to scan the current news environment on a regular basis, actively looking for patterns that may be leading people astray, so that we ourselves can avoid being misled.  I currently view most coverage of electoral integrity with extra scrutiny, and suggest the same for you.  There are lots of people sitting in federal prison right now based on reliance on poor information leading up to and after the 2020 presidential election.  I would hate to see a repeat of this particular pattern.

The sheer volume of information flow is unlikely to slow, and the average quality of information is unlikely to rise any time soon.  It will be our personal ability to focus on higher-quality sources, and recognize our own internal leanings to avoid letting observed patterns from leading us astray.

Sunday Supper
Speaking of pattern recognition, I’ve been writing these weekly essays with recipe recommendations long enough that I absolutely feel repetitive.  Recognizing this, I am making the choice to lean in to the classics rather than always seeking out some novel new approach to food or cooking.  I’m sure some new stuff will catch my eye, but hopefully only when it is worthy of trial.  With this said, it’s really hard to go wrong with a slow-roasted pork shoulder on a Sunday afternoon.  Pairing this with this Kale Salad with Apples and Cheddar would be a wonderful combination.  We’ll save the pumpkin-spices and roasted root vegetables for when the weather truly turns Fall-like.

Sunday Music
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings have a new album out, and it is wonderful.  This extended performance and interview of the duo will give you a good sense of just how great it is.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Fitness

Despite the recent smattering of rain, the dryness of the past month+ has spurred the trees to start dropping their leaves earlier and more aggressively than in a typical year.  Leaf collection, plus cooler air temps this weekend have certainly created a Fall-like feeling.  I must confess I’m not quite ready for sweaters and soups, but they are not too far away.

Since starting my journey as an EOS Implementer this past March, the similarities between fitness coaching and entrepreneurial coaching have been really striking to me.  To be fair, I’ve never been a fitness coach - but I have been a regular gym rat since about 2008, when Lori bought me a gift certificate to Granville Fitness for Christmas.  So, I have received plenty of coaching in the gym, and am delivering it now in conference rooms around the city and beyond.

This video on Instagram really resonated with me.  In it, CrossFit founder Greg Glassman speaks a few year ago about the astounding growth of CrossFit, and the health benefits its participants had been experiencing.  Part of what he says is this:  "If I gave you the list of things I know is going to happen, you wouldn't believe it.  And so I don't.  I wait for you to come and tell me, and then I act like I'm surprised." 

I feel the exact same way about EOS and what it is doing for entrepreneurial companies all over the world.  The causes of these positive outcomes are just as similar as the benefits:  To be physically or organizationally fit, it comes down to one’s willingness to commit to a relatively few simple, basic activities repeatedly over time.

Glassman wrote Fitness In 100 Words many years ago now:

“Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar.  Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat.  Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, Clean, Squat, Presses, C&J, and Snatch.  Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics:  Pull-ups, Dips, Rope Climb, Push-ups, Sit-ups, Presses to handstand, Pirouettes, Flips, Splits and Holds.  Bike, Row, Run, Swim, etc., Hard & Fast.  Five or Six Days Per Week.  Mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow.  Routine is the enemy.  Keep workouts short and intense.  Regularly learn and play new sports.”

I took a stab at summarizing it’s organizational equivalent:

“Five days each year the leadership team works on the business, not in it. Be clear on your Core Values, Core Focus, and Core Customer.  Know what must be true 10 years from now due to your efforts, translating it into 3-year, 1-year and one quarter measurable outcomes.  Make sure that everyone shares your core values and that they get, want and can do the roles assigned to them.  Review a Scorecard of the 5 to 15 most important measurables each week.   Welcome all issues, and address them with rigor.  Document your key processes so that everyone does them identically.”

In both realms, there is nothing complex or fancy about the path to fitness.  I think that many people can’t bring themselves to believe that it is as simple as it really is.  Or maybe they believe it really is simple - but they just can’t bring themselves to be “on the hook” for pursuing fitness (in either context).  But just because something is simple doesn't make it easy.  We humans are pretty good at getting in our own way.

