Had a great weekend watching everything turn amber, orange and red in Shenandoah National Park while learning from the pros Francisco J Martinez and Keegan Dunlap. Mini-treks like these in the land of the free are some of my favorites.
Adventures are always waiting for you, you just have to start.
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Picked up this little gem last week at The Wine Cellar and Tasting Room fall sale, and I must say I was impressed with its hint of spice.
The perfect companion to SOFlete meal prep Turkey Chili Mac tonight. Just because we’re on on a diet, and it’s a school night, doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun and a lotta flavor. After sippin’ on euro wines for a while now, I can say the bolder flavors and earthy undertones of this Cabernet Sauvignon were a welcomed breath of fresh air.
Stay tuned for more of these soon
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World’s largest Weinfest! Another tick off the bucket list.
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Constantly in search of Grand Cru.
In French wine making, they have this term.
It’s called Grand Cru.
Only the best vines, planted in the best locations, with the best soil, with steep elevation, that get the best sunlight and produce the best grapes can be called Grand Cru.
There’s something to be taken from this concept, excellence.
The French realized early on that only the best conditions will produce the best grapes
I think we can use the same logic in our own lives.
If we want to produce our own best grapes, we need things like a lot of sunlight (good vibes), established roots in good soil (the environments we choose to put ourselves in), and changes in our elevations (constantly pushing ourselves to new levels).
Yea sure, you can make ok grapes with all the basic elements and a little sunlight. But once you go to make the wine, it’s not going to taste as good as it could be.
We can choose to seek out those conditions that are going to produce Grand Cru grapes in our lives.
And just like the wine, I’d be willing to bet when we produce Grand Cru in our lives, it tastes pretty good!
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This is my “Go walkabout in the Scottish highlands and slay some Loch Ness Monsters, but be ready to hit the Links with the boyz” loadout.
Versatility and multi-functionality can not be overstated for every piece of clothing and gear.
This is my 5th trip flying solo with just the carryon backpack.
I’ve come a long way in choosing what goes in, but somehow I still find myself cramming stuff in and having to press down on the top to make everything fit. Anyone feel me on that?!
I think I naturally gravitate towards the mindset of “I have this much space, must fill it” instead of determining what I actually need and then finding the appropriate bag for it to fit in. Needless to say, looking forward to breathing some crisp Scottish air this weekend, hitting the links, and tasting some Scotch.
Just wanted to give a huge Thank You to my good friend Billy and his wife Nicola for showing me a Royal Weekend in Scotland. These are my favorite kind of adventures
P.S. Try the Haggis, it’s fantastic!
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Different kinds of adventures require different kinds of load outs.
This is my sit back on the beach, watch the waves crash, and ponder life’s deep questions during the day, and eat tapas, and flamenco all night loadout.
Remember, less is more, otherwise how are you going to fit all those cheeses and Jamón Ibérico in your bag on the flight home?!
This is España
Sailing into the week, Barcelona on my mind.
Decided to get my PhD in Paella in Barcelona last weekend.
Paella is all about bringing in the right flavors, and using high quality ingredients to bring out the best in the dish. . It’s a local specialty, in that it always uses local products, wherever in the world you find them making Paella, which gives it its authentic taste.
The most important ingredient is people.
Paella is cooked and served in a traditional pan, that allows for sharing family style.
That’s what makes good Paella, great Paella.
Looking forward to making some Paella back in the states for some of my favorite people!
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Continually do I find myself reevaluating the gravity of the world wars that shook Europe.
My ability to comprehend how these wars completely and literally shook a continent is limited for not having to endure these times.
But walking through these places, and seeing what our greatest generation saw many years ago continues to be hallowing.
Visiting the 101st Airborne Museum in Bastogne was one of those moments where I grew to respect the eerieness of some of these places.
It gave me a greater appreciation for the heaviness of what transpired in Bastogne and during the Battle of the Bulge.
If you’re familiar with Band of Brothers By Stephen E. Ambrose, then you may recall Bastogne, where the elements of the 101st endured a long winter.
They were given one simple task, hold Bastogne.
They repelled attack after attack, underwent bombing after bombing, and stayed true to their mission. . Bastogne was never retaken by the Germans .
Getting a slight glimpse into the lens that the 101st endured in Bastogne reaffirms my gratefulness for the greatest generation and what they endured.
I’ll leave you with this parting thought: On 22 December 1944, four German emissaries approached the American front lines with white flags demanding surrender. To which Brigadier General McAuliffe simply replied “NUTS”!
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Dove into the world of craft foods in countries #23 and #24 this past weekend, Belgium and Luxembourg!
