Role Models, Rituals, and the Humbling Education of Parenthood Having children has been fascinating, humbling, and at times brutally exhausting. There’s truth to the cliché: the days are long, but the years are fast.  But beyond the fatigue and unpredictability, the greatest gift of parenting has been the education I’ve received from my kids. Children are expressive, opinionated, curious, selfish, imaginative, joyful, and wildly observant. They are not subtle. They want to kn

The Long Drive: Health, Pace, and Preventive Maintenance One of the core principles of this practice is little and often, over the long haul . Real progress almost always happens in small, stepwise advances. A wise patient once told me, “God gives you only the challenges you’re prepared to handle,” and over time I’ve found that to be remarkably true. Life rarely moves in dramatic leaps—it moves in steady miles. I often think of the human body like a car on a long road trip. O

Overall:  Well that weather was interesting. Big wrench in the week and was probably the most bizarre training week I've had in a long time. All the closures impacted life and was the perfect ending to is seeming one of the more challenging months of the year for me personally. What I seem to notice throughout the past several Januarys is you're coming off the stress of the holidays and then you enter into the Ohio darkness in a cold. Currently I'm working through the Dan Joh

Life Is Better When You Don’t Walk Alone Life is easier when you don’t walk alone. When you fall, someone helps you back up. The problem is that many people feel like they don’t have anyone to walk with—and to be fair, people will  let you down. That reality is unavoidable. This is why I’m a strong advocate for what I call distant mentors . There are countless people whose work has shaped the way I think, live, and practice—many of whom I’ll never meet. One advantage of learn

When Goals Stop Working: Recognizing a New Chapter of Life For the past 10 to 15 years, once or twice a year, I’ve sat down and mapped out goals for the coming calendar year. For most of that time, I was remarkably consistent at hitting the majority of them. 2025 was different. It was the year I missed more goals than I completed — and I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on why. The answer, I think, is simple but uncomfortable: I transitioned into a new chapter of life withou

Overall: Kind of a crummy week. In reflecting back, January has been hard the past couple of years. I’m uncertain if it’s the exhaustion coming out of the holidays mixed with our lovely Ohio weather or what, but it seems like my baseline level of grouch has been amplified. This was a testing week and things were hoo-hum. Reps were hit and that’s about it. I’ve always struggled with top end strength and I’ll be entering the intensification phase over the next 4-8 weeks. Run to

Perspective, Normal, and the Illusion of “Compared to What?” One of the most common—and quietly corrosive—questions people wrestle with is: Compared to what? Compared to who? Compared to where I “should” be by now? Broadening perspective is one of the most powerful—and humbling—things we can do in life. Many of us walk around with the quiet belief that we don’t have enough, aren’t good enough, or should be further along. And the uncomfortable truth is this: all of that might

Overall:  Past week was chaotic. With the holidays ending there were a lot of things to clean up coming off a busy holiday season. Work hours were longer with a weekend trip. Sleep was really poor this week and was more or less exhausted by Saturday. Got to train at Lexington Athletic Club this weekend, which is one of my favorite gyms around the world. Has every piece of equipment you could imagine. Was interesting running on the woodway vs my Farmer Boy Fitness curved tread

Stress Management, the Mirror, and the Two Selves When we talk about stress management, the concept only really works if we accept one simple truth: we are always two people —our present self  and our future self . These two versions of us are often competing. What brings pleasure to the present self can compromise the future. What brings long-term joy to the future self often feels uncomfortable—or inconvenient—right now. Stress often arises from this tension. The Mirror The

2025 Year in Review Relationships Grade: C  Spouse:  Very up and down year as a spouse. Have not done a good job intentionally blocking off one on one time for my wife. Got stuck too often in the grind of life instead of focusing on quality connection Mitigation Strategy: schedule dates QOW Wednesdays  Kids:  Spent tons of time with the kids but think we're getting very close needing one on one time with them as well. Oftentimes we found ourselves playing one on one defense i

