2019 REFLECTIONS

Quick note: I’m sorry it’s September when this is coming out, but I had intended to finish the Story of Peru before publishing this, so it sat on the shelf. In any case, thanks for being here and reading. I hope this brings you some great info (towards the bottom), and some of my reflections from last year bring some good to you.

Just like last year: What a year. Ups and downs. I’m sure we all had them.

In order to not dwell on the past, this quick one is meant to share some stories and learnings from this past year’s history, some of the best things I came across, and to hopefully relay some joy, love, and enrichment.

Daggon, my thoughts from last year are still what I want to say today:

From starting different groups, exploring new places, and genuinely trying to be good I was able to build a lot of new and meaningful relationships. That being said, there were many challenges with relationships all around me; from family and close friends to personal and political. This will almost always be the case for everyone IMO, but using the experiences that you go through, or seeing the situations around you, to better your future relationships, and to help others, is the best thing we can get out of them. Using others’ and your own experiences to learn is invaluable.

Now, onto the new stuff.

Learning from the good and bad, and appreciating both of them, are struggles for me, so I practice them consistently. Another important principle from the great Ray Dalio is:

Pain + Reflection = Progress.

I started 2018 with intentions to do more toward my mission of relaying joy, love, and enrichment. I worked to the best of my ability to do that; focusing on productivity, intelligible prioritized decision making, and sheer effort/will. Sounds great. It was, for most of the year. Or so I thought. More on that later. In 2017 I was asked to manage the back-end sales for my $15mil/yr employer then build a system to replace my position. Then in 2018, I was asked to become the training manager and main-trainer. This job was significantly more simple, even though we beat our sales goal by 199%,  and it allowed me the time and space to focus on building things that were meaningful to me. Namely, KleinHaus Gym, KleinHaus Studio, Hockey for Covington (CSHL), and KleanMeals. While the first two projects were solo-run, there were many people involved with the latter two. The relationships and experiences gained from these projects are invaluable to me, and I’m completely grateful for them.

As mentioned earlier on the blog, the ending of 2017 was rough for me in that I was recovering poorly from a very extended period of little sleep. That coupled with a sprinkling of depression and an addictive personality, I drank more alcohol and spent more money at bars than at any other time in my life – all while building these projects. This lasted from January to August or September when I quit cigarettes with two of my brothers. Quitting the smokes, and a personal reason, helped me avoid the bars, think clearly, prioritize, and reinforce certain areas that I felt needed to be focused on.

Even though in the latter part of the year I was thinking more clearly and intelligibly than ever before, I was spread too thin. Close people around me were misunderstanding my reasoning for not ‘being able to’ do certain activities as complaining, and me getting resentful for their words and reactions, I found it most valuable to remove myself from certain leadership roles. The main one being stepping down from ownership of Hockey for Covington (CSHL). I felt confident in stepping down due to the leadership team that was in place, and my effort (described above) for 35-50hrs/wk for most of the year to set up a mission, vision, systems, processes, relationships with partners, leaders, and city officials, and culture. In short, I was confident that I put everything I had, for as long as I could, and as productively as I knew how to help create an organization that would do good and was sustainable. It was more important to me to maintain meaningful relationships than work on (or own/lead) the organization at that point.

Legitimizing and delegitimizing KleanMeals

Also a great experience. We took it from a few people and companies, cooking out of our kitchens, to state and federal recognition and cooking out of an incubator kitchen. We learned and executed the ins and outs of the food industry regulations and business, saw that our timing was off (due to higher commitments to other organizations), that Amazon is working on a similar business model (we don’t want to compete with them), and we got out. We could have done more, and better, had we put more concentration toward it, however, I see it as a valuable experience that positively affected many people (our goal), and the opportunity to get back into it remains.

Every time I think I’m out… They drag me back in

It’s been well over 5 years since working in the service industry. That’s changed since Thanksgiving as I decided it’s better to make money at the bar than spend it at this time in my life; I’ve started barbacking at 16Bit. I’ve found it nice to be back, everyone has been super friendly, and it’s freeing to work at one of the busiest bars in the city while not ‘feeling like I HAVE’ to work there. Cheers to the couple of buddies who put in a good word for me there!