Around every corner was an opportunity to expand the palate.
The Belgians are craftsmen in every sense of the word. From crafting of their chocolates to their waffles, even their pommes frites (aka French fries, don’t worry I used to not be in the know, trust me, ignorance is bliss my friend), they use precision in everything they produce.
We don’t have to be chocolatiers or Belgian waffle makers to be craftsmen.
We get to choose what we want to become the best in the world at, and if we keep persisting, and continue to hone our craft we too can become craftsmen.
Seek out some true craftsmen in your travels this week!
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Throwing it back today to canyoneering in the Alps!
What is canyoneering you ask? Basically a combination of rappelling, jumping, climbing, sliding, swimming and spelunking.
Do more stuff that excites you. This was just plain fun.
Want to see what canyoneering all entails? Check out the video and watch me stumble through the Grimsel Pass in Switzerland.
Luckily they got all my canyon clumsiness on the GoPro…
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“But do you have the meats?”
“Yea. I got the meats. I got all the meats.” .
Over the past 10 days I embarked on a culinary, enological and cultural adventure: Weinfest!
Everyday was a chance to try some fastidiously crafted Rieslings, Blanc de Noirs, Sekts, and a few other German specialties.
Thankful I got plugged into an awesome crew here that could show me the ropes, help me navigate the wine selections, and steer me away from the soggy schnitzels.
It also made me super grateful for being able to find people in new places that you can connect with.
I don’t know where you look for what you seek to find, but I’ve found if you invest in the people and experiences around you you’ll be amazed what you find around the corner.
Good food, great wine, and awesome people are what good times are made of. .
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Growth is about movement. It’s about forward progress.
I can’t tell you how many times in the past I’ve tried to just zone out. That’s the easy button.
Just go to some fictitious dark place in your mind where you don’t have to actually feel the work.
Or just turn on Netflix and not have to feel the weight of the situation you’re in.
But all that’s doing is preventing you from achieving your full potential.
Because if you really want to become the best version of yourself, I challenge you to truly be present in every moment.
That means counting every rep in all your workouts, especially when they are tough and all you want to do is turn the music up high and drown out the pain.
Or at work when all you want to do is not be there and focus on something pleasant.
Or in your relationships when all you want to do is not deal with a situation or talk to someone new.
See the only way you’re going to get better is by dealing with the shit right there in front of you, by squaring up with it and putting in the work to learn something from it and not let it devour you.
Crush some demons this week by not letting them get a foothold in your life, and achieve your true potential. Grind early, grind often, safe travels to all.
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How do we know we’ve reached our highest altitude?
We can’t always choose the challenges we want to face, but we do get to choose how we face them.
Exploring the Alps in Switzerland 🇨🇭 last weekend helped me gain a little more altitude for my challenges.
I hope you can find your altitude and follow the path that you’re meant to be on.
Safe travels to all, and keep exploring your path!
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Ready for adventure…
Country #22! Switzerland.
In between looking for the best chocolates and cheeses, may have ran across a dwarf or two (fun fact, the Alps were inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien when he was envisioning the mystic mountains among other places in the LOTR world, nerding out just a little bit...).
Tonight, we feast (on cheese, chocolate and wine, not necessarily in that order).
Tomorrow, we climb!
SUP? Come here often? These are my stretchy pants
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Saturday I had a humbling experience to walk through and see the city of Schweinfurt from a new perspective.
Growing up I was a huge WWII history nerd. I loved it, learning about history, and especially WWII because I think from an early age I recocognized the scale of a period in our world history that affected so many people and steered the course of where we are today as a nation and as a society.
One of the more nuanced campaigns of the allies in the European theater was their bombing campaign.
The reason I bring this up, is because people would normally think, oh yea, bombing, we just bomb everything and that’s how we win. Just start carpet bombing every square mile.
But this isn’t strategy. In war and in life and in business we have limited resources and limited time and we have to make those resources achieve more effects than than the inherent value they have in a shorter period of time than allotted.
So they knew they had to think outside the box. They had to get creative. They started targeting auxiliary systems of the tank, ie the ball bearings that make the wheels and tracks on a tank move.
The factories for the ball bearings were in Schwienfurt. So the allies wanted to hit them hard and provide a devastating blow to German tank production. . They attacked several times, and paid a heavy price. So did the people of Schweinfurt.
Walking through the streets of Schweinfurt today and seeing where these factories used to be and other key locations used during the war gives you something you can’t get playing a video game or watching a documentary.
