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About Me

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Hey, this is Thom.  I'm a husband, dad, teacher, coach, and chaplain.  I love reading, learning, growing, writing, sharing, and connecting.  My personal mission is to love, enjoy, inspire, encourage, and positively impact those in my circle of influence.  I want to live life better, and I love seeing those around me do the same.  That's the reason behind this website.  I love sharing resources and seeing personal and professional growth and development in myself and others.  In fact, when I grow up I would like to be a life coach. Or maybe just a guy that can help encourage anyone I find in my path.  Regardless of what happens in the future, I'm just going to practice doing the things a life coach would do. 

This is my "Optimal Day" project, and I welcome you to be a part of the "Optimal Day" community.  We all have dreams, goals, visions, and projects.  Let's bring those to life.  Let's design a plan, make some daily progress, and enjoy the process.  Let's live intentional, optimal, compelling lives.  Let's get started and take our next step.  And let's have an optimal day.

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About This Project

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This website is a playground for my Optimal Day project.  I enjoy sharing what I've learned, and this website allows me to try out a lot of ideas and experiment with ways of sharing.  I use this site to play around with writing and sharing ideas.  I understand that developing and presenting is a craft that takes time and a ton of practice, so that's what I'm doing.  I'm using this project in hopes of developing a craft.  You know how it's fun to watch little kids learning to play organized sports?  It's awkward and funny because they don't really know what's going on, but still having fun anyway?  That's kind of the way I see this website.  I just started without really knowing what I was doing, but I'm really having fun.  I hope you are entertained by my bumbling and fumbling.  It's an intentional compelling process that I really enjoy, and I'm humbled that you are interested in following along with me.

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About This Website

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I originally designed this site to keep developmental training resources for my tennis players.  The hope was that we could use small changes to make incremental gains to help us make huge gains over time.  My hope was to help players build strong, consistent habits in key areas to help them train more intentionally and perform more optimally.  The word optimal means best, so an "optimal day" is the best day we're capable of where we are right now.  And with that mindset and daily approach, we could "have an optimal day" every day.  That's where I got the idea for the website name.  If we can string together a series of optimal (best) days, we can make huge gains over time.  

 

About My Plan

 

I like to think I live life with a "Next Step Mentality."  Wherever we are, all we have to do start living life better is take our next step.  We design a plan, make some progress, and enjoy the process.  What follows is part of my life plan.  This is a statement of my mission, vision, values, and key guiding principles.  This plan is definitely a "living document" so I'm continually acting on it, reflecting on it, and revising it.  I would encourage you to write one for yourself.  Feel free to steal and edit mine.  The key guiding principles and meaningful thoughts is a fun part I added.  This is where I keep important ideas and quotes I come across.  Keeping them with my life plan keeps them active.  And it's just fun to keep adding to this section.  Oh, and at the end is my keystone habit and one word.  Enjoy the read.

 

Personal Mission

Love, enjoy, inspire, encourage, and positively impact those in my circle of influence

 

Personal Vision

Live an Intentional, Optimal, Compelling Life.

Design a Plan, Make Daily Progress, Enjoy the Process.

I want to be the type of person who lives a balanced, compelling life; I want to be focused on the process, not the outcomes; I want to be the type of person who lives every day with purpose and direction.  I want to be healthy in spirit, mind, and body. I want to be the type of person who is mindful and present and who makes a positive contribution to my world every day. I see this as the dream life. And I intend to live that dream life every day.

 

Personal Values

I most value my faith, my family, my connections, my contributions, and my quality of life.  I value the dignity and respect to all people regardless of differences. I value striving for daily and long term excellence.  I value living with respect, integrity, and character. I value dreaming big while making small daily gains. I value closing the gap between my current self and my best self and highest potential. I value living a balanced, well-designed, well-lived life.

 

Key Life Guiding Principles and Meaningful Thoughts

Live Every Day With Purpose, Direction, and Intention

Practice Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness...Self-Control, Presence, Awareness, Compassion, Forgiveness, and Thankfulness

Actively Love God and Love Others - Mark 12:30-31

Simple Path: Silence, Prayer, Faith, Love, Service, Peace - Mother Teresa

Be Joyful; Be Intentional; Be Mindful; Be Present; Be Still; Be God’s

I believe what I believe is what makes me what I am - Rich Mullins

Strive to be the best version of me; Look For Ways to Live Life Better - Johnson/Clear

Show Up and Keep Showing Up 

Believe in the Process and Commit to the Process 

Think Like a Gardener, Work Like a Carpenter - Daniel Coyle

Your level of success will seldom exceed your level of personal development - Jim Rohn

Who you’re becoming is far more important than what you’re doing, and yet it’s what you’re doing that’s determining who you’re becoming - Hal Elrod

Every Day We Have an Opportunity to Create a Living Masterpiece - Michael Gervais

What You Do Today Matters, it’s determining who you are becoming - Hal Elrod

Practice Excellence in Consistency - Gwen Jorgensen

If You Want to Change the World, Make Your Bed - Admiral William McRaven

Making your bed every morning is correlated with better productivity, a greater sense of well-being, and stronger skills at sticking with a budget. – Charles Duhigg

It’s Okay To Suck; It’s Not Okay To Skip (especially 2 in a row) - James Clear

You can do ANYTHING want, but you can't do EVERYTHING you want.