Pick a goal that means something to you.  Make the stakes exciting and energizing.  This will make it easier to commit to the process achieving it.  

It may not be easy, but it’s probably not as hard as you think.

Sunday Supper
Did I say I wasn’t ready for soup yet?  Disregard that.  This Ham & Bean soup is speaking to me.  This Turkey & Apple Arugula Salad would make a sturdy accompaniment and perhaps help you load the fridge with good fuel to start your week.

Sunday Music
This Sunday I share with you this performance by Lawrence, a brother-sister team surrounded by additional great players.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Unique Adversity

I had the unique privilege of seeing Amanda Knox speak last week.  At the age of 20, Knox found herself in a tragic, surreal set of circumstances that put her life on an entirely different trajectory.  Studying abroad in Italy as a college student, she returned to the apartment she shared with three other women to find one of her roommates dead of an apparent stabbing.  She immediately notified the authorities, but quickly became the primary suspect for the crime.    

She spent almost four years in prison (two years leading up to her first trial, then two more before her conviction was overturned).  It took far too long, but DNA evidence ultimately identified the actual killer, and yielded a definitive acquittal from the Italian Supreme Court Court. 

Four years.  FOUR YEARS.  Taken from you.  Here - sit in this jail cell and reflect on the crime that you did not commit.  Ponder how the heck you are going to prove your innocence.

The media coverage of the case was global in scope and hyper-sensationalistic.  The Italian prosecutor’s theory of the case included a range of untrue, tawdry elements that the media were more than happy to splash everywhere.  So even after winning her freedom, Knox returned to a world that was primed to think a lot of untrue things about her.  Anonymity was not an option.

The grace and equanimity she displayed in her talk was remarkable.  It made me think of Victor Frankl and his book, Man’s Search For Meaning.  Both Frankl and Knox found themselves deprived of their liberty, in trying circumstances (obviously Frankl’s situation being far more dire).  But both emerged from those adversities as better people.  Like Frankl, Knox has something meaningful to share with the world about how, regardless of our circumstances, we always have a choice regarding our response to the events of our lives.  And it is our choices that ultimately define us.

Wrongful incarceration is thankfully a pretty rare occurrence.  But we all endure events - the loss of loved ones, random violence, accidents…plenty of things happen that are beyond our control.  The only power that we have is in the responses we choose when faced with adversity.  We can complain about unfairness, wallow in self-pity.  Or we can own our experience and take action to mitigate the effects of misfortune on our lives.  We may wish we didn’t have to make it, but the choice is always there to be made.

Today Knox and her husband have two children, and she is a prominent advocate for the Innocence Project, which advocates for people who have been wrongly convicted.  Her talk was intense, and uplifting.  No doubt the version of Amanda Knox that I witnessed is a different version of the person she otherwise would have become were it not for her wrongful incarceration.  But I get the sense that she is making the most of the life she has been fortunate to reclaim.

Sunday Supper
This time last week, I was smoking my first brisket in many years.  As such, my expectations were for a good, but not great result.  I surprised myself, though - it was amazing!

This week Lori and I are returning to our empty-nester meal prep routines.  Here are some salads that I’ll be putting together to enjoy this evening, and in the days ahead:

Fatoush

Chopped Buffalo Chicken Cobb Salad

Rosemary Chicken, Caramelized Corn & Peach Salad

Sunday Music
This Sunday I share with you a group I had never heard of until today - here is Pygmy Lush, playing at the NPR Tiny Desk.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Anchors Away

Well, here we are.  The kids are back in school, so now we are working our way back into the more regimented routines of the school year.  Even though our little birdies have flown the coop, we still feel this transition in our household.  Our first born departed this past Wednesday and our second born left just on Friday.  So, the we’ve been putting the house back together in their wake.  This is not a complaint, or even to say that the boys were messy.  It’s just different when four people live here rather than two.  So, we’ve been regrouping a bit.

