I’ve not been a fan of Christmas music, not for a long rime. So much is cheesy schlock. We’ll, Pentatonix fixed that for me. This is my favorite somg of 2016. Amd might well be my favorite ever.
Category: Personal Reflections
Lessons learned about life; pearls of wisdom I’ve gleaned through pain, failure and honest reflection
I CAN = Innovate, Collaborate, Achieve and Network
This is a title for a training program which was emailed to me. I love this acronym! A great way to drive home keep components of effectiveness in today’s business climate, especially that of real estate. However, the connected world impacts us all.
Experience “I CAN”
Innovate, Collaborate, Achieve and Network
God help me, a snowy day in Seattle
Today’s schedule had plenty of driving. As snow started falling, I felt the normal dread Seattlites feel regarding snow. This region is pretty daft when snow falls and I can’t figure it out.
Some elements make sense. We have significant sized hills, and lots of them. The weather patterns around here make the snow structurally different. I get it.
However, we get a light dusting of snow. Snow that flowed with the wind, not packing onto a slick bundle of icy nuisance.
And otherwise sane people become simply daft.
This afternoon had two particularly memorable moments. First I saw a car stop in the middle of a highway in order to turn right into a parking lot. This is middle lane of three lanes going south. With a long line of cars stopped behind, staring in bafflement. Then there was the car that, on a highway, pulled halfway onto a sidewalk/halfway in the right lane, while they stared at a cellphone. With other baffled drivers stuck behind this nonsense.
These were the most egregious ones today. It was nerve-wracking driving with the buffoonified masses. Some days male me understand the desire to be a snowbird.
A Vlog Update: December 17, 2016
I just updated the vlog. Hitting on a few things: fleshed out my job change a little more, also some ideas of new videos to make.
Careers, Changes and Moving Forward
I’m proud to announce that I’ve accepted an offer with the great folks at Eagle Country construction. I’ll still be in the real estate sector, but I’ll be managing permitting on new construction. A significantly different role. I’m quite excited by the possibilities, but it’s bittersweet.
I’ve worked for C&K for over half a decade. During this time, I’ve learned so very much about business, real estate, marketing, social media and branding. I’ve learned the critical importance of CRM tools, and connection. And I’ve had the opportunity to learn so very much more about Snohomish County, where I’ve spent the majority of my life. C&K is a great team doing really exciting work, and leaving this group is sad, to say the least. Eagle County falls under the Keller Williams umbrella, so I won’t be going far. And, from a commute perspective, I’m literally only moving 2 blocks south.
The opportunities moving forward are quite exciting, and I’m looking forward to learning a new element of the real estate sector, while also putting my project management and technical skills towards helping another company move forward.
So, onwards, as it were.
An lingering dream of mine
An old life goal of mine: explore the country in a decent camper. Not a monstrous RV, rather, a modestly sized one. Perhaps a custom van, though one with a bathroom feels nice. My first version: a camper shell on a pickup truck.
Sleeping close, up against nature, the world’s beauty elicits powerful feelings. All my fear proximal and organized: glorious! Driving up to my desired place, parking, leaping out, exploring without pitching a tent an unpacking? Delightful!
Though the notion yet lingers amidst the darkness of my subconscious, I’ve hardly acted upon it. I’ve owned a few vans and pickup trucks, not one outfitted for camping. No campers installed. No sinks or cook tops. No great motivation, I guess. Yet, up it pops, from time-to-time.
Dreams of journeying
Sleeping right next to wonders
A personal touch
Thoughts on Casey Neistat’s Vietnam Notebook
I’ve been enjoying Casey’s work for sometime now. It’s really a 2016 discovery; one I’m happy I made. I get ideas of things to film, someday, that mythical someday when I have plenty of free time.
Moleskine junky that I am, I really love what he did with his notebook. Cutting out/adding in tickets, maps, key details, blah blah. Things I wish I’d done with my trip to Yellowstone Grand Tetons this summer.
I think it’d be fun to craft some videos like this, too. My son is going deep into videography. He really wants to collaborate, and I really want to embrace that.
Lastly, Casey makes note about nothing drives home how fast time passes than watching kids grow up. And I’m really feeling that this fall. We’re preparing for highschool, talking college, cars,and well, being grown-up. I’m so damn glad I made the time to be here, to be part of his childhood. So many men I know regret missing this, and feel pain as they try to connect with their grown children. Trying to find a place in these lives that were filled in their absence.
There’s nothing I’m more proud of than my simple integration with my son’s life. He’s a great kid, and an amazing young man. I’m very happy.
Quote of the Day
Was just emailed this one: “Failure is the price of Legendary” ~ Robin Sharma
I was thinking about these sorts of things over the long weekend. A key moment was while watching “A Chef’s Life” on PBS. Vivian (show’s main focus) was struggling with anxiety around her life. With her book deal, as well as a next managing chef, her life has changed dramatically. She’s in unfamiliar ground, and not sure where she stands with things.
It makes perfect sense to feel this way: she’s never done anything like “this”. This is part of the lot for innovators. Doing the new and unique means you’re in uncharted territory, often without anyone doing anything even close. Living a life without roadmaps ensures “failure” lurks.
In order to really innovate, to achieve something Legendary, you have to stretch well past the comfort zone. Well into the potential to fail. So, in the end, the only road to success is through failure. With each failure, stand up, brush off, learn the lessons and move forward. That’s the only way to Legendary.
A Vlog update: feeling like the Bendu from Star Wars Rebels
I’m sure everyone has noticed how polarized American society is right now. In Star Wars Rebels, there’s a great character: the Bendu. He’s neither Sith nor Jedi. He’s the one in the middle.
As someone who views his politics as secondary to remaining in community, I definitely feel that I’m “the one in the middle” right now.
A Veteran Reflects on Veterans Day
It seems so very long ago, when I was in the Navy. So much has changed, yet so very much remains the same. I grew up in a Navy household, so I knew what I was doing when I enlisted. And I had no idea. The lessons I learned on that journey deeply inform who I am now.
I served with a diverse group of people. I experienced the complexities of America first hand. This was my first real interaction so much of the American experience. Blacks, the amazing blend that gets labeled “Latino”, Muslims, Native Americans…with so many more. I served with farmboys from the midwest, Cajuns from the Bayou, city kids from New York, some from the Virgin Isles, Hawaii, Alaska, and, the oddest of all, people from my town, who even went to my high school. I served with gays and lesbians (and I was in when being such meant automatic expulsion). A dizzying expansion of my worldview, from the suburban micro-culture that was Lynnwood in the 80s.
I’m struck by the responsibility put upon such young shoulders. I operated and maintained nuclear reactors. Other teens and early twenty-somethings work with weapons of massive scale, from tanks to aircraft to nuclear weapons. It’s very sobering, in reflection, how much responsibility I had. I see, now, that I could’ve impacted lives with my actions. Or, rather, that I did. Fortunately, not for ill.
After getting out, I was privileged to volunteer with several organizations serving veterans. It humbled me to see so many of my colleagues damaged so deeply by their time in the military. And that troubles me to this day. Their stories haunt me, and drive me.
Veterans Day brings out a complex blend of feelings. All reside within my heart, now. So I remember these men and women, hold them in my prayers. This blend of everything America is, good and ill, beautiful and destructive; remember us. We are you.