Ed Foppe

Students in college are notoriously late and there is nothing resembling a dress code. I do not have a problem with this, but I also do not get a sense they are being told this will likely come to an abrupt end upon taking a job, especially a good one with an established company.

For my fifth lecture, I had the quote:

“Life is hard, get the easy stuff right.”

My mother had a view that being late was disrespectful and she did not tolerate being late, so if I was late there was a valid reason. This served me well in my professional services career as many middle managers at my clients did not want anything to do with an outside party at their company and any reason given to them to deliver harsh judgement, they took it. I remember someone once explaining that on time is such a small sliver of time it is not worth considering - you were either early or you were late and in most situations you could choose.

I felt there was always a colleague who chose late. Unsure if it was their ego that they felt better than everyone or some perverse idea of being cool. Likely a mixture of both, but it seemed like nothing said being hip to them like being late. I saw this also with how people presented themselves. This seemed like an easy thing to get right. But there was always someone who wanted to push the boundaries or wanted to go with the disheveled look. I am sure again this could be attributed to ego and / or a need to be hip.

I share with my class they are going to find themselves on projects where the manager underestimated the effort and you will have to work with a disappointed client to get through the work as best you can. That is hard. There will be projects where you are under skilled and you have figure it out quick. That is hard. You will be on a project where a coworker cannot do their work due to illness or other issues. That is hard. Get the easy stuff right and show up a little early and be presentable. Working through the hard stuff when those you are working with are already annoyed because you are late and / or presenting yourself in an odd manner is just exponentially more harder.

As my daughter has been attending school in California we have been making numerous trips to visit over the past 4 years. I hear so many people say, “what a wonderful place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.” Living most my life in the midwest I find that is where I am best suited to live. Maybe it’s the whole midwestern values thing, but unsure how much that really holds true. I am sure it is just a familiarity with the pace, style and attitudes. It could also be a defensive mechanism that midwesterners generally think coastal people are elitists who believe there is nothing in fly over country.

I do find California unique. The coastal beauty, hiking in the interior, visiting wine country or the State and National Parks have been amazing. Add in the tech, entertainment, agriculture, and other industries it is simply an impressive place. But then there are the people. Terms like entitled and the nanny state do seem to have some resonance, but I have not been there long enough to judge, and who am I to judge.

The oddity for me is the striking display in full view of the haves and have nots. To so clearly see the wealth and income inequality gap to me is painful. And then the more I think about it I get the vibe that not all the haves likely have what they are appearing to have. And then I also get the sense that the have nots seem to feel entitled to have some of what the haves have as California’s greatness provided them what they have. I would not argue with that, but something also seems fundamentally wrong with it also. This also raises the odd perspective that the have not’s want some of what the haves have, but many of the haves may not have what they appear to have. A little messed up from my perspective.

With my daughter moving back to Minneapolis, I will be visiting California much less. However, any chance I get to visit I will take it, but no plans to move there.

I am in California for my daughter’s graduation. I felt I should have been more excited and emotional leading up to the event. What a great milestone for her. However, it is not my milestone, through I am a contributor. Also, it is one of those milestones where there is a long lead up, so when the day finally comes it is a great moment but there was ample time to think about it. Of course once the event started and we could see her in the procession it was quite emotional. The speakers also delivered and had some points that struck some emotional chords. The reading of the names is also pretty cool to see all the students have a big life moment and then the final procession brings the emotions back. Great stuff.

I am very proud of her as it is a great school and I get a sense it was not an easy path to finishing in four years with a solid GPA. With a degree in physiology I have no doubt she is poised to do great things for a number of people in their times of need. So I am excited as she launches into a new chapter. I also feel some sadness for the group of friends she has as they all have to disperse to different places. But there is also hope that these are long term friends that stay in touch and get together regularly.

The value of a college education is being questioned. I certainly see many instances where those who have the ability to earn a college degree are doing so and then being positioned for a career which requires a degree. With the average salaries for those with a college degree earning at $135K and those without around $65K, that is a significant difference. Especially when you think about most people spending 40 years in a career. Of course there is the 4 years of not working and the cost of a college education. But choosing to not pursue a degree if you have the opportunity seems like a really bad idea.

