COVID is over!

When 2021 started, I really thought we’d be able to say that by the end of the year. Unfortunately, as I write this, a new variant, omicron is raging and 2022 is still looking bad as far as the pandemic goes.

Even as the pandemic rages on as I look back over the past year, I have many things to be grateful for…

Personal

We started off 2021 by getting a new puppy. Our beloved dog, Tigger, passed away in late 2020 and we were all heartbroken. The house was missing that energy. We found a puppy online drove out to the middle of nowhere and picked her up. We ended up getting a toy poodle and we named her Winnie.

I must admit it took a while for her to grow on me. My heart was still with my old dog, but I’m happy to say Winnie now fits like a glove into our family.

My family and I are all vaccinated, and I’m super grateful no one has been sick and that my kids have been able to go to school all year.

My daughter, Eva Cate, turned 11 this year, and it is tough to believe. To celebrate her birthday and Spring Break we went to Disney. It was our first time back or really anywhere since the pandemic started. We had a blast!

This past year we also decided to do some remodeling to our house. Specifically, we were having our kitchen and bathrooms redone. This ended up being a HUGE disaster, at least with the first person who attempted to do the job.

We did finally end up finding a good contractor to complete the job and it turned out great. I just learned some hard and expensive lessons on who and how to hire.

The summer of 2021 was mostly like any other summer. We were able to play baseball, fish (Jake caught his first fish and has been “hooked” on fishing ever since), swim, and be with family and friends. Things started to feel like they were getting back to normal.

Eva Cate and Jake started 5th and 1st grade this year. They have been able to go to school with masks on and eat lunch in their classrooms. Eva Cate will start middle school next year, so I have really been trying to savior this last year of her being in elementary.

Shortly after school started we made a trip to Mexico with AmesomeMotive to do a partner meetup.

We had applied to renew our passports in the first part of the year and we were a couple of weeks out from our Mexico trip and we still had not received them. Due to the pandemic, everything was backed up. We were obviously becoming a bit anxious we would not be able to go on our trip as it approached and we still did not have our passports. We contacted our local representative who was able to contact the Passport office and get them pushed through. We received them about a week before the trip. Mexico was amazing and I’m so thankful me and my family were able to experience the trip. It was my kid’s first time out of the country and they were ecstatic.

As Fall started things continued to feel normal. Eva Cate attended Cotillion, Jake played soccer and we celebrated Jake’s 7th birthday. For Jake’s 7th birthday, we did a surprise fishing trip with his grandfather and we ended up catching a hammerhead.

We flew to Huntsville to see my parents for Thanksgiving. Breeze Airways recently came to CHS and we had a direct 1-hour flight!

Since this is Eva Cate’s last year at James B Elementary, Mandy, my wife volunteered to help with the Christmas float and this also meant she and Eva Cate could be in the parade. They had an amazing time and this is something Eva Cate will remember for the rest of her life.

Business

Three years ago I sold a portion of my business and joined AwesomeMotive. The experience has been amazing and I have learned so much from Syed Balkhi and the other partners. These guys are some of the best in the biz and to be surrounded by such inspiring people is a blessing.

Here’s a brief timeline of the last 3 years.

• 2018 – September – Joined AwesomeMotive
• 2019 – October – Release RafflePress, The Best WordPress Giveaway Plugin
• 2020 – October – New Version SeedProd released. Completely rebuilt as a Landing Page Builder
• 2022 – January – Build your entire website using SeedProd.

SeedProd continues to grow, and we continue to refine the product. SeedProd is now a team of 8 and has come a long way from its roots as a coming soon page builder. In 2022 you will be able to build your entire WordPress website with no code using SeedProd. In fact, this blog you are reading right now is built using SeedProd.

2022 is going to be epic for SeedProd!

Reflections

Now here we are, already near the end of the year. Time indeed does fly. But this year I have really been focused on living in the present and being grateful for everything I have.

As I look back and reflect on this year I have learned many lessons. I have achieved many of my goals.

When the year started here are some of the goals I set out to achieve. Most of my goals revolve around the 4 pillars of health: Exercise, Good Nutrition, Relaxation, and Sleep.

• Work boundaries, hard starts, and stops. I would give this a 5, I pushed hard this year to turn SeedProd into a website builder, so there were many long days. I did detach most weekends. This new year I plan to implement hard start and stop times on weekdays as well. Lesson Learned: I now know your rest is just as important as your work time. To avoid burn out you have to detach. You can not be in your business 24/7. Your business is not your baby.
• Continue to Exercise I would give this a 10. I have constantly been jogging around 10 miles a week. This year I added strength training in September once we got back from Mexico and I love it! So now I go to the gym Monday, Tuesday, and Friday and jog Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. I have never felt better in my life. Lesson Learned: You have to exercise. Your body just doesn’t want it, it needs it. I’m not going to go into all the benefits but I will say the way I started jogging and going to the gym is by changing my beliefs. If you want to change anything it all begins with what your beliefs are and the story you tell yourself.
• Daily Meditation This is a solid 9. I use the Clam app and meditate at least once a day and sometimes twice a day. The only times I missed were usually Saturdays but those are few and far between. I do many kinds of meditation. I even consider prayer a form of meditation. Putting space between you and that voice in your head is a good thing and gives you unspeakable clarity. If you find yourself always thinking of the past or future try meditation to center yourself in the present. Lesson Learned: Meditation is compounding. The more you do it, the better it is.
• Diet I say a zero. I did try to add green smoothies into my diet but I was not consistent. This will be a goal for this upcoming year to come up and stick to a healthy diet.
• Limit Technology I have a love-hate relationship with technology. I work in it so it provides my livelihood but a the same time I see it as extremely addictive and soul-sucking. I tried to do tech-free Sunday but only did a few times. This will also be a goal for the new year.

So those were a few of my big goals from last year. Here are my new ones:

• Continue to Exercise, meditate, get proper sleep…
• Better Diet, add a green smoothie daily then slowly start adjusting each meal.
• Tech Free Sunday, completely detach on Sunday.
• Daily Gratitude Journal, I do this right now in my head but I want to start journaling these thoughts this year.
• Optimize for happiness, I saw someone say this on Twitter and I really like it. I turned 45 this year and as you age things change, priorities change, and your views change. My happiness and my family’s well-being are my number one priority. Whatever things help me achieve these are the things I will seek out.

So here’s to a new year. Life is not easy, I did face many challenges this year like everyone else. One thing I always remember though is we can’t control everything, we can only control how we react to things as they come up and what actions we take.

Great being on this journey with you my friend.