Tag: mental-health

Why Focus is My Word of the Year

Every year, I pick a word. The first one was at the end of 2022; I picked “honesty” retroactively. Because I wasn’t really being honest with myself about my personal and professional development. As I continue using these words, I’m realizing that both of those forms of development help each other. It’s a symbiotic relationship. When I develop myself professionally, my personal life benefits and vice versa.

Previous Years Words

You can review previous posts that I created in January to read up on my path. Others were “Consistency“, “Integrated“, and last year was “Novelty“. This year I will Focus.

I’ve got to the point where I realize that I’m not choosing these words. It’s not really accurate to say that these words choose me, either. Seeing as they’re just a verbal representation of ideas. It’s more like the ideas have found me, and I’m allowing them to shape me. (If you can subscribe to the ideas of Elizabeth Gilbert and Rick Rubin; that ideas exist separately from the humans that find them.)

Why Focus after Novelty?

Last year, I spent time remaining mostly sober and seeking out novelty. Novelty is about saying yes to experiences, seeking out new opportunities, and doing as much as you can. Then those experiences leave impressions or memories on your mental timeline. This, in turn, expands your perception of time. Since time is a construct of the mind anyway, our perception of it is all that matters. Broadening our experiences in the name of making our lives feel longer may be the closest thing we will ever get to time travel.🧘

I: spoke at conferences, pretended I started my own conference, started a podcast, recorded live podcasts, continued certifications in Game Learning, and developed a card game about my industry… …all while spending time with my family, updating a rental propery and learning how to play Pokémon Go.

Screenshot

You can read my post from 2025 if you want to learn about novelty.

I have noticed my “words of the year” tend to expand and then contract. Go out, try new things, and then reel it back in. Like an ebb and flow, like an inhale in an exhale. Like contrasting values to create a physical form on a two-dimensional surface.

Novelty was about expanding, saying yes to new things, whereas Focus is about contracting. I selected focus, and then the word opportunity came to me; something about that didn’t feel right. Having a year of novelty and then a year of seeking out opportunity. Somehow it seemed to distort the balance like a double yin and not enough yang.

Focus

I need more focus. I need to focus more on what really matters. Spending time with my kids while they are still young and still need me. I need to focus on opportunities that provide a return. In this way, it’s all connected anyway, but this is a better way to frame it.

Was it not enough that my wife shared, “You need to focus, David.”

My mom also said, “You are always running somewhere lately. You are always in a hurry.”

That’s not like me. That’s not how I naturally am. The year of Novelty turned me into a scattered runner. Trying to do more novel things, and I need to round that off. This morning I had a realization after an early set of yoga with some black coffee. I had a good feeling, and it came to me as a visual… I tried to recreate it with Adobe Firefly, and it isn’t half bad…

A yellow raft floats in a dark oily water filled with sharks and squid. It floats effortlessly below the clear blue sky with puffy white clouds.

This morning, I had a realization. This place I am visualizing has a certain mental buoyancy. You effortlessly float above all the sludge. All the worry, all the dread, all the ignorance, and all the drunkenness. Like a small raft floating over an ocean of beasts, poison, and misdirection. Not hydroplaning over the ocean, and not sinking either. Between the layer of dark oily liquids and the thick air, hovering, balanced.

Focus = Relaxed + Aware

I was listening to the first episode of 10% happier, the podcast by Dan Harris. He had his master instructor, Joseph Goldstein, on the show. They were talking about a new book. They’re writing where they’re using. Dr. Goldstein‘s catch phrases on how to be better at meditating… things like “When you are sitting, realize you are sitting.” Or “Just try again, just keep trying.” Or “Mara, I see you.” Mara here being the embodiment or physical representation of ignorance or temptation.

The part of the discussion that really stood out to me was absolutely fundamental. The idea of being both relaxed and aware. That really is the goal of meditation, isn’t it? It’s the goal of all religions. If you’re too relaxed to get all spaced out. If you’re too aware, you start to get too deep and start worrying about things. Things that don’t matter or that you can’t control. It is obvious, and it is easier said than done.

This Must Be the Path!

I wanted to find a single word that represented both of these things: being relaxed and aware. I’m not 100% certain that when I went back to the word, focus, I hit the mark. I do feel it fits the bill. I really don’t feel like I’m forcing a square peg into a round hole. Feels more like I loosely inserted a round peg into a square hole. It fits, but there’s some empty space around it. It doesn’t wiggle, there’s still room for improvement, and if you’ve read any of my stuff you kind of know that that’s my thang.