I can see the disappointing scenario where a person pursues a degree and is not well suited for the academic rigor, wastes a significant amount of time and money only to exit school for a career that does not require a college education. I assume this is where more people are questioning the value of a college education. I have experienced this with my students. When I have shared with my students in one-on-one discussions my frustration with the disengaged, distracted students, several of them have shared that there are many students who absolutely do not want to be there.

I think about the student with a grandparent who did everything they could to have their child go to college. The student’s parents get a degree in technology and have a successful career. So when it comes to their child approaching college age, they tell them they are going to go to college and get a degree in a technology field. This in turn likely has all the makings of a college student who wants to do anything but study technology. Likely why they are doing so in a business school.

To end on a positive note, I do think about the person who has the ability to earn a degree but is not in the situation financially or for other reasons to go to college. I have to believe with all the aid programs and not-for-profits working on this issue that there are fewer people in this situation every year. At least I hope so.

I find value in action versus deliberating on the optimal course of action. I’m the ‘Ready - Fire - Aim’ type. In most situations, in tech and in business in general but maybe not healthcare, once you are progressing on a path there are opportunities to reflect and course correct where the progress made has the benefit of forward momentum which gets you to a place where a clearer course can be seen. I feel most instances where people want to deliberate on the course of action are doing it more out of procrastination, or fear of choosing the wrong path, than really caring about the best course.

For my fourth lecture, I had the quote:

“Behaviors should advance strategic aspirations. They are important because it’s easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than to think your way into a new way of acting. In other words, it’s easier to lace up your shoes and go to the gym than to make yourself believe you love going to the gym.”

Maybe the opening paragraph and this quote are a bit different, but the message I was trying to impart to my students is one rooted in leadership. Taking initiative to act in situations will in most instances be better than thinking about it. Far too many situations I have seen people want to drive consensus for the best course, but then find themselves in a place where it is paralysis by analysis.

I want to acknowledge this might be an overly male point of view, and my observations are biased. There is also value in driving consensus to have more people bought in to the action needed. I also have to acknowledge that in a world of AI where a generative AI tool can provide you a suggested action, this drive to act might be dangerous. However, I go back to the idea of forward momentum has value. And sitting by the sidelines deliberating on a best course of action can be debilitating.

I provide this quote as a key skill of leadership is to take action, especially when there is a lack of all the information you may have hoped for. Students really need to be equipped with leadership skills along with teaming, communication and critical thinking, especially in a world dominated by AI. I do feel these students are getting a fair amount of soft skill development. The school claims students will on average do over 20 group projects before they graduate. The students I have spoken to feel like that is a low number. Most classes, including mine, will have multiple writing assignments. Between case competitions and various clubs, there are ample opportunities for communications skill development. They now created a class for critical thinking in the age of AI. I could probably use that one. The plausibility trap is certainly real for me.

For my daughters’ 18th birthdays I got each of them a nice journal. Journaling has served me well and I hoped it might help them. I took the liberty of writing the first entry. Turning 18, they had both done well in high school, had accepted college offers, knew what they wanted to major in, and generally had an idea of what they wanted to do with that major. I took the opportunity to say how proud I was of them and how the world needed more people in their chosen professions (artist and health worker). I then ended with a quote which I felt was good advice for them.

My one daughter’s quote was as follows, and was my 3rd lecture’s parting thought:

“All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it’s impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.” – Niccolo Machiavelli

She was very much into tattoo’s and had been experimenting with the stick & poke technique. So yes, prison tattoos were being performed at our house. You cannot go to a tattoo artist in Minnesota until your 18, so she made an appointment for the evening of her birthday. She had drawn a simple animal figure which looked nice. However, when returning home she stated she had a last minute change of mind. Moved by the quote, her tattoo was “Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer. – Niccolo Machiavelli”. My reaction was that it was just a piece of advice, not meant to be permanently written on her body.