So if there’s any takeaways for me this weekend it’s getting out and walking the ground to experience what it was like will always be valued over a simulation. And the power of our ingenuity. We owe it to the people we lead and serve to be constantly innovating and seeing what’s next so we can steer the course towards that next horizon now.
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Had the best weekend seeing friends and meeting up with this guy!
Fernando was my platoon sergeant back in the day. We spent the better part of a year, in a hmmwv together, moving through snow drifts and desert sands. Some of the best moments of my life! Can’t believe how long it’s been.
Now he’s on to bigger and better things with a beautiful family, retired and living the good life in Germany! Can’t wait to visit again!
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I always find myself people watching in a lot of different situations. My mind starts turning and I want to know why some teams are effective and others aren’t.
Just like common sense is not so common, the same holds true for leadership.
There’s no secret sauce. No hidden weapon. No deep buried lost secrets of antiquity. It’s simple:
Hard work
Consistency
Systems and processes
Influence
Adaptability
Emotional intelligence and empathy .
These are the basics. The better you are at the basics the more effective leader you’re going to be. As long as you’re humble enough to accept that you can always be better at the basics, you’ll never stop improving.
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Self care is not a luxury, but a responsibility.
If you don’t take the time to do the the things that put you in the zone, and give the ability to bring your A-game, are you really doing your best? .
What is self care? How do we build time into our busy schedules for it?
For me, it’s hitting five areas each day during the week, and using the weekends to spend more time developing in specifics areas .
My five focus areas are: .
1) Physical - Taking care of my body through diet and exercise.
2) Mental - I love taking time to focus and find more clarity on my goals and tasks. This could be as simple as checking my to-do less and ruthlessly cutting out things I really don’t need to do, as well as visualizing what success and progress look like for some of my goals.
3) Social - Spending time with connecting people I care about, and making new connections as well. I think people forget the second part a lot of times. If you’re not making new connections, you’re going to get stagnant and not see growth. How can we be innovative in our disciplines if we aren’t innovating our relationships
4) Emotional - This one is important. We need to check in with our emotions and really dig deep into what is causing our emotional patterns. This is the only way we can change. By establishing a baseline, and charting progress we can over time change our outlook on life and really see the glass as half full.
5) Spiritual - Finding time everyday to connect with our faith and spiritual side gives us so much in the form of our purpose, and also gives us hope for a better future. It’s where we find grounding, and meaning in tough situations.
Try intentionally spending time in each of these areas everyday this week, and defining what each area means to you. Don’t be surprised when you reduce stress, anxiety, and gain focus, clarity, and consistency in your endeavors.
How do you define self care?
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Bittersweet today, kind of like this glass of Riesling, closing the chapter on one notebook, and starting a new one tomorrow.
This notebook has been through a lot with me, and has been there to help keep my mind right and stay focused on the tasks at hand.
I’ve been fortunate enough to spend some time around some high performers, high achievers and highly effective people (read “not me” lol), and what I’ve noticed is their use of a notebook to keep their thoughts organized.
The notebook will never lose its place in the office or in the field.
Couldn’t think of a better way to sum up 18 months of using the same notebook than sipping on some bittersweet Riesling to toast the last chapter and christen the new one.
Cheers to good notebooks and good wine.
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Hey listen to this. You need to hear this. If you are going to do epic shit, if you’re going to push the limits. You’re going to start getting attention. Some of it will be positive and some of it will be negative.
It’s how you choose to react (not reacting is a reaction) that matter for you, your journey and your story.
If you keep your faith in yourself, in why you’re doing what you’re doing and God, you cant go wrong.
But yes you will fail. Everyday. But those failures over time add up to great wins and successes.
So enjoy the process of learning how to really open up your voice and let yourself be heard, of finding new ways to express yourself, and new ways to be you.
With each new failure we learn something new about ourselves that can’t be learned by sitting down, being quit and not taking a risk.
It’s on the fringe, in our uncomfortable zone that we truly become ourselves.
Here’s to being more true to myself and expressing who I am, and enjoying the process of figuring it out as I go.
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There are moments in our life where we are faced with daunting tasks and great ambiguity. Where we don’t know what to do next.
These moments can define our lives, and set us on courses we never expected. The question is what we do in those moments.
Exploring champagne gave me a chance to explore my courage and how I define it for myself.
I challenge you to do the same. If you need a place to start, checkout my stories I’ve complied from champagne. I’ll be dropping some of my thoughts on courage and the thoughts of others.
If we don’t take opportunities to start the conversation, and we take for granted our freedom to engage in the discussion, then we’ll lose it. Let’s use our courage for good and define what it means to ourselves.
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