Some personal notes

With some, now obvious, glaring blind spots removed, I found some faults of mine that I can now work on. Namely:

-Communicating with some very close people to me only when I want something. So, I’ll be working on spending quality time, rather than productive time, with more people.

-Using alcohol to stay present with people when my empathy reserves run out. Also, using alcohol to not address root-cause issues. So, I’ll be drinking way less (for other reasons as well) and continuing to practice presence all the time.

Now onto some of the heavy-positive-impactors for 2018:

Root Car Insurance – reduced my car insurance from Geico by more than %50.

Arcadia Power – reduced my electric bill quite a lot and it’s all green-source.

Brawl Stars – a fun cartoon/shooter game for mobile.

The new Onnit Total Human – This is the reintroduction (with some added stuff) that I’ve promoted for a long time. It’s magic.

Jordan Peterson – He’s blown up in the past couple of years. His message resonates with me due to my religious upbringing, interest in the philosophy of Truth and meaning, and very high-level thinking and communicating.

Extended DISC Training

Quitting cigarettes

I was very fortunate to read, and listen to, a lot of books this year. Here’s a list of the most impactful ones for me this year and I ask everyone read/listen to them (please) (I may start doing book reviews – does that interest you? LMK):

(Again) Principles: Life and Work – R. Dalio

(Again) Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win – L. Babin, J. Willink

Crushing It!: How Great Entrepreneurs Build Their Business and Influence-and How You Can, Too – G. Vaynerchuk

The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance – J. Waitzkin

The Lessons of History – W. and A. Durant, details the cycles of socio-politics and religion through history, how they are linked and interact, and how they repeat (cycles).

The Hero with a Thousand Faces – J. Cambell, details the religious and mystic heroes through history and where they come from.

The Productivity Project: Accomplishing More by Managing Your Time, Attention, and Energy – C. Bailey

Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage– A. Lansing, the story of one of the first journeys to the south-pole and the ‘endurance’ and leadership needed to survive through extraordinary circumstances.

The Power of Habit – Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business – C. Douhigg,

The Daily Stoic – R. Holiday, provides a daily passage from a stoic-great and food for thought.

I Don’t Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression – T. Real

How to Win Friends & Influence People – D. Carnegie, the classic.

Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders – D. Marquet

The 49th Mystic (Beyond the Circle) – T. Dekker, My favorite book I’ve ever listened to. It was like watching a movie in my mind. Science, philosophy, futurism, religion, heroes… it had it all.

Six Simple Rules: How to Manage Complexity without Getting Complicated – P. Tollman

The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable – N. N. Taleb

Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae – S. Pressfield

-Side note – I went through so many books that I’m limiting the number of new ones in 2019 and revisiting most of the above again this year.

Again, this year, I was fortunate to travel a lot for work and such. Here are a couple spots I highly recommend to check out during the winter for spectacular ocular pleasure ?

Salt Lake City

48418765_10105724727312585_7790128247450107904_o

NYC in the snow

29351654_10105096435379655_8905274858521518447_o

Thanks a lot for reading and sharing your attention! Happy new year, and let’s make this the best year yet!!

If you have any questions or want to talk, please reach out any time.

Best,

Jase

20,907 thoughts on “2019 REFLECTIONS

  1. Aw, this was a really good post. Spending some time and actual effort
    to generate a superb article… but what can I say… I procrastinate a whole lot and never seem to get nearly anything
    done.

  2. Hey just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The words in your post seem to be running off the screen in Ie.
    I’m not sure if this is a formatting issue or something to
    do with web browser compatibility but I thought I’d post to
    let you know. The style and design look great though!

    Hope you get the issue fixed soon. Kudos

  3. Hey there, You’ve done an excellent job. I’ll certainly digg it and personally suggest to
    my friends. I am sure they’ll be benefited from
    this site.

  4. Having read this I believed it was very enlightening. I appreciate you finding
    the time and effort to put this content together.