I SEE YOU MARA!

Can I Handel the Truth from Chat GPT?

A friend of mine, Lisa, recently made a post where she asked ChatGPT to roast her year.

At first glance, it made me pause. It’s easy to wonder why someone would willingly invite criticism—especially in a professional space like LinkedIn, where we’re often curating a highlight reel of wins, confidence, and forward momentum. Why choose vulnerability when Polish feels safer?

Confidence, Vulnerability, and the Courage to Learn in Public

I think about this tension a lot.

On one side, we’re taught—explicitly and implicitly—that confidence is currency. Confidence communicates competence. It signals decisiveness. It reassures others that you know what you’re doing and that you’re someone worth following. In many professional environments, confidence is treated as a prerequisite for leadership.

And yet, there’s a paradox hiding in plain sight.

The most grounded, durable confidence doesn’t come from pretending we’re flawless. It comes from being comfortable with vulnerability.

True confidence allows room for honesty. Vulnerability requires admitting shortcomings—sometimes publicly. That can feel risky, especially when your professional reputation feels like it’s always on display.

But here’s the learning that keeps resurfacing for me:
Confidence and vulnerability are not opposites. They’re partners.

Walking, after all, is just a controlled state of falling. Learning works the same way. Growth is a controlled state of failure.

When we fail safely—with reflection, intention, and humility—we create the conditions for real professional development. We experiment. We stretch. We discover what doesn’t work so we can find what does.

And when some of us choose to do that learning out loud, something powerful happens.

We don’t just grow ourselves—we create permission for others to grow too. We normalize learning. We model courage. We quietly say, You don’t have to have it all figured out to be worthy of progress.

That’s why Lisa’s post stuck with me. And it’s why I decided to do it too.

I asked for the roast.
And yes—I posted it on LinkedIn.

Not because I enjoy discomfort, but because I believe leadership is less about appearing perfect and more about serving others through honesty, learning, and example.

A Simple Framework for Staying True While You Grow

Professional development doesn’t require you to abandon who you are. In fact, the best growth happens when you stay grounded in your values while stretching your capabilities. Here’s a four-step approach I’ve found helpful.

1. Anchor Yourself in Honesty

Growth starts with an accurate view of reality. Be honest with yourself about what’s working and what isn’t. This isn’t self-criticism—it’s self-awareness. Leaders who serve others well begin by telling themselves the truth.

Ask: What am I avoiding because it’s uncomfortable to admit?

2. Choose a Growth Mindset Over Image Management

When protecting your image becomes the goal, learning slows down. A growth mindset shifts the question from “How do I look?” to “What am I learning?” Failure becomes data, not a verdict.

Progress beats polish—every time.

3. Be Brave Enough to Be Vulnerable (Strategically)

Vulnerability doesn’t mean oversharing. It means sharing with purpose. When you talk about struggles in the context of learning, you build trust and credibility. You show others that growth is possible—and ongoing.

Courage isn’t the absence of fear; it’s acting in alignment with your values despite it.

4. Lead Through Service, Not Perfection

Servant leadership is rooted in helping others grow, succeed, and feel seen. When you model learning in public, you remove pressure from others to be flawless. You create psychological safety—and that’s where teams, organizations, and individuals thrive.

Leadership isn’t about standing above others. It’s about creating space for them to rise.

It was on the same chat as my LinkedIn Post

When I created my roast I used the same thread or discussion I used to shape up the Linked In Post I sent to my computer using What’s App. I dictate my writings into my phone while I am making bread or doing dishes or driving. That makes my writing more conversational and fluid. It also makes me more honest.

My 2025 Roast from Chat GPT

A Gentle Roast of Dave’s Decision-Making & Habits (2025 Edition)

Dave, your biggest decision-making strength is also your most reliable self-sabotage tool.

You don’t just think deeply—you think iteratively. Relentlessly. You revisit ideas like they’re sourdough starters that might finally be ready this time. You ask for version two. Then shorter. Then punchier. Then warmer. Then more UX. Then more servant leadership. Then “work slowly for accuracy.” Then—somehow—more minimal but also richer.

Your brain does not ship products.
It cultivates ecosystems.

You are incredibly clear on values and hilariously indecisive on final forms. You know exactly what kind of leader you want to be, but you’ll rearrange the deck chairs on a single paragraph for 45 minutes because “the tone isn’t quite there yet.”