There will always be more opportunities than time to pursue them - Peter Drucker

Bookend Your Day with awesome a.m. and p.m. - Jocelyn Glei

Intentionally Build Awesome Routines, Habits, and Systems

Stay Ultra Tiny in Habits - Think Long-Term Sustainability

Every Habit Needs a Strong Why - James Clear

Make Identity-Based Goals - “I’m the kind of person who…” - Clear

Believe in the Aggregation of Marginal Gains; 1% - Dave Brailsford

Be Grateful Every Day

Notice and note ideas for improvement and optimization.  

Don’t Judge Others or Yourself.

Show yourself compassion - Kristin Neff

“I’m alright, nobody worry about me” - Kenny Loggins

Create Focus, Simplicity, and Tranquility - Dan Tricarico

Learn to say no politely but unapologetically - Stephen Covey

Do Deep Work; Manage Shallow Work - Cal Newport

Make Ridiculously Tiny Habits - Leo Babauta

Celebrate Tiny Victories “I’m Awesome!” - BJ Fogg

Have a Growth Mindset. Be Process Oriented. - Carol Dweck

What You Do Every Day Matter More Than What You Do Once In a While - Jocelyn Glei

Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most. – Buddha

Accept responsibility for EVERYTHING in your life and you’ll have the power to change ANYTHING in your life - Hal Elrod

Deep Learning is Profoundly Relational - Lori Desautels

What matters is not our Status, but our Trajectory; not where we are, but where we are going - Brian McLaren

Look For Ways To Optimize and Maximize Daily Potential and Performance

Optimize Your Life.  Actualize Your Potential - Brian Johnson

Daily Fundamentals: Eat, Sleep, Move (small choices lead to big changes) - Tom Rath

Enjoy the Day, Have an Optimal Day - 

Be Deliberate, Be Intentional, Enjoy the Process

You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf - Jon Kabat Zinn

Strive for consistent, balanced, long-term, personal growth.

Live intentionally: examining habits and making daily intentional choices.

Lean into life - David Hayes

Life is a series of obstacles and setbacks; living is overcoming them. - Dean Karnazes

Be a Reader, Learner, Discoverer, and Writer

Recognize the Beauty and Value of Every Human Life

Be So Good They Can’t Ignore You - Steve Martin

Be a Craftsman.  Build Career Capital. - Cal Newport

Champions Do the Ordinary Things Extraordinarily Well - Tony Dungy

Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you were capable of becoming - John Wooden

Talent is a Skill: it can be developed and improved by any person and in any area - Anders Ericsson, Daniel Coyle

Be an “Every Day” Guy, Not an Everyday Guy. Build Your Cathedral. Today is a great day to get better.  Now how are we going to do that? - Rick Weinheimer

Notice (obvious), Want (attractive), Do (easy), Like (satisfying) - James Clear

Rome wasn’t built in a day, but every day they were laying bricks - James Clear

Anything less than a conscious commitment to the important is an unconscious commitment to the unimportant - Stephen Covey

Live to a Higher Standard - Allistair McCaw

Build a Tribe, Create a Movement - Seth Godin

Be the Change That You Wish To See In the World - Mahatma Gandhi

Be Kind Whenever Possible. It is Always Possible - Dalai Lama

Be Humble in Your Aspirations, Gracious in Your Success, and Resilient in Your Failures - Ryan Holiday

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. – Aristotle

Develop and Nurture the right kinds of habits.

The Habit Loop: cue, routine, reward. - Charles Duhigg

Pay attention to and question the automated routines in life - Charles Duhigg

Control the controllables - Rick Macci

Think and act like Andy Dufresne. Think about his mindset and daily intentionality.

Perfection is the Enemy of the Good

Be Productive, Not Busy

Journal and Write Every Day

Don’t Get It Perfect, Get It Written

My daily work doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does have to be daily.

“I’m a mule, and the way that I have to work is I have to get up at the same time every day, and sweat and labor and barrel through it really awkwardly.” - Elizabeth Gilbert

Create Quantity.  Quality will follow.  

Be Remarkable; “Build a Tribe, Start a Movement” - Seth Godin

Act Your Wage - Dave Ramsey

“If you’ll do now what other people won’t, you’ll live later like other people can’t” - Larry Burkett

Choose to “Live the Dream” Every Day.  Live Life By Design - 

Choose your attitude each morning - Debra Searle

A well-designed life is a life that is generative—it is constantly creative, productive, changing, evolving, and there is always the possibility of surprise. You get out of it more than you put in. - Bill Burnett

Design Your Environment - Make the Best Choices the Easiest Choices

Ready, Fire, Aim.  Start Before You’re Ready - Brian Johnson

Make Little Bets Often - Peter Sims

Learn Cross Disciplines, Lots of Sources, Be able to apply as a balanced source of wisdom to draw upon, Adjacent Possibilities - Stephen Johnson

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive; to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. – Marcus Aurelius

Wear Sunscreen - Mary Schmich

 

My Keystone Habit

Writing (formerly it was working out)

I have to write every day. It can be journaling, gratitude, reflective, contemplative, or creative. But that is my keystone.

Other important habits: faith practices, intentional family time, self-care, mindfulness, health and fitness, altruism, activism, advocacy.

 

My One Word

PEACE

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Last year, my word was INSPIRE.

The previous year, it was IMPACT.

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