Over my years in professional services I was always taken aback at how many people were paralyzed by having to make a decision. Consultants get a bad wrap for not really doing anything, but in the end they typically have the ability to simply make decisions when so many people cannot. I feel there are too many people who choose to wallow in a suboptimal existence than to try to find the strength to put themselves on a path to a better place.

I also notice too many situations where no one wants to put a thought out there, but once one is developed most people seem to be fine with critiquing it. Almost as if the critiques are as valuable as the creation. Maybe I should learn from my artist daughter and put more value on the critique. A huge value of art school is the ability to provide feedback and take it. Critiquing is a large portion of the curriculum and the students get good at it.

The last slide of each of my lectures are titled, “Parting Thought”. I thought this would be helpful for the students to know when class is about to be over and maybe naively thinking they would ponder the thought as they made their way to their next thing. With the number of students putting on headphones as they leave the classroom, this is likely not many. However, I have received some positive feedback regarding my parting thoughts.

For my second lecture, I simply had in the middle of the slide:

Be Balanced

I shared with the class that I feel everyone should strive for a sense of balance in their lives. I also firmly believe everyone needs their own definition of balance that is right for them. For context I shared with them my definition of balance, which the key components are Mind, Body, Soul, Social.

I never felt the need to put much focus on the mind dimension as most of my work life challenged me mentally as a knowledge worker. If it was in professional services working with client issues or in an academic setting, there is always the opportunity to learn something new or simply study a technology topic. I have prided myself for being, and have the goal to be, a lifelong learner. With that being said, I have always had the goal to read a book once a month and weekly journal, which seems to add to this dimension.

With a life in professional services and academia, there is no contribution to improving the body. It is a sedentary existence. This is the dimension I focus on the most and dominates the annual goals I set for myself. I workout 6 days a week and push myself to be active throughout the day. In a typical year I will move 2200 - 2400 miles and have over 2000 miles of biking. I feel without movement no one can say they have balance.

I am somewhat a social person, so this dimension has never been a challenge. However, when I journal weekly I do seem to comment regularly if the week was a good one for being out in the world connecting with others or a weak one. I have even kept a spreadsheet of those I want to make sure I am staying connected to, which I refer to regularly.

The soul dimension has challenged me the most. I am not religious. However, I do not feel out of balance due to a lack of effort towards this dimension. Over the years I have questioned whether it needs to be part of the balance equation. In the end, I have simply pointed to some of the other activities I am doing which likely fulfills this dimension. My weekly journalling is mainly a reflection exercise on what is going well and where I can improve. If there is anything that I am struggling with I typically lay it out on paper in the journal. Most of my exercise allows me to reflect on what is right and wrong in my life and in the world, which seems spiritual. Since Covid I have worked on meditation, but I imagine I am the world’s worst meditator as 2-3 minutes in I am out for a nap.

At the end of my first semester it dawned on me that while I shared a number of stories from my career to bring various subjects to life, I really did not part any wisdom from a 32 year career. So on my last lecture, which was a recap of the class, I spent the last 20 minutes sharing several lessons learned from a 32 year career in professional services, which felt like a lot to share in a short amount of time. Since then I have spread the advice out.

My idea was that after each lecture, I would end on a parting thought. As this is a half semester class, I only lecture 10 times and the other 4 meetings are quizzes, guest speakers and a software simulation exercise. So I came up with my top 10 thought pieces to share with my students as they prepared themselves to head out into the world.

My lead off was a quote I heard early in my career that has driven my state of mind when dealing with most situations. I heard it when I was living in Chicago, so every time I say it in my head it is with a Chicago accent, so I shard it with the class in my best Chicago accent which garnered a couple chuckles. If you know what it is like to be in front of a group of college age juniors and seniors, a chuckle would be the equivalent of a solid laugh at a dinner party. The quote is:

Take it as it happens, but make it happen like you want to take it.

