Back from training this summer! I had amazing experiences and really pushed myself to the limit (not that I had much of a choice). I also gained valuable friendships and connections. More on those to follow in other posts. Some goodies since I’ve been back…

Focus

I try to read an article I have saved to Pocket every day, otherwise, my list of articles get’s to be infinite and overwhelming. In an Evernote blog post titled How to Avoid Focus-Stealing Traps, this quote on types of focus resonated well with me:

Goleman casts the types of attention…into three general categories. He argues that we can have “inner,” “outer,” or “other” focus, or focus on the self, other people, and the world around us. The most successful of us develop and balance out this “triad of awareness,” because “a failure to focus inward leaves you rudderless, a failure to focus on others renders you clueless, and a failure to focus outward may leave you blindsided.”

Morning Routine

One of my favorite parts of returning home—aside from loving the heck out of my wife and daughter—is to be in a set morning routine again. I didn’t let jet lag get to me. My first day back, I set the alarm for 0530 (which felt like 0730 coming from the East Coast) and got to it. It’s been really therapeutic to know I have some structure—especially coming from military training. It’s looked a little something like this:

0530 Wakeup
0535 Play around on social media while my water heats up for yerba mate
0540 Bathroom break
0550 Play a round of Heroes of the Storm
0610 Read 4 pages of Das Buch Mormon
0645 Journal or blog
0715 Misc housekeeping on my laptop
0800 Eva wakes up

Silicone Icecube Tray

Tim Ferriss likes to ask what recent purchase of less than $100 has brought joy or impacted your life in a positive way. I don’t know why I ever bothered with plastic icecube trays that are terrible to use. A silicone tray is blowing my mind. You can pop a single cube out at a time, and it’s actually easy! I love it and will be getting another one. They’re about $4 at Walmart.

A Résumé for Elon Musk

I am constantly pouring over my résumé to tweak and improve it. I also love Elon Musk. This Business Insider post was a match made in heaven. A company built a résumé (PNG version) for Elon and, although it’s not perfect, it paints a very good picture of how to stick to a single page. It’s also creative and fun and has given me ideas on how I can alter mine. Funny enough, my current résumé is based on a guy who got hired at SpaceX right out of his undergrad.