The week was shortened on both ends - Lori and I returned from a great trip to Montana late Monday after seeing dear friends.  And I snuck up to Cleveland on Friday ostensibly for a doctor’s appointment, but it was by design for me to be “in the neighborhood” so that I could fart around with our younger son before he jumps into the whitewaters of another semester at Case Western.

This entire year has felt like a re-emergence into the world for me.  Post-COVID, post-lots of stuff…with the activities of the last couple of weeks, I feel fully back in the world.  In fact, I may need to pump the brakes a little bit.  My schedule needs a little breathing room.  The week ahead will also be action-packed.  But after Labor Day, I think I can dial things back a notch and stay focused on my highest priorities.  Summer boondoggles, shenanigans and tomfoolery are now officially over for the year.

I saw a cartoon on LinkedIn this past week depicting a boat with its motor revving, but going nowhere because its anchor was snagged on the lake bed. On the motor was the word “goals,” and on the anchor were the words “bad habits.” The caption of the cartoon reads: “It’s doesn’t matter how hard you work if you don’t address what is really holding you back.” (I would share the cartoon here, but lack the technical savvy to figure out how to do this.)

I found it thought-provoking.  No doubt there have been times in my life when I have been super-busy and working very hard, without going very far.  The cartoon served as a good reminder to occasionally press pause, reflect and review to ensure that I don’t have any anchors holding me back from making progress on our goals.

I appreciated the reminder, so now I’m sharing it with you.  Are there any things in your life that could be reduced or eliminated to make room for higher priority activities?  It’s worth a scan.  I hope this little nudge creates a little more efficiency or effectiveness for you as we head into the final third of the year (!).  If nothing else, I need to create some bandwidth for leaf collection.

Sunday Supper
A friend who I don’t get to see very often is coming for Sunday Supper at our house this evening, and specifically requested barbecue.  So I’m lighting my smoker for the first time since Ray Ray’s opened in our fair community.  This is not to say that my brisket is any better than Ray Ray’s, just that when a friend makes such a request, I honor it and put all my love into the process of cooking.

Here are the recipes for the full menu, along with some notes:

Kansas City Brisket (from Mike Mills’ must-have book on barbecue, Peace, Love and Barbecue).

Dr. Pepper BBQ Sauce

Marinated Tomato, Cucumber & Onion Salad (peak summer freshness and flavor)

Sweet Corn Salad with Buttermilk Vinaigrette 

Mike Mills’ Crunchy Cole Slaw (I cut this recipe in half, then add about 1 cups of mayo to make it creamy to offset the bite of the cider vinegar.  I also short the sugar by half.)

For dessert, I’ll be serving fresh-from-the-oven Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies, topped with Jeni’s Milkiest Milk Chocolate ice cream (Vanilla was sold out).

(I don’t expect you to cook all of this, but somewhere in these recipes are some good ideas for tonight.)

Sunday Music
This Sunday I share with you this live performance by Sammy Rae & Friends in Boston right before COVID shut everything down for a while.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

American Values

The U.S. Presidential race has provided lots of drama and distraction this summer, at least for me.  Despite the fact that my vote is pretty much determined, I have found it hard to tune out the reality TV aspect of it all.  Every four years through the votes we cast at the ballot box we essentially “hire” a new president.  Which got me to thinking…

Companies that run on EOS regularly use their core values as a hiring filter.  This is one of the first tests of a job candidate - do they share our core values?  So, what if we assessed the candidates against American Values? And what are they, anyway?  I think it is easy to confuse our personal values with those of our country.  I also think that core values can shift over time if they are not culturally reinforced.

So, I tried to identify values that seem to be intrinsic to our country, and reviewed the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution to do this.  Here are ideas from both of these documents (including constitutional amendments) that strike me as being worthy of consideration as “American Core Values”:

EQUALITY - All of us are created equal.