My interpretation has a several dimensions. First, if you are faced with a situation where you can influence the outcome or experience, do whatever you can make happen like you would want it to. Conversely, if you conclude you have no influence on the situation, such as, most world events, just chill out and take it as it happens. Don’t let it consume your state of mind. I have also found this to be a great reflection tool when things do not happen as I had hoped. It is good to reflect on what I could have done to influence the outcome or experience - to make it happen how I would have liked to take it.

Too many people seem to be consumed by that which they have no control over and then shy away from taking action on that which they can control.

After 5 semesters of teaching, I still feel compelled to tell anyone who will listen how the distracted, disengaged student has a profoundly negative effect on my teaching experience. After 5 semesters, it seems like I should have moved on. Reflecting on why I feel so compelled to share this negative point, I can only think there is some subconscious hope that everyone who hears me will go out and coach all the college students in their life to not be distracted as they move through life and to be engaged in those endeavors worthy of their attention. My class being worthy, of course.

As I have sought advice on how to move past this annoyance, the consensus advice is to focus on the engaged students who care and dismiss those distracted, disengaged students. However, this advice does not strike the right chord and I find myself wanting to bring everyone along and not leave a student behind. Another line of thinking is to just focus on delivering the course and let the students consume the course to the degree they wish, which I am unsure is a recipe for success either.

This past semester I did try some new teaching techniques. I recorded a couple key concepts and had students watch the videos before class. I thought of this as embracing TikTok. I also had a survey tool employed for students to rate other group members’ engagement. These led to some marginal improvements. I will continue to tweak the delivery to see where it goes and maybe the joy of teaching at some point will surpass the annoyance of the distracted, disengaged student.

On a final note, I did get a real boost by participating in the graduation ceremony. As an adjunct, I would not typically be invited to the stage, but many faculty had conflicts and they asked if I would robe up. It was a much more powerful experience than I expected. The ceremony started by the faculty creating a gauntlet for the students to walk through. High-fiving and fist bumping many past students was exciting. The student and commencement speakers were both inspirational. Seeing many of my students walking across the stage completely lit up with excitement was great to see - they did have a pulse.

After a 32 year career with PwC I wanted to try one more thing. I had 4 ideas as to what I wanted to do for Retirement 1.0. Two fizzled out quickly, one did not materialize and one stuck.

I earned a contract to deliver a course at the University of Minnesota in the Carlson School of Management. The course is titled IDSc 3104 Enterprise Systems, a 2 credit course delivered over 8 weeks in the second half of a semester (B Term), offered 3 times in the fall and twice in the spring. It delves into large business transaction systems, focusing on one used by very large companies, SAP. If you are getting a Management Information Systems (MIS) degree you may take this your junior year and if you are working on an MIS minor, you likely take it your senior year. MIS majors their junior year in the fall are far more enjoyable to teach than MIS minors in their senior year in spring about to graduate.

I have met people over the years with a strong desire to lecture at a university. This was not top of mind for me and certainly not a goal when wrapping up my time at PwC. I regularly guest lectured at an introduction to IT class at Carlson, which entailed speaking to a couple class sections during one week per semester. Practically, it had a recruiting dimension, but it also felt good to be in front of students conveying the benefits of pursuing a career similar to mine. After leaving PwC, I had the opportunity to shadow a professor and the energy of being on campus felt like it would be a great opportunity to give back and fulfill a purpose I may not have realized was available for me to fill.

The time and effort to deliver a university class is much harder than I imagined. I did not think it would be easy, but since most my materials were inherited from the previous lecturer, I would be assigned a Teacher’s Assistant (TA) to handle most grading, and an Undergraduate Teaching Assistant (UTA) for each section to assist students with hands on exercises, I did not think it would be too hard. However, preparing and practicing enough to feel comfortable owning a room averaging 40 students who are counting on you to fulfill their learning needs is no small effort. There is also the administrative burden to be the recipient of 200 students in my 5 sections. Between illness, illness of family members, religious holidays, accommodation coordination, and a host of miscellaneous questions along with those who should have gone to the TA or the UTA is a much more time consuming effort than I would have thought.

