Life Lessons – The Challenge and Bad Bacon

Part of the reason I write this blog is because I hope someday my children and God willing perhaps my grandchildren will find these writings and know a little bit more about their Dad or Grandpa. This is perhaps the thing I’ve not been entirely successful at so this year I’m going to change that. This year I’m going to write down one life lesson or little piece of wisdom I come across every week. That’s right 52 lessons, not all long items mind you but something that I hope adds some detail about what I believe is important.

I’ll take some and expand on the ideas as time allows, some will be things I learn as I attempt to close out my 101 Things to Complete in 1000 days leading up to my 40th birthday this year.

2014 is going to be an incredibly busy year but my resolution is to keep my eye on the long term stuff and not let the minutiae of the day to day bog down what we’re trying to do.

So here is Life Lesson #1: Bad bacon is better than no bacon.

There are things in our lives that by their very existence are good and Bacon is one of them. You never look at bacon and say that Bacon is Not Good Enough so I’m gonna wait for a better version of it, no you eat the imperfect bacon AND the perfect bacon if it does show up.  There are other of things in our lives that are even more important and they too may not be perfect but like bacon we should’t wait for the ideal version of them to dig in and enjoy. As a busy working parent I often find that I don’t have as much quality time as I would like with the kids but we keep trying to do our best, take what we can get and enjoy it instead of stressing that it isn’t enough. Time spent worrying or complaining about something doesn’t ever make it better it just takes away from what we could be doing.

New Online Project Begins – Day One

So my 101 in 1001 Project is nearing its end and I really thought I would have gotten a few more things done from my list, but I guess it’s the day to day life that defines who we are and not our glamourized todo list.  But it still makes me wonder what was I doing in all those 1001 days that prevented me from getting to all of the items on my list.  Well that’s just what my new project intends to document. 

So starting today and concluding on June 1 2011, I’m going to post one photograph from my day to day life that captures the “what” for that day.  In addition to posting the photo, I’ll add some notes about the busy lives the Kovacs’ are living.  This new project will be a kind of photo journal that tracks a year in the life.

So let’s start with today:

May 31, 2010

Memorial Day - May 31, 2010

 

It’s Memorial Day … good thing that we celebrated with everyone yesterday as a little rain had developed this afternoon.  Aiden is still battling some strange bug giving him pretty good fevers but no other signficant symptoms.  Back to work and school tomorrow.

Wedding in Progress, Please be Considerate

So the boys and I tokk our bikes to Lake Benson park in Garner, NC. There they have a 1.2 mile paved bike trail that is mostly flat and it’s a great place to ride with the boys.

On our second circuit we noticed some people setting up a bunch of white chairs. By the start of our fourth circuit they were still setting up but the placed a sign in the middle of the bike path clearly meant to disuade people from going any further that said Wedding in Progress – Please be Considerate.

I find it ironic that someone can be so insanely self-absorbed to actually hold a wedding next to a bike path and expect to be able to close down a bike path in a public park. Please be considerate indeed.

So on our way back to the truck we had ride up the road instead of the bike path and Wesley was almost run over the rednecks coming into the park for the wedding.

If you choose to hold an event in a public park don’t expect the public to stop using it.

Where were you on 9/11?

On 8Donkeys we’re collecting narratives of where you were on 9/11 and what you remember about that fateful day 7 years ago?  Please consider adding your story:  http://8donkeys.wordpress.com/2008/09/10/9112001-where-were-you/

I’ve included mine in the article.

Journals Aren’t Just Diaries for Men

So my buddy Robert M from work shared a tip with me that he got at a leadership course he is taking.  The instuctor said that all leaders should keep journals.  The journal will help their development into being a better leader by allowing you to explore your challenges and accomplishments.

OK so I bit.  I went out and bought one of those black and white composition books.  You know . . . that one’s you had to buy if you were late shopping for school supplies and it was all they had left.

My first entry, started out with an awful introduction of myself, I guess, in the off chance that mine is the journal aliens find thousands of years from now.  This is now my personal Voyager.  But oddly enough the entries after the first one have become increasingly more theraputic and interesting . . .I think.

What started out as a Journal on leadership has become my own version of a “what happened today” memory aid and a place where I can muse without publishing . . . . .although I expect that it will allow me to develop more content for my blogs.  Which should be good for both of us.  😉

As I wrote in that landmark first entry I often feel as though I’m getting little bits of ideas and views about that I’m supposed to do (you know when I grow up) but I lose them under the demands at work and when the next idea comes along.  This journal has given me a place to put all of these pieces together and see where it takes me.

So do you have a journal or a diary, how do you use it, how frequently do you write in it and what has writing in it done for you?

/kk