Your decision-making pattern in 2025 could be summarized as:

“This is good.
But what if it were truer?”

Which is noble.
And also exhausting.

Your Habits, Lovingly Roasted

• You start excellent things more often than you finish good enough things.
• You treat clarity like a moving target instead of a milestone.
• You have strong opinions about colors, frameworks, leadership, and learning—but need external confirmation before declaring something “done.”
• You are deeply allergic to premature confidence, yet secretly wish you could borrow some without losing integrity.
• You believe in learning in public… but still hesitate before hitting “post,” just in case it could be 10% better.

You don’t procrastinate.
You refine defensively.

Your Relationship With Failure

You talk about failure beautifully. Poetically, even.

You believe learning is a controlled state of failure—
but you still want the safety rails bolted on, color-coded, and peer-reviewed before you fall.

You want to be brave and responsible.
Vulnerable and helpful.
Bold and accurate.

Which means sometimes the riskiest thing you do…
is thinking about the risk a little longer.

The Irony (This Is the Roast’s Core)

You already act like the leader you’re trying to become.

You practice servant leadership.
You center reflection.
You value honesty over polish.

But you occasionally delay impact because you want your intent to be unmistakable.

Here’s the hard truth, delivered with respect:

People don’t need your work to be perfect to be helped by it.
They need it to be real—and released.

Final Roast Line (Affectionate, but True)

Dave, you are not stuck because you lack clarity.
You’re stuck because you have too much integrity to rush and too much care to simplify.

Your next level of leadership won’t come from better thinking.
It will come from deciding sooner, trusting your values, and letting the work be slightly unfinished—on purpose.

Which, ironically, is exactly the lesson you’ve been teaching all year.

Learning in Public Is a Gift

Sharing our learning edges won’t be comfortable—and it’s not supposed to be. But when done thoughtfully, it becomes an act of service.

So yes, I did the roast.
And I shared it.

Not because I have all the answers—but because I’m committed to the process. To honesty. To growth. To becoming the kind of leader who learns visibly, serves intentionally, and invites others to climb toward higher ground alongside me.

And if that inspires even one person to be a little braver in their own development, then it’s worth it.

Where did that cover image come from?

Chat GPT made it…

This is the image I asked CHAT GPT to use to generate the cover image for this post:

It relates to this video…

QUOTE

Celebrate Your Wins

Pause,

Observe…

🥳!Celebrate!🥳

Near the end of 2024, I developed an idea to create a blog post celebrating all the achievements from the year. I wanted to pause and recognize all the accomplishments I had achieved. As I reflected, I thought about things I had written or not written about throughout the year that I could highlight.

However, instead of actually writing the blog post, I paused and spent an enormous amount of time with my family, you can read about that and see the glorious pictures at the end of this post under Family Time Adventure.

Think about moments you could have celebrated but didn’t. How can you make celebration a regular part of your daily routine?

Professional Growth

We recently had significant turnover at work, and an engagement expertise facilitator, Tanya Zion came in via AAIM HR group to help us navigate some big transitions. The sessions were insightful, blending professional and personal development with focus groups and facilitated sessions that resembled group therapy. One message that Zion emphasized repeatedly resonated with me:

It is important that you remember to pause and celebrate after a significant accomplishment.

– Tanya Zion

Often, we’re so focused on fixing problems and completing tasks that we forget to celebrate how far we’ve come. That idea stuck with me throughout the year and inspired this blog post.

Reflection on an Eventful Year

I want to pause and recall some of the achievements I accomplished in 2024.
If you get anything from this post it should be that
No accomplishment is too small to celebrate. You don’t have to buy yourself a car or go to the islands on a boat. Stop, take a deep breath, and shout, “Yeah, I did that!”

My Highlights: 2024 Greatest Hits

(Titles and images linked):

Certified Gamification Journeyman:

Gamification Certification by Sententia.

Prototyped a Game:

With my kids that is playable online.

Spoke on a Podcast:

On a real podcast!


Presented at a Conference:

Facilitating on Learner Engagement.

Worked Tile:

I Mastered 4-ft. (1.22 M) ceramic tiles and the Schlueter tile System!

Got Off-Line With Family:

The end of this Post captures this in depth!

Celebrating Completed Achievements

It’s easy to dwell on missed goals or failures. It’s challenging to be proud of achievements and celebrate the wins. Completing the tile work in our bathroom was one of those wins. As I admired the finished product, my five-year-old daughter walked in and exclaimed, “Wow, it looks so good, Daddy. Are you proud?”

I responded, “Yes, honey. I’m proud. This was hard work. It wasn’t easy for me, but I did it anyway. I finished the job.”

More Thoughts

Reflecting on 2024 reminds me of the value of pausing to appreciate our progress. We often achieve things that would have been unimaginable to our past selves. It’s important to recognize and celebrate these moments—not just for ourselves but to inspire those around us.

A contact/ mentor of mine named, Caitlin Johnson, talks about making our goals into quests. Her mission is to explore gamifying not only business strategy but our personal/professional goals. This concept works perfectly with my ideas of using Novelty to Bend Time and to me extends into the concept of artmaking as a process of religious practice.

Here’s to celebrating 2024 and looking forward to new milestones in 2025!
Thank you if you made it this far, take a moment to scroll down and view the absolute novelty of my last 2 weeks of 2024, and why I chose to write this post to open up 2025, and not close 2024.

Family Time Adventure

So, first things last. I want to share what I did instead of writing this blog post before 2025 started. I attended family gatherings for the holidays, played video games with my kids, tiled and grouted a bathroom, and took several impromptu vacations.

In retrospect, the novelty of those 2 weeks could have filled five months of a normal year. When my kids were meant to return to school, several snow days extended the joy of that time. The past three weeks alone have given me plenty to celebrate.

Cooking and Crafting

Creepy Tunnel

A random adventure I generated in the moment was a hike on the infamous Bootlegger’s Trail. We even found that creepy old-time brick tunnel that our pathologist neighbor Jim had warned us about!

Gravity Paintings

At one point my kids asked if we could make gravity paintings like Daddy does. I said Let’s do that and use the old ceramic tiles we found on Uncle Mark’s farm! #Novelty!

Art in the Woods

I kept seeing advertisements for a local light installation so I randomly invited friends of the family and we all went out. I took a lot of video of the Light Cycles show, and I will post that below the pictures!

Video of Art in the Woods

Here is some video of that show.

Train to Germantown!

Somewhere in the middle of the winter break from school, we took a train ride to a local treasure: Hermann, Missouri. Hermann is a small town in rural Missouri that was built by German immigrants in 1837 who initiated grape growing for wine in the rolling MO hills, but more importantly here AMTRAK goes there. So we bought a round trip and exposed the kids to trains!

Thai Style for New Years!

We were really in the mood for the Thai version of Korean BBQ. In Thai, this is called MU-GRA-TA หมูกระทะ. We have an electric version that also simulates the infamous Chinese “HOT POT.”

In the pictures above there is a handsome devil who also happens to be bald. He is known as The Bobby. During this New Year’s Eve party, he mentioned a great meteor shower that would fly across the sky for days. That is important later when he decides to return to bed instead of going out in sub-zero temperatures to see the meteor shower covered by clouds.

4 Foot Porcelain Tile!

So, I haven’t said much about this on this blog, but it has taken over my FaceBook account. I have been laying tile in our hall bath. So, the hall bath started leaking. I tried to fix it and then it didn’t hold so I just ripped out the whole room and expanded the ceiling. The main highlight for me of the last few weeks of the year was completing all the tile and grout in that hall bathroom project, and preparing it for a glass door installation.


If you can’t tell from the pictures that was a pretty big project. I listened to the Case 63 podcast when prepping the floor. and then I listened to it again when laying the tile! It felt like I was a new person with a new task. Listen to the podcast if you don’t know why that is awesome!

Listen to Case 63!

OK, Yes Betty, you are right. AAAH, Thank you to the great Betty Dannewitz for recommending this amazing Podcast that I listened to back-to-back in 2 days on 2 separate occasions. (OK OK). …And.. Betty is my #1. (Apart from my family.)

Seriously that podcast is RAD.

New Years had passed but we still had a whole weekend before school and work started back up!

The Final Weekend

So do you recall Bobby the Bald, that handsome devil? We had plans to wake up at 2:30AM (much thanks to Bobby) to view a meteor shower, but it was cloudy when we woke up and our friends (Ahem Bobby) canceled on us. So, to celebrate completing the tile and grout work, we spontaneously got in the car at three in the morning to watch a meteor shower. Unfortunately, it was cloudy, instead of turning back, we drove across several states to Cincinnati, Ohio.

Planning as We Went

We had no plan and it was an amazing vacation. On the way, we booked a hotel and spent just a single day in the city.