    I once again find myself spending a significant amount of time both reading and commenting.
    But so what, it was still worthwhile!

  5. Hello superb blog! Does running a blog such as this require a large amount of
    work? I’ve virtually no understanding of programming but I
    had been hoping to start my own blog soon. Anyway, should
    you have any recommendations or tips for new blog owners please share.

    I know this is off subject however I simply had to ask. Appreciate
    it!

  6. Hello there! I could have sworn I’ve visited this website before
    but after going through many of the posts I realized it’s new to me.
    Regardless, I’m definitely happy I found it and I’ll be book-marking it and checking back
    often!

  7. Hello, i believe that i noticed you visited my weblog thus i got here to
    return the choose?.I’m attempting to find things to enhance my web site!I
    guess its ok to make use of a few of your ideas!!

  8. “Merhaba,

    Sizlere önemli bir konudan bahsetmek istiyorum: gmail hesab? sat?n alma. Gmail, günümüzde ileti?imde vazgeçilmez bir araç haline gelmi?tir ve birçok ki?i için i? veya ki?isel kullan?mda önemli bir rol oynamaktad?r. H?zl? ve güvenilir bir ileti?im sa?lamak için do?ru bir gmail hesab? sat?n almak oldukça önemlidir.

    Güvenilir bir platform olan SosyalHesapAl.Net, kaliteli gmail hesaplar?n? sat?n alman?z için sizlere ideal bir seçenek sunmaktad?r. Siz de gmail sat?n almak isterseniz, SosyalHesapAl.Net’i ziyaret edebilir ve en uygun fiyatlarla kaliteli bir hesap sahibi olabilirsiniz.

    Te?ekkürler!”

  9. Howdy I am so grateful I found your blog page, I really found you by mistake, while
    I was looking on Aol for something else, Regardless
    I am here now and would just like to say thank you for a tremendous post and a all round exciting blog
    (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to read through
    it all at the moment but I have book-marked it and also included your RSS feeds,
    so when I have time I will be back to read much more, Please do keep up the great job.

  10. Hey I know this is off topic but I was wondering if you knew of any widgets I could add to my blog that automatically tweet my newest twitter updates. I’ve been looking for a plug-in like this for quite some time and was hoping maybe you would have some experience with something like this. Please let me know if you run into anything. I truly enjoy reading your blog and I look forward to your new updates.

  11. This is very attention-grabbing, You are an excessively skilled blogger.
    I’ve joined your feed and sit up for in the hunt for
    extra of your great post. Also, I have shared your web site in my social networks

  12. I’m not sure where you are getting your info, however good topic. I needs to spend a while studying more or understanding more. Thank you for magnificent information I used to be in search of this information for my mission.

  13. We specialize within the deliver of the nice
    first-class, powders, pills and injectables at
    distinctly less expensive charges. You do NOT need a prescription to reserve from us.
    Our expenses are very moderate, our packaging and shipping offerings are fast,
    reasonably-priced, DISCREET and highly secured.

    Get In Touch
    Email:austinjeol420s@gmail.com

    Phon :+19512895685

  14. It’s actually a cool and useful piece of information. I am
    glad that you shared this helpful information with us. Please stay us up to date like this.

    Thank you for sharing.

  15. I absolutely love your blog.. Pleasant colors & theme. Did you
    develop this web site yourself? Please reply back as I’m wanting to create my own website and want to know where you got this
    from or what the theme is named. Thanks!

  16. coba join kedalam situs judi pkv games demgan bandar domino serta bandarq onlkine terbaik sepanjang masa yang telawh tersedia pada tahun 2023 ini dengan akun ?ro jackpot terbaik yang dapatt kalian temukan dengan menfgunakan beberapa aakun yang kalian daftarkan ?i dalam
    sini ?an kalian juga bisa mempunyai kemuingkinan untuk menerima seluruh prrofit dari metode pengisian deposit melalui pulsa yang tak dapat kalian peroleh ?? website website judi pkv games, bandarqq maupun pokerrqq online yang lainnya yang ada ?? internet saat ini.

    ?lso visit my blog … pkv games online

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *