Month: January 2024

My word for the year is systems, and as January winds down, I am proud that I have begun to put together a semblance of a process that works for me. I finished my first book of 2024 (Building a Second Brain) and now currently reading my attorney masterminds book club recommendation: Atomic Habits (yay for my new kindle). I read it before and gifted it to many people, yet I had forgotten its main message that even habits are formed due to systems one creates.

There is no such thing good or bad systems because we create what serves us even when it may have a negative impact. Building a systems requires habits which require cues which require creating environments that allow for systems to thrive. One of the habits I am cultivating is putting away things or decluttering areas around me so I dont let them pile up. It comes down to taking a breath, being aware of my old habit, and do the new desired habit. It will take time, but then again I have successes to guide me.

I have a morning routine I am proud of, and one that adapted well with mornings with Zyan, staring with praying with him, playing, then meditating, then walking him and the dog, its a fulfilling morning already, but now I get to add things after I put him down for his nap and begin my workday. From ensuring a clear space, desktop, clear goals for the day, to organizing my notes or ensure I take some for all meetings so I don’t have to keep it all in my head.

One game changer has been going to the gym in teh middle of the day which while it appears to take away from day has , instead, supercharged them. Apparently doing really physical work somehow fuels the brain, and I am able to take on things faster than ever before. Of course, there have been false starts, broken habits, and a tendency to eat things that I know I shouldn’t but when I give myself grace and have faith in my systems, I know that it will all work out.

What systems are working out for you?

And just like that, I begin my 53rd year, maybe a bit wiser, a bit healthier, a few father, a work in progress husband, friend, relative and all the host of other labels I am known by. Feels like just another day (maybe because it’s Monday), but the joy in my heart is very real. After a full weekend of being around so many loved ones, I cannot help but be grateful for how truly wealthy I am.

It feels surreal, and I try to imagine if this is the life I’d imagined as a teenager, young adult or I just hit the life lottery. Each morning now a chance to experience pure joy with Zyan, and other days with family and friends, and work that challenges and excites me. Before the future appeared to be a blank, but now they are sign posts to a life where I get to be a teacher, be taught, and grow to the best of my ability.

The month almost over, and all my resolutions still unbroken because my WHYs are so much stronger than in the past (I still did pretty well then), but now I am eager to consume knowledge, habits, tasks, goals that create a forward motion rather than stop my dead in the tracks. My mindless consumption has decreased tremendously. There was a time that I was up on all entertainment out there from movies, music to TV and now if I am lucky I get in one episode, one song or a few minutes in. But there are no regrets, but that free time is now filled with SO MUCH.

And so while it’s yet another Monday it’s more than that. It’s a journey to a beautiful destination called Life. Happy Monday!

With a new year come new resolutions, but I think of them more as new habits or ways I want to be a better husband, father, son, brother, friend, and so on. Of course, it also hit me (thanks to an dear accountability buddy of mine Elena) that the way to get a sense of how the past year went would be to categorize and take a look where you are. Unfortunately, for me to do that, that assumes I have systems in place. I have tons of information, and notes and files and images, but what I don’t have is a way to make sense of it all. So the word for 2024 is systems.

Until I get up a system that works for me (currently devouring Building A Second Brain and rereading The Atomic Habits) I am doomed to be as Mel Robbins points out in her Podcast Episode How to Make 2024 The Best Year to be like Googles: I won’t know where to go where I don’t know where I am. And so I sit down, take a moment, be clear on what I WANT not what I SHOULD be doing, and get clear. I want to be a good lawyer which means I need to know what I have done or am doing for clients which means having files that contain all that information that I may need. I spend far too much time (I won’t say how much) constantly looking for documents because they aren’t named one saved appropriately which forces me to redownload them or look all over until I them. To add that, my laptop crashing and then my transferring all my files to a new MacBook Pro exacerbated things because again it’s a massive bulk transfer that doomed to the same issue.

That stops now. I am sorely tempted to hand this off to someone else, yet I also know the Systems and the Second Brain are about my needs. Until I make the time to declutter my computer, room, garage, car, room, head,.I will continually worry, wonder and question where I am at, forcing me to stay still rather than move forward. And so with that in mind, I have committed (or recommitted) to the following ways that I think will support me:

1. A Leadership Mastermind Group (going on second 90 day cycle
2. An Accountability Group (going on 5 years)
3. Habit Challenge from Crossfit Box
4. Professional Alliance BNI Chapter (going on 8 years)
5. 4 Legal Seminars each quarter with the first occurring Feb 1st, and for first time will be live streamed and recorded. If interested, click on the link 🙂
6. Building a Second Brain
7. Beginning new micro habits (will post later)

What are you doing for 2024?