LIFE - Our society should promote/preserve our mutual safety from harm.

LIBERTY - The ability to move freely throughout the country without having to justify or explain ourselves.

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS - The ability to do whatever pleases us, while not infringing on others’ ability to do the same.

Here are a few others that may qualify as values, but perhaps not:

SEPARATION OF POWERS - Should the creation of three co-equal branches be considered a value?  Perhaps - but maybe the underlying value here is “We want to govern ourselves in such a way that no one has too much power.  We don’t want a king.”

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE - The 1st Amendment states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”  Many of the early colonizers of North America were fleeing religious persecution, so this amendment was meant to address concerns about such persecution happening here.  On the flip side, the Establishment Clause prevents the federal government from creating an official national church or favoring one set of religious beliefs over another.  Again, this is somewhat structural, but it feels like there is a value baked into this structural consideration.

Lastly, I would suggest that FAIRNESS is an American value.  Lots of amendments to the constitution point to this - like the right to not incriminate one’s self, the right to not be tried multiple times for the same charge, due process requirements, etc.  If government is going to limit a citizen’s liberty and pursuit of happiness, the process by which this happens needs to be as fair as possible.

Perhaps I’ve overlooked something - let me know if you feel there are any values missing from this framework.

Now comes the fun part - for each candidate, rate them as either Positive, Neutral, or Negative relative to each of these values and see how they rate.  No, I’m not going to show you how I rate the candidates…we can all do this for ourselves.

As individual voters, nothing is stopping us from adding additional values to this framework.  Do so as you see fit.  My intention today is to try to articulate and focus on those values that are intrinsic to America, and offer an objective framework for evaluating the candidates.

We’ll see who America selects as it’s next leader.  I’m sure it will be an interesting Summer and Fall as we sort this out.

Sunday Supper
For Sunday Supper this week, this Thai Beef Salad will take advantage of all the fresh summer produce.  If you want to make your next watermelon a little more interesting, try this Watermelon Salad with Aleppo Pepper.  For a classic summer flavor, this Barbecue Chicken recipe is fantastic.

Sunday Music
This Sunday, I offer the one and only Chucho Valdés on piano at the NPR Tiny Desk.  And how about this live performance of Tour De Force by Dizzy Gillespie with too many other trumpeters to name.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Hey, Joe

It has been more challenging this summer to write my weekly essays.  This has not been a function of writer’s block, but more a function of “sharer’s block.”  The things that have been on my mind have been either too personal, too half-baked or too mundane to share.  

Something happened in the last couple of days that revealed a part of this challenge for what it is.  In an interview hosted by podcaster Lex Fridman, on Thursday Joe Rogan said he preferred Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is running as an independent, for president.  This created an online swell of criticism for Rogan, prompting him to post the following statement to his X (formerly Twitter) account:  “For the record, this isn’t an endorsement.  This is me saying that I like RFKjr as a person, and I really appreciate the way he discusses things with civility and intelligence.  I think we could use more of that in this world.”  He further went on to say “I’m not the guy to get political information from.”  

Politics is one of those areas that has been on my mind, but I’ve been reluctant to write about, and Rogan’s experience of the last few days is exactly why.  It’s a sensitive, polarized environment.

Writing my weekly essay is a way for me to make sense of the world - and to “show my work.”  I think that interviewing guests on his podcast serves a similar purpose for Rogan.  I appreciate this, and was one of his earliest listeners back in 2009.

He’s prolific.  I don’t know how many hours of interviews he has published in total (or even last week), but I simply can’t keep up with them all.  Nor am I interested in hearing the views of all of his guests.  This volume of content activates the law of averages - anyone who speaks with a microphone in front of their face long enough will say things they wish they could revise, or “unsay.”  It’s bound to happen - perhaps even more so with Rogan, who sometimes drinks alcohol or smokes cannabis during interviews.

