Kind of a babble this evening talking about spam email & phone calls through feeling guilty or held hostage by those free return labels that come in the mail.

Not sure what prompted me to start a little rant about shit talkers and gossip champs leading into 'consider the source'. But maybe there's a full circle in there somewhere.

Mostly not a heavy or deep session other than just listening to myself talk to let things out.

I've been asked for my thoughts/opinions regarding the Pete Hegseth address in Quantico last week. I was reluctant to share for the better part of the last few days as I am with the Tim Kennedy Stolen Valor discussion. But here I am, not speaking about it politically and almost as a bit of a continuation from last weeks struggle bus regarding the world & our country's state of the human element. 

'Holding the Middle Ground' is much different than 'Fence Sitting'. I use holding vs occupying or standing in. To hold something insinuates intention. Much the same as fence sitting implies simply waiting to fall on the side with the greatest favor or probability of winning. I suppose we could swap out middle ground for common ground, but I am choosing middle much because I don't believe those in the middle are aware of or invested with anything in common.

Add value, not noise. Just thought I'd poke that out there as well.

Seems like the world is crazy and so full of ignorance, hate, & confusion. Not sure what it's all about, how we got here, or if even half of it isn't just sensationalized.

The last few weeks I can't seem to shake the 'looping' on it all. In my head, when I try to break away from productivity sprints to refresh & refocus, I feel consumed with frustration and sadness; even anger, about the "news" (if that is actually is) and how people get so consumed.

After a long break, I'm digging back into sharing stories and my internal dialogue about life, leadership, and random thoughts.

During my break I haven't been just slacking off; Connor and I have been writing a book on Leadership and these Identity Circles I've been working on. I've been engaged with a lot of material with Diesel Day & 'Checking In w/ the Left Hand' Framework, as well as, putting an incredible amount of energy into the Big Fish Foundation and personal growth.

Connor & I have also started up a Substack account where we're sharing short articles generated from conversations and ideas we shared during our weekly book writing sessions and what would have generally been topics of this podcast.

Since I've been off this BuzzSprout platform things have changed a little and seemed to have been updated with more capability. Excited to see where we can polish up things a bit. 

Anyways, here we go... 

Some story telling and reflections that a Wolf Spider gave me regarding Resilience and Persistence.

How we've let learned behaviors get transferred into areas of our lives where they don't belong...

Wrapping up a year of sobriety and processing the take-aways that I couldn't have scripted going into the journey.

I'm at no shortage of receiving conversations about what I could, should, or need to being doing; personally & professionally.

Most of the time I'm required to wonder if I'm getting opinion, advice, or counsel.

What I'm finding as a common theme is that the more someone offers answers vs questions, the quality ( for my best interest ) of what they are delivering goes lower and lower.

Coming out of the trough (again) after a few really hard weeks of trying to simply hold on. As I get better and better at managing/ navigating these times I somehow still keep finding myself back in them.

After a recent procedure in Annapolis, I'm finding myself happier & more productive than I've been in the past few years. I'm also in a place recognizing what needs to happen to break the cycle of going back there instead of just adding more load to this new increased capacity I have.

Coming back from running a 40h marathon in TN and sharing some thoughts, observations, and where I'm focusing on personal growth.

Talking about the importance of Self Care not only for a leader but also as an example for their people. it's about creating an appropriate balance to keep operating levels for individuals at a high.

We also introduce setting good boundaries for leaders and their relationships. Healthy boundaries that support growth, expectations, & professional relationships through consistency.