Not often, but from time to time I have heard someone make the comment about how easy teachers have it. There are what seem like rather naive points of view on the limited hours of teaching and all the time off during seasonal breaks, especially summer. The next person who makes this comment near me will likely get an ear full. The course design, prep, delivery, student interaction and grading are serious time commitments and big energy drains. And I am teaching college juniors and seniors, so I cannot even fathom what it takes to teach at the elementary and high school levels.

Overall, a great experience. However, the next time you are introduced to a teacher, please thank them for what they do and comment on how hard their job must be.

At the beginning of the year we were able to get away to Santa Barbara, CA where my daughter attends college. The motivation for the trip was to celebrate her and her twin sisters’ 21st birthdays. I did not expect to be celebrating their 21st with them as I would certainly not have thought about celebrating my 21st with my parents. It was a celebration where I had so much I had to give some back. Right on the cobblestone streets at the Landing in St. Louis, back in 1989 when it had a vibrant bar / restaurant scene.

My sister-in-law Carrie was able to join, which is always great to have her along. She stayed with us for the couple months at the beginning of Covid and is certainly a member of our family. Santa Barbara is as beautiful a place as you would expect. The place we rented had bikes, so were able to do a nice campus tour by bike and it was not too far from the ocean, so we had some very pleasant walks.

I feel in past trips we were more about the hiking or getting out to surrounding wine country. This visit was more focused on seeing Santa Barbara. There are some great restaurants in this town and we ate well on this visit. The Lark and Sama Sama Kitchen were both amazing. If I did reviews I would give them both 5 stars.

The eve of their birthday there was party at their apartment. I spend $150 on alcohol and Angie and I were treated like royalty. They wanted to go to a bar at midnight, so we went to a speakeasy style place nearby called the The Imperial Lounge. A super trippy place that seemed like it was out of a David Lynch film. A great find and fun to have cocktails with the group.

If ever in Santa Barbara, I cannot say enough great things about Lotusland. It is an amazing property with so many varietals of plant life and overall great background story. Highly recommended, but unfortunately it was closed that time of year. I will plan to go every time I visit.

I am recommitting to blogging for the second time. Hopefully the last. This medium seems right for me. As many who blog, I have soured on social media and overall enjoy story telling and long form writing / journalism.

I have been fairly good at goal achievement, so I have had to do some soul searching why I have not been consistent with this blogging goal. In the past, I have found the best way to achieve a goal is to put it out into the world - mainly to family and friends. The fear of telling those close to me I did not achieve a goal is typically enough motivation to put in the work towards achieving the goal. With blogging, I seem to be over indexed on getting a style right prior to sharing it. Therefore, I am going to commit to creating a couple more posts this month and send a message to family and friends introducing my blog. Once it is out there, hopefully I will become a more consistent blogger.

I need to share some thoughts on books recently read, recent trips, and other random thoughts I have gathered.

I am now lecturing at the University level and it has been an interesting experience thus far. I am 4 weeks in to an 8 week course. As the last week is simply the final I am over half way through. I definitely have some observations, but I will save them for subsequent posts.

Last week the Wall Street Journal had a cover article on more high school graduates forgoing college to join a trade. It highlighted several high school graduates who went into welding, an electrician and a construction site supervisor. It shared what they were making and how they were in a great place without student debt.

Over the past several years this topic has come up several times in conversations and I find it a little too simplistic. I clearly believe college is not for everyone, but I believe there is great value in a four year degree. A couple months ago I attended MN Tech Association’s Tech Talk where Ron Huesman from the University of MN shared his research on the value of a four year degree. The overall message was confirming to my viewpoint that in the long run a graduate with a bachelor is going to have much greater earnings potential than those who do not go to college - see picture attached.

Not revolutionary I know. If I had to think of a 4 box analysis on this topic I imagine on the vertical axis you have the benefits derived from a four year degree and the horizontal axis is split with those not attending and those attending a college institution (left / right respectively). The top right quadrant contains those who are in college, have the ability to graduate with a degree and will get the expected benefit. They are correctly aligned. Also correctly aligned are those in the bottom left quadrant who not in college and potentially would not get benefit from being there and are hopefully pursuing a trade.

This topic seems more relevant when thinking of the other 2 quadrants. The bottom right quadrant are those who are in college, but will not get the benefit of a degree. Right or wrong, I picture in my mind the greek life, partying, class skipping brat from an affluent family. More troubling I find is the top left quadrant. The young person who would derive the benefit of a four year degree but has been denied the opportunity. I picture less affluent members of society who cannot make college happen for not only economic reasons, but I imagine a whole host of other societal reasons. I do get the sense this situation is improving over time, but I could be wrong.

After starting to blog I felt I needed to reassess how my entries would be presented. For some past posts I felt I was going on far too long and then I felt I corrected and was writing too little. This led to just not blogging, which was unfortunate.

I have made no progress on a style, but I do get the sense I simply need to be spending more time blogging so at some point I figure it out through experience. Probably a lesson in life there somewhere.

We had a great trip to Albuquerque last week for a wedding. The couple did an amazing job planning events throughout the entire weekend for the out of town guests. We spent most of the weekend in Old Town having some good southwest cuisine and then on Sunday got out of town to Santa Fe. There were also ample galleries and craft shops, which get old to me quickly. In general, I do not like going into a business where I have no intention to buy anything. The weekend weather was great so it was good to be out and about.

It was a nice getaway to a part of the country I have not been to. It was my 48th state. Many of the popular states I have been to for fun, but the less popular states I have visited were through work. So now I am down to less popular states which do not have many large companies. I have South Carolina and West Virginia remaining. Asking the couple’s family what were some of the main industries were, they listed out oil, tourism and a large Air Force base where they train astronauts. Then someone joked, methamphetamines - a nice nod to Breaking Bad.

Overall, it was great to be with family, especially having dedicated time with my wife and 2 daughters.

Had a great trip to Durango, CO to snowboard at Purgatory. Four days down the hill saw an easy day where like most CO resorts there was not a lot of snow, to days 2 & 3 where 10" and 3" of snow came and then a 4th day of just blue skies. I have a love hate relationship with powder. I am not out west enough to master the snowboard in powder so it is a lot of effort and at some point is just draining. However, the feeling of riding a snowboard atop 10" of fluffy show is magical.

Good group of 4 guys organized by my friend Toby. My past job would have never allowed me to do a trip like this at this time of year. This is the 4th guys trips I have been on where it was a larger group in the past, but due to job or family commitments, or an inability for some to participate in the physical nature of the trip, less of the original group can go so there is a need to invite others. Good for me and it was a nice way to get to know 2 new people who were great to spend 5 days with.

Over the years I have been somewhat obsessive with goals. After a couple years of trying to dial in a goal list, I believe I dialed in the right list. I have tied them to a focus on living a balanced life in the context of mind, body, soul, and social. When I started to make a goal list I became somewhat dogmatic. Anything on the list had to be met. But after a couple years of not completing each goal, but looking back with a sense of pride regarding what I accomplished, I became less focused on what had to be met and what had the potential to be pursued for a sense of accomplishment. Since I shed the need to hold myself accountable for every goal I set and was just going to look back and be proud of what I was accomplishing I just kept adding goals. One year I had grown my goal list to 20 various goals.

Having 7 goals seems like a better number. My job seemed to challenge me mentally, so I did not feel I needed much in this area, but to read a book a month sounded like a worthy goal. As my job was fairly sedentary, the body needed the most focus. No goal list should be without a weight goal, so I made a goal to be in the normal range for Body Mass Index. At my height this meant I needed to be 178 pounds or less to be in the range. I will likely never need to know what the lower end of the range is unless I get very sick. When I turned 48 I had heard about a goal of running a 10K in minutes equal to your age. I thought this sounded pretty bad-ass and felt it would be a good goal to keep my running pace in check as I aged.

The fourth goal was discussed in a previous post, which was initiated to push myself to workout 6 days a week and have some cross training designed into a point system.

