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Curated list of books, podcasts, and resources that have helped me along my journey
Transformative Weekend: Lessons on Productivity, Self-Reflection, and Personal Growth
Discover reflections on a transformative weekend, including lessons on productivity, self-reflection, and personal growth. Gain insights on journaling, subconscious training, and the power of positive triggers. Explore the importance of refueling through cinema and embracing new habits for a more fulfilling life.
This past Thursday and Friday were a bit of a struggle from a productivity point of view. I think it was a combination of bad diet, lack of sleep, overwhelm (lack of systems), recovery from negative people and thoughts, and a lack of Vitamin D.
However, things took a turn for the better beginning from Friday afternoon. I’m going to share a high level of my experience with you so maybe you can benefit. It’s primarily a reminder for myself to be thankful for everything around me and to remember reflections from previous months. I’ll try to expand where I can but in the interest of time, there is a lot to write. Let’s go.
Friday Check-In
It all began with a Friday checkin with peers.
Highlights:
- Many people are experiencing what I am: calendar anxiety regarding an upcoming security conference
- The job market is tough even for super experienced people
- Loss of animals sucks
Friday Reflections
Attended a lecture that really brought in a fresh perspective on our current reality. Just reaffirms that what’s new is old really.
Friday Catch Ups
Had some quick catchups on a beautiful sunny afternoon in the Bay. One of the best things I have done in the past couple years is scheduling consistent catch ups with good and smart people. People that are aligned with my values and on the same trajectory and/or velocity as my growth. This has supercharged me in so many ways.
Kids
Got to see my younger kids for a few minutes, catch up and step into their world briefly.
CRM Woes
Caught up with V and talked through the pains of a CRM. When talking it through, realized that I (the engineer in me), was making my CRM a little too complicated. So the action item from that was to just keep it simple and go with LESS IS MORE. So for example the contact DB does not need to have so many fields. At the end of the day the fields only need to be:
- Name (Company)
- Pipeline
- Status
- Due Date
That’s it. Going to try that for a week before going with Copper or Pipedrive. Also before going with another tool, I’ll have to remove a subscription somewhere else. LinkedIN SalesNavigator - I’m coming for you!
Subconscious Training
He also shared with me some subconscious work he’s been doing. We’ve been talking about this for awhile, and I read a couple good books on the subject, but it’s been a minute. Makes me want to read the books again. He had some triggers he does in the evening and the morning.
The best part about this is that he says that after a week his brain has been automatically recalling the triggers and it’s been overwriting and negative talk! (See the AOM podcast that ties in together!)
This gave me the AHA moment for what has been bothering me all week. My subconscious has been replaying some of the negative effect from toxic people and experiences. Anyway, more on that later.
For your edification, here are the triggers that he’s using:
- Health
- Wealth
- Love
- Grace
What’s interesting was a reflection on how we just can’t control everything in our lives. This is has been a theme for me for the past few months, so I found it quite interesting he shared the same thing. I’ve even asked chatGPT about it lately to help expand on it a little.
Thanks V!
Prompt Journaling
Now it was time to catch up with J. J always has a fresh perspective on things, which is something I appreciate. Both V and J conversations were in full sun, so I was able to get some Vitamin D in as well.
One awesome lesson from this conversation was Journaling Prompting.
Now I’ve been journaling for years, but I love this concept because it puts a forcing function on reflection. Something I only do occasionally on plane rides or what not. Not to say my form of journaling has not been helpful, to the contrary it’s been amazing and quite grounding. I recommend it to everyone. Basically it’s a conversation or log with my current and future self, going through today’s challenges and actually solving problems right then and there. In the times I don’t solve those problems, well then, at least I got them off my chest. My current journal, called The Journey, is less about negative things and more about my own growth and reflecting on that along the way. I used to have journals that were all negative dumping, but I realized that if I go back to read those journals, that’s all that will be there. Not to mention we create an echo chamber with the thoughts we propagate.
Anyway, here is the video on prompt journaling, thanks J!
Refueling Myself Via Cinema
As part of my energy refuel, it was time to watch something. I’ve been on a fast from movies for a month, so it was time to slowly get back into it. Luckily found a Zach Snyder flick so started watching that Thursday and finished it Friday. I was kind of bummed my Roku Ultra didn’t support Dolby Atmos, so now I need to replace the dang thing!
It’s been awhile since I’ve watched some YouTube videos. As a cinematic, storytelling, and emotional/feel good story aficionado, I thoroughly enjoyed the next two videos. They were well done. Not only that, but NYC has a special place in my heart, so it was double as good.
I really enjoyed this video for its tight soundtrack and cinematic production. Went really well on my large screen and home theater.
Saturday - A New Day
Compiling all the information I gathered from the night before I decided to put everything into action Saturday. It has been by far the most positive feeling day I’ve had in a while. Here’s a breakdown
- Morning Meditation @ 530am
- Morning nap with shades open @ 630am
- My sleep score was 56 when I went to sleep, and 84 when I woke up!!
- Jumped out of bed and into the shower
- Doubled my morning protein shake (48g of protein)
- Espresso and book reading in the garden
- Thinned some of my peaches. LESS IS MORE
- Moved my gym outside so I can both workout AND get some sun! Was inspired by Dickie Bush saying he gets 2 hours of sunlight. I thought 15-20 minutes was enough! Did a short but heavy workout. I decided to slow my reps a little for more growth. I’ll probably do another set in the evening.
- Had an amazing breakfast!
- Root vegetables
- Steamed broccoli
- 2 x Pieces of Cod (only 1 pictured)
- Homemade pickled garlic
- Pickle
- Tomatoes w/cumin, olive oil, and salt
I ate my breakfast outside in the sun again overlooking my garden. Usually I watch some Star Trek, but today I decided to consume something good. As always AOM always delivers, found an amazing episode that tied EVERYTHING discussed above back together.
I have to tell you, the combination of food today really left me quite satisfied after. I might have to leverage seafood a little more often. Let’s see.
- Turned the soil
With not too much time left before an upcoming event, I decided to tackle turning over the soil for my persimmon tree. There were just too many weeds/grass grown in so I decided to put my fuel to use and turn over the soil real quick. As the grass and weeds dry out, it will pave the way to rake them out and I can add fertilizer and then hopefully some much after. This tree doesn’t seem to need fertilizer for some amazing reason, but it’s important in any case.
The peach trees are the ones that need a lot of fertilizer and TLC. Actually all the stonefruit trees need some fertilizer asap since fruits are in growth right now.
- Attended an live Egyptian Music ensemble
Simply amazing.
- Wrote this blog
And of course, to wrap this day up, I finally wrote my first personal public blog entry. A lot longer than I anticipated, but it gives me a great sense of accomplishment.
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