I respect him more than I actually like him.  It’s not that I dislike him…I just don’t share enough of his views to feel a strong affinity for him personally.  But he’s a creator - he does the hard work of writing and delivering stand-up comedy, he produces hours and hours of interviews for his podcast.  He maintains an open-mindedness that is rare to see in other media personalities.  He exudes a “live and let live” ethos that I think makes the world a better place.

My only beef with him is the way that he handled COVID-19.  Expressing his personal opinions, and platforming discredited scientists who basically debated the proper treatment protocols in real time was irresponsible.  It contributed to confusion and poor decision-making by lots of human beings during a time of high ambiguity.  I won’t hazard as a guess as to how many people this might have affected, but it is a non-trivial number.

On balance, I think Rogan and his podcast are a positive force for greater understanding and acceptance in the world.  He holds plenty of views that I don’t share - but I never get the sense that he’s trying to convince anyone to think the way that he thinks.  That’s quite a needle to thread.

Sunday Supper
It’s that time of year - the time when big entree salads are so satisfying and fresh.  This classic Grilled Chicken Niçoise is perfect.  This Basil & Tomato Fried Rice is an interesting way to deploy all of those fresh tomatoes and basil.  And this Blueberry, Almond and Lemon Cake would make for a great finish.

Sunday Music
This Sunday let’s listen to some dudes with three names.  This concert by Jimmie Dale Gilmore is great.  And this song by Billie Joe Shaver is an anthem I play any time I need some encouragement.  No three-name roster would be complete without the inimitable Stevie Ray Vaughn.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Use It Or Lose It

Last summer if you had told me that I would be walking eighteen holes of golf, carrying my golf bag with any regularity this year, I would have been skeptical.  Somehow plantar fasciitis had manifested in my right foot, with my left foot not far behind.  Every morning the pain and stiffness made me feel like an eighty-year old man, hobbling around, popping Aleve.  It affected my gait to the point that my back (which has always been a little iffy) started flaring up too.

This year is different story - It’s been months since I’ve taken an anti-inflammation drug, and my body feels more resilient.  The way I got here was by simply wrestling with the foot problem, doing whatever I could - even if that was not what I would “normally” be doing.  I was able to continue playing golf by riding in a cart rather than walking 15,000 or so steps.  I stretched my feet, Achilles tendons and calves, multiple times each day.  I kept going to the gym, modifying workouts as necessary to avoid aggravating things. 

Over time, my function returned to something close to what I could call normal.  I maintain a daily stretching routine that I am certain keeps the plantar fasciitis at bay.  I have no doubt that the pain would return if I slacked off on this daily ritual.  I also have no doubt that I would be less functional today if I had chosen rest over active rehab.

Writers must write.  And active people need to stay active.  No doubt my body will disappoint me again in the future.  New aches and pains will appear.  I’ll have to keep stacking up mobility rituals to keep my aging body functioning as I want it to.  I imagine there is probably a swimming pool in my future.  Gentle, less load-bearing, swimming also promotes a good range of motion of our limbs.  Whatever it takes, I will keep moving.

This notion of Use It Or Lose It also applies to mental function.  Reading, working puzzles, keeping a journal, staying engaged with life are essential.  Inactivity is the new smoking.

When adversity presented itself last year, it was hard not to feel as if the pain and stiffness was simply my "new normal."  But it didn’t work out that way.  Recovery is not guaranteed, but it is possible.  Remember that when things are not going your way - your response to unwelcome events can go a long way in turning things around.

Sunday Supper
I cooked this Grilled Pork Bulgogi yesterday, and it was fantastic.  (Be judicious with the Gochujang paste, to avoid over-spicing the marinade.  I used about 60% of what the recipe calls for and it was still pretty zippy.)  This Southwest Salmon Salad is wonderful, too.

Sunday Music
This week for Sunday Music I share with you this wonderful cover of Tom Waits’ Temptation by Diana Krall, and this 30-minute performance by Katie Pruitt on Austin City Limits Radio is really nice.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,