With the mind and body being covered, there appeared to be a need to cover the social and spiritual aspect of my life. Though there did not seem to be a need for a social or spiritual goal, there did seem to be a need to check in on how I am doing socially and spiritually. Once a week, typically on a Sunday morning, which would be a good nod to the spiritual, I would make myself journal a page in a 5” x 7” journal. The journalling would need to have some reflection of how the week went and what could be an intention for the upcoming week. If I was not being a good person and felt my spirit was not where it should be I could reflect on why and what I could do better in the upcoming week. It also addressed the social, so if I felt I was not getting out in the world and connecting with others I could make it a priority which would bring the social pillar in balance.

Any coach on goal setting would have to agree these are well articulated, specific goals with good timeframes. With 5 goals being SMART, I felt there was room now for goals to be more open ended and provide space for more creativity, spontaneity and ability to take advantage of changes in life events. I still had a nagging notion I was not addressing the spiritual aspect of my life for attaining balance even though I did not have any reflections I was out of balance. The sixth goal became a general goal which stated daily I should do something good for the soul or makes me feel uncomfortable. This is broadly defined as meditating, relationship building, sauna / cold water therapy or something new which would take me out of my comfort zone and would lead to the final goal.

The last goal also was structured to allow unstructured activities in. Simply titled, “Discover” the intent was to try new things and bring some spice to life. If the journaling was on track there would be some level of monitoring if I was regularly bringing new and interesting activities into my life.

I have a mild obsession with tracking my workouts and overall movement. I am sure there are more obsessed people out there than me, but my wife would argue I am in a top tier. Back in November I realized 3 fitness goals I was tracking were all trending towards 2500.

For 2023 I ended up biking 2,518 miles. After retiring this summer I had much more time to be active, especially with biking. I was able to get out on 4 touring trips, which allowed me to log many more miles than prior years. Buying a new gravel bike also helped.

A couple years ago I heard a good goal would be to have Walking + Running Distance in the Health app on your iPhone to exceed the year number, so 2,023 miles for this year. I was able to log 2,567.

The hardest one for me to achieve was a complex point system I had developed over the years. Though easy for me to comprehend, I find it complicated to explain to others as I developed it over a couple decades. In general, this annual goal forces me to work out regularly, cross train, and brings some gamification to the workout routine. In the past I had an annual to run 1,000 miles, bike 1,000 miles and workout 100 times. The workout could be a 30 minute core routine, yoga or anything I deemed a solid physical activity which was preventing, or at least reducing, my running or biking. When Leelau came along I wanted to push myself to get out walking with her, especially after a work day spent inside an office. The goal became a point system based on running. So, running a mile was a point, biking 3 miles was a point, and working out or doing yoga for 30 minutes felt like an equivalent to running a mile, so a point. Adding the walking dimension took more thought. In the end, I felt one should move at least 3 miles a day, or 6,000+ steps. Therefore, I determined I would only get a point for miles moved exceeding a base of 3 miles, obviously excluding the run miles already accounted for.

The goal each year is 2,000, which I meet most years, but not all. For 2023 I was able to rack up 2,501 points. Barely made it, but it felt great to wake up new year’s eve morning with 2,494 points and head out on a 6 mile run and hit the 2500 mark.

My new year’s resolution was to start a blog, which I created yesterday. I named it Leelau Lessons to embrace those things I take away from my dog, Leelau. The blog will be more about capturing what I think about when I am out walking Leelau, but overall her main lesson is for me to try to be the person she thinks I am.

My motivation to start a blog is to hopefully experience a new medium and learn something new. Years ago I soured on social media, but felt there was an underlying positive aspect if it was done right, which I think blogging could be. I am also hoping to evolve to a newsletter, which might be a good forum to keep in touch with my network and share some hopefully useful thinking.

I plan to blog about my current life activities and Leelau’s adventures. I will want to share the random thoughts I am having while out on my walks. I will also try to share what I am currently reading. But I also hope to evolve the blog to share what observations I took away from a 32 year career in professional services and what I am sharing with my students as I start to lecture this spring.

Leelau wandering if this reindeer can fly.