The antidote to sickness is health.  The antidote to weakness is strength.  The antidote to being poor is creating wealth.  The antidote to loneliness is meaningful relationships.  And the antidote to ignorance is knowledge. Life becomes far easier when we operate from a position of strength. Yet I often see people trying to be generous before they have anything to give. It’s like donating to charity with a maxed-out credit card. Whether we’re offering time, money, energy, or

Overall:  Physically it was a draining week. Falling asleep early due to longer days. This translated over to the gym. Coming off of a testing week It's always interesting to me that there's a pretty abrupt drop off in muscular endurance. Generally weeks 2 and 3 there's a significant increase in reps. This week was more or less close to rep minimums. Jujitsu training this week was lessened based on my wife's schedule. The holidays were very busy and exhausting, but I think th

Riding the wave is the art of living. Life is  the wave—powerful, unpredictable, often indifferent to your plans. God hands you a surfboard. That’s it. The more desperately you try to balance, the quicker you fall. The more you try to fight the wave, the more you waste unnecessary energy. Never try to fight or control the wave. The bigger the wave, the greater the thrill… or the harder the crash. When you learn to surf, you don’t start with thirty-footers. You begin with ripp

Overall:  Need to spend some time with goal setting for 2026. Need to make an effort to plan in some continued development over the next 12 months. Will try to start this reflection and have it completed by the end of next week. Been thinking a lot about the concept of chapters and will put an article out about it.  Body overalls feeling a little bit tired. Volume was down with the testing lifts. Deadlift was a little bit weird this training block, and that it feels like I'm

Historically, I’ve promoted the idea of defining a minimum effective dose  of self-care—small, consistent actions that keep you grounded. After returning from deployment, I learned that to withstand significant daily stress, I needed to do just three things every day: Move my body. Learn something new. Let my family know I love them. When I did these consistently, I became more resilient. Dan John teaches a similar concept he calls a pirate map : a short list of 3–5 non-negot

Overview:  Very busy week. Close on the new office building for the practice on Monday and hopefully it’s another good step for patient care. It provides the practice with the ability to expand and have multi-disciplinary services close by. It will be an experience. Was feeling run down towards the end of the week. Started Dan John University with my wife and it’s been a wonderful experience so far. It’s great getting to hear her opinions and all of these topics. It’s always

The Pain Dial: Why We’ve Stopped Recognizing Our Own Stress A concept I’ve been thinking about lately is how few people recognize their own level of stress. I often hear patients say, “I don’t feel stressed.” Then I start listing what’s actually happening in their lives: marital conflict, a child struggling with addiction, looming retirement without a plan, the guilt of having to let long-time employees go, financial insecurity, and 50 extra pounds they can’t seem to lose. Su

Overall:  I still haven't recovered physically. Sleep overall has been OK.  Mentally not feeling as productive. A couple changes in schedule this week. Continuing to learn the lesson if I don't get it done in the morning I don't get it done at all. I need to make sure I'm actually getting to bed on time.   Started DJU IC this week: From a core value perspective came up with love, service/honor,  professionalism, strength, and curiosity. My wife is joining this cohort and it w

Overall:  Challenging week with the holidays. was able to complete all the podcast. behind from a timing perspective. made a mistake of not taking it down week from a training perspective and immediately restarting with a higher volume program. reps overall felt low and based on biometric scores not really recovered right now. no significant musculoskeletal issues which is beneficial on however under recovered from a sleep standpoint. need to focus on increasing calories.  Fi

The Heart of Charity This topic was covered previously in the financial series, but it’s worth revisiting — not as a matter of budgeting or tax deductions, but as a reflection on what it means to give. The Essence of Charity Charity is giving without the expectation of return. Yet many of us, even with good intentions, try to maintain a sense of control — to ensure our money or time is used properly . We want our generosity to be efficient, effective, and measurable. We look