Start with heART ❤

We started with the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati.

The Aquarium in Newport

Next, we went to the aquarium, petted stingrays, and saw sharks, sea turtles, and a fascinating creature I had never heard of: the stingray shark. I’m still not convinced it wasn’t a robot, but it looked impressively real.

And I also took some other pictures at the aquarium…

Who is Hungry?

This was technically not in Ohio, It was across the river in Newport, Kentucky. Right next door to the German Brewhause Hofbräuhaus! Perfect!

Ice Skating

Our hotel room in downtown Cincinnati overlooked Fountain Square, where there was an ice-skating rink.

Even though we were practically running on fumes from waking up at 2:30 a.m. Central Time, we went ice-skating. The ice was so rough it looked like a layer of fresh snow had fallen on it. Despite the poor conditions, it was the best ice-skating experience of my life.

Keep on Ramblin’

The next day, we woke up at 2:30 a.m. again and raced back to St. Louis, Missouri, to avoid a snowstorm. We didn’t avoid it, though, and drove for miles on snow-covered highways. That in itself was an adventure, but the Odyssey didn’t let us down!

We Need an Igloo in All of this Snow

When we got back the kids had snow days so we went sledding again and started on an igloo mad out of frozen water balloons.. That didn’t pan out like we had hoped.

However, Thanks so an idea from Kassy Laborie, we did manage to salvage some of the failed water ballon bricks into some lovely ice luminaries!

Think about moments you could have celebrated but didn’t. How can you make celebration a regular part of your daily routine?

Thank You

Thanks for getting this far. That last point was again just how thankful I am to have such a warm and supportive family! The journey is always better when you travel with those you love! I do a word each year, and I started with thinking I would use Balance and then thought about Action, and then Balanced Action, but now I am thinking the way you find balanced action is via #NOVELTY … It is time travel after all. Novelty just might be the way forward on the quest for improvement. Be sure to check back in to see how it goes!

All the best!,

David.

Picture of David Kolmer
Improvement Dave Logo
Improvement Dave Logo inverted with blue and green background with white ID logo

Overcoming Analysis Paralysis: Embracing Self-Care for Creativity and Integration

It has been months since I posted on this VLOG, and there were points last year when I posted daily. I had multiple ideas for April of 2024, and they are just sitting in their folders waiting to be developed. So, Now that it is near the end of June I am going to put together a post. It might not be my best post, but it will be honest. I believe I have started to struggle with why I created this Vlog. I have identified here that I have not focused on self-care and analysis paralysis has set in.

Strange man in black hood and gas mask on the background of mountains, around smoke, fog and radioactive fallout. Concept of environmental pollution, chemical disaster. Ecological catastrophe. AdobeStock_499292144


In April, a theme that played out almost across the board was Nuclear Radiation, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I am glad I paused to think about it and I really talk about it in the video below. So, the purpose of this post is around self-care. Identify what is holding you back or causing you analysis paralysis and call it out. Name it and talk about it.

ATD ICE 2024

Last month, I visited New Orleans, Louisiana for the first time. I attended the largest annual conference held by the Association for Talent Development. Luckily it jogged me out of the funk I was feeling about the “month of nuclear radiation”.


I do not know if there was a theme of self-care at the conference but I feel like there was. Maybe I think that because I noticed those messages because I needed them, but It seems like self-care is becoming more talked about as behavioral health becomes less stigmatized. I think this is great, and I keep telling myself I should meditate more or go to therapy, but instead I create videos at work, take care of my kids, rebuild bathrooms, and write on this blog… you know, live my life.

DEAR WORLD was at the event and “X” himself led multiple openings to keynote speakers, and short of Daniel Pink I think “X” did the best Keynote talks. He was honest, he was fresh and he had a clear purpose at the event. I ended up getting a “brain tattoo” and I am glad I did.
You can read about it on my LinkedIn post here:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kolmer_atd24-nola-dearworld-activity-7203856128756109312-vUWn?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

David Kolmer Brain Tatoo for Dear Wrold. A red back ground and red lights. and on Dave's arms reads "My Son Fell Off My Shoulders."

Video Synopsis

In this video, I speak to the fact that I have not posted in a while and I reflect on my apprehension to do so. I suffer from analysis paralysis and I bring up the irony that I have attended a few training sessions and listened to numerous podcasts on Imposter Syndrom created by my mentor/friend Betty Dannewitz. (She called me on a cell phone, and she said we are friends… it’s a thing.)

