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2/27/24
Slept pretty good this evening. No bad dreams and sleep apnea didn’t appear to bother me
too much. Really did not want to get into the ice bath this morning, but I forced myself and as
usual it paid off. I felt great rolling into the rest of my day. Tuesday is pretty heavy on meetings
for work, so that makes for a rather easy morning. Two forty-five or so minute zoom meetings.
The afternoon I had a demonstration in Orlando and things went very well, pretty sure the guy is
buying immediately. Got nice and sweaty playing basketball, of course I won. New Megamind
movie came out, so we watched it, from what I remember before falling asleep it was good.
Overall, pretty standard Tuesday, but a good day.
2/28/24
I hate Wednesdays, it always feels like there is still so much to do in the week.
Thankfully today wasn’t too bad. Felt good getting into the ice bath today, which is definitely not
a normal feeling. On Wednesday work consists of a lot of calls and emailing. Following up with
past clients, contacting prospective new ones, and moving potential ones along the pipeline.
Monotonous but the time passes quickly it seems. Demo went decently, had a few technological
hiccups, but the customer didn’t seem to mind too much. The perfectionist in me sure did
though. Had some good family time tonight but boy was it a hot one, very sweaty. Son is getting
more and more confident on his bike which is so much fun to watch. It is hard to not be a
helicopter parent and let him be a daredevil at times.
2/29/24
Normally I love Thursdays, they just always seem to feel like we are almost to the
weekend. Started strong with the ice bath again that made me feel alive all morning long.
Powered through a couple of quick business meetings and set up some very strong possible deals
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for next week. Looking forward to that. Especially after today’s disaster. I am not sure what the
deal was today, but today’s demonstration was just terrible. Things didn’t seem to work on my
end as they should, the customer who sounded so interested over the phone, seemed to have a
million questions, and no longer interested. Came home feeling down, thankfully, mans best
friend was happy as can be waiting on me so I took the dog for a walk and that cheered me up.
Met with the in-laws for dinner, wasn’t good nor bad, just ok. Thursdays are a big homework
night for me for school, so we powered through some of that.
3/1/24
Who doesn’t love a Friday? Not me today apparently, this morning just started out
sluggish. I didn’t sleep great, had some dreams that woke me up a few times. Yesterday’s work
stress likely had a hand in those old traumas resurfacing a little. Here’s to PTSD. Slow start to
administration works today. Normally Friday is a good morning, but today just was tough to get
the wheels moving, but we got it done, nonetheless. This afternoon’s demo went awesome, the
coach had a few others out there as well and they all seemed to be on board. This typically means
the purchasing process can move through much quicker. When I got home to do my follow up,
he'd already contacted me asking about next steps That makes for a solid end to the work week.
Capped the week off with a family Dave and Busters night. This place is a blast and enjoyable
for the whole family, the food and drinks are great, the games are a blast. We had a great time
together.
3/2/24
I always seem to enjoy my Saturdays. Now that I have started my new job, I always have
weekends off and that has become such the biggest blessing. I really enjoy this full day reset with
the family. Started the morning off running errands and shopping with my wife. We like to play
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a game called, let’s see which tires first, my card from tall the swiping she does or my arms from
carrying all the bags. I’m broke but I have not lost yet. Just kidding. I enjoy this time with her,
even if I don’t love going to a million stores. Afternoon went and watched my son play a
basketball game; I love watching his passion. Ending the evening with my favorite Saturday
night tradition, grilling in the backyard, and playing catch with the family. Great end to a good
week.
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Narrative
Last year I medically retired out of the military. Having spent nearly a decade with
immense structure to my workday, my personal schedule (soldier life, especially leader, is 24/7),
and most decisions I made. In 8 years of service, I amassed over 12months of deployment time
and countless more months gone or in the field on overnight training missions. A US Army
Infantry Paratrooper has very little control of their life. What may seem like personal time to
civilians is often spent preparing for the next mission or trying to recover from the last one. In 8
years, I lost untold number of weekends, missed many holidays, and important life milestones. It
was a life that I loved, but it is very physically and mentally exhausting.
In my post military life, I work 100% remote in sales. I make my own schedule, I report
to my team lead once a week, and most importantly, I will never ever work a weekend again. To
some people the remote sales life can seem like a daunting task, but to me it feels like a breath of
fresh air. I love my life and my job. My last 3 years in the military, I was enrolled in school full
time online. I was able to maintain this through 3-month deployments, through countless multi-
day training missions, and many, many overnight guard shifts. I was enrolled in my master’s
program when I transitioned out of the military, found part time work, and when I moved and
accepted my new and current job. Now, working and living, within a schedule that for me feels
like an eternity of white space, what unscheduled time is called in the Army, is a piece of cake.
To add in this Doctorate of Strategic Leadership (DSL) program, feels and seems like a seamless
natural progression for me. All I have known since March 2020 is working and attending school
full time online. On one hand, this program is a lot more demanding and strenuous than my
undergrad program was, but on the other hand, my work and life workload is significantly better
than it was back then as well. Undoubtedly, this DSL program will require more attention and
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time than any program I have done before. The advantage I have is that I work remotely and
100% make up my own schedule. Meaning, I can easily use the provided syllabus for each
course and incorporate the work into my work schedule for the day, rather than it being an
afterthought at the end of the day. Admittedly that is what happened during this specific week,
but that has not been the norm for this semester as a whole. This specific course has not been
what I would consider to be a walk in the park, but I assume it has been focused more on
preparation for the program as a whole and likely is a bit less demanding. This has been an
introduction into the DSL program, and I have used it as such and experimented with different
scheduling frameworks week to week. Going forward onto the remaining classes for this
program, I do not anticipate that it will hinder my work life balance much at all. Thankfully my
time in the military taught me very well how to manage many stressors at once and how to be a
master of my own time and schedule. Those learned skills will prove to be very useful as my
course workload increases through the program.
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