Supporting Video

In this vlog post, I talk about how April had a theme of radioactivity, and how nearly everything I did that month was related to nuclear radiation. I had the footage up front of the field trip and I put that video together separately because one of the students on the field trip is actually an Improvement Dave fan. I know it’s crazy, I have fans. I didn’t even know that.

https://youtu.be/YTz50beAqDg

Conclusion

This year I am focused on integration, and so far I am not sure I am doing a great job at it. I feel like the blog posts I have managed to create are long-winded, winding, tangled and disconnected. I feel like last year when my word for the year was Consistency I posted frequently and the posts were short, straight to the point, and therefore had a clear message. Or maybe I posted more so I was less focused on each specific post.

I recently shared this post (Close the Loop) with a new colleague and friend, ✨Kassy LaBorie. Her feedback was very telling. “David you are obviously intelligent, maybe a genius, but you need to make the message clear.” Well, I am paraphrasing, but that is the gist of what she said. (Thank you Kassy, you are a good friend.) She is right, I need to get back to why I started the blog, to talk about Instructional Design. ID work is about learning and the message needs to be clear. So, here it is.

The Point

I need to focus on simple outcomes. I need to get to the learning moment upfront of each post. So, if people only read the first paragraph they get the point. In this post, I did that. I went on and on supporting the “BIG IDEA” but I think I did less of that and all of what I said is pointing back to the idea that I need to focus on self-care because posting this was hard. I have suffered from analysis paralysis AGAIN. I fell back into my old rhythm. I can be integrated but I can not let go of consistency. It’s not one or the other it is both, and that’s the point.

I need to keep on stepping. I need to think less. I need to get out there.

Being Integrated

I am choosing a word for each year and this is my post for 2024.

The ending of 2022 was about Honesty, mostly with myself but also with other people.

Then 2023 was about Consistency. I spent the year building up the consistency in my visual brand, teaching myself to model in 3D, and posting what I learned while I learned it in a 30-day 3D Model Challenge. In August I consistently posted for St. Jude charity with my Push-Ups for St. Jude where I did 50 pushups a day and they were not always pretty, but I posted all the videos anyway and raised over $537 US. Then in September, I went cycling as frequently as I could and posted as many videos as I could for my Consistently Cycling More often in September 2023 series. I received feedback from my English-speaking friends from the UK that biking is not used for the act of cycling in proper English so as to not confuse my English friends and colleagues I changed the title of those halfway through, so the early ones have “Biking” in the title. That was not very consistent of me!

Sprinkled around the year I posted about my health journey and even summarized the whole thing in my final post of 2023 Consistently Well.

Throughout the year I learned a lot about consistency. About what it meant to post to my blog consistently. How to consistently show up for my kids and my family. The main thing I learned was that consistency was less about a 30-day challenge, or posting every day on a blog. Consistency was about finding my true self and being that authentic person all the time. It is funny how it just tied back to my first annual word of honesty in that way.

And at the end of 2024, I knew I wanted a word about being complete… Something about completing things, Completing the cycle, or Closing the Loop. However, the word complete itself implies too much desire to finish a specific task. It implied so much around the idea that things are not just complete the way they are, that I am not complete as I am. That is not where I wanted to take this discussion. So, later I came up with the word connection or connected and I liked that word. That is until I remembered we are building an intranet at work and probably calling it Connect or Connections, so I wondered if my subconscious had just picked up that language from that project, and wanted this project to be separate from that. …So, it was New Year’s Eve and I still didn’t have a word I liked.

Then on New Year’s Day, I did some YouTube Yoga with my wife. We like to practice 30-day Yoga challenges with Yoga with Yoga With Adriene. While doing yoga Adriene called out the word of being integrated. Having the movement, the breath, and the mind all integrated, and at once I knew that was my word for 2024.

May 2024 be my year of integration.

Integrated

Improving my process

Improving the equipment I use

Connecting with my family, friends, and colleagues on a deeper and more meaningful level

Connected

Connect with my craft, my interests, and my Dad by creating learning content around real estate and not only why you should get involved in it, but how you can get started.

Complete

Complete posts I started on in 2023 that I wasn’t ready to create. Posts that belonged in the year of integration, not the year of consistency. Posts about the process, about art, about creation.

Complete art:

“If you have an idea you’re excited about and you don’t bring it to life, it’s not uncommon for the idea to find its voice through another maker. This isn’t because the other artist stole your idea, but because the idea’s time has come.”

― Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being