Month: January 2019

Reflection: My Goals For 2019

by billy, posted in Fitness, People, Reflection

Last week I shared a few of my goals for 2018 and how I fared on them, so I thought it might be cool to get a few of my goals for 2019 written down as well. One marked difference for me in 2019 is that I am laying out fewer goals. I feel like my goal-setting routine and regimen is a work in progress, and I tend to think this should be the case for anyone. Hopefully, each year as we set, achieve, and/or miss goals, we are able to fine tune what a realistic forward-looking goal should be for the next 365 days. Also, I am finding that my goals tend to be an outflow of my values and what I hold as important in my life. As a result, the goals listed are starting points for me, and are not meant to be exhaustive. Also, since having Sylvia, I think I have adjusted the time horizon for my goals, or at least the outcomes of my goals. I find myself thinking about the environment I want her to have growing up. I also think about my goals not just in terms of what I want to happen right now, but also in terms of where I would like these goals to take me 20 years from now.

Here we go…

Blog again. I say this because writing two blog posts during 2018 does not really seem “active” flow. I have been continuing the practice of maintaining a journal, but it is not the same as blogging. Conservatively, I’d like to write something at least once a month. Moving from two to twelve is a pretty steep increase. Why blog? I feel like the practice of blogging and writing online is good for my soul, it helps me remember and reflect, and I hope that what I write is of some encouragement to others as well.

Practice simplicity. This practice takes many forms, but I’d like to continue the process of getting rid of clothing, books, and objects that have been collected over a lifetime. I’d like to continue efforts to lower our footprint, and make our house more of a home. Wherever we can, I’d like to continue the practice of lowering our footprint, whether that be through driving fewer miles, or lowering our use of utilities. One move we made in the past was to switch to Arcadia Power and our electric bill is now based on 100% wind energy certificates. I’d also like to maintain a practice of meditation, silence, and prayer in my mornings.

Improve my fitness/health. I’m planning to run my seventh Marine Corps Marathon this year, and for me that is a bit hard to fathom. Back in 2013, I don’t think I had ever run more than eight or nine miles at once in my entire life, but I’m living proof that a person can go from zero to marathon in about six months. In addition to running and walking, I want to take additional steps to improve my diet. I have made adjustments each year to decrease junk food intake, but Jamie and I had the privilege of taking a six week plant-based nutrition course online last year through eCornell. I learned a ton through it that has made me more thoughtful about the foods I eat, but I’d like to continue to cultivate eating more greens and getting more fiber in my diet at the very least. Being on the road, and eating many meals with groups tends to limit one’s options, but rather than giving up entirely, I’m tending to look for healthier options more often. This is still a work in progress for me though. I’m also working to incorporate more calesthenics and bodyweight training into my fitness routines. Lastly, last year Jamie and I bought “cruiser” style bicycles after having a fun time riding with Sylvia in the Netherlands. I think we’d like to get out on those bikes a couple times each week in 2019 if we can.

So, that’s a few broad buckets of goals for me for 2019. These are not necessarily starting “new” things as much as they are maintaining and improving upon cultivated habits from the past few years. Maybe as the year progresses, I’ll identify a few more specific goals and milestones to be shooting for in 2019. Honestly, I prefer specific, measurable, attainable, results oriented and timely (SMART) goals, but for now, my bigger goal is to maintain and grow in these arenas. Perhaps in a future post I’ll be sharing a few of those SMART goals in relation to what I’ve laid out above.

Do you have some goals you are working toward in 2019? May they become reality as the year progresses, and may each of us be bringing our best selves forward into each new day!

Review: Deskbound by Kelly Starrett

by billy, posted in Uncategorized

A few years ago I stumbled onto a blog that shared seven exercises to undo the damage done to one’s musculature from sitting. That blog included a recommendation of another book by Kelly Starrett called Becoming A Supple Leopard, which I quickly read and reviewed. I seriously devoured the book in a couple of days because I was so fascinated with Starrett’s findings with regard to our physiology. I also picked up a book by Dr. Starrett called Ready To Run—that book recommended some exercises and routines specific for runners to be able to run with less tendency toward injury.

In 2016, Dr. Starrett published a new book that had been highly anticipated, Deskbound: Standing Up To A Sitting World. Deskbound does not deviate from Starrett’s previous writings, but rather focuses in on what may be one of the most significant physiological contributors to poor mobility and injury today. We are a culture of sitters. We sit at work. We sit when we travel. We sit when we attend cultural events, whether sports, concerts, or movies. We sit when watching television and when grabbing a meal. We spend so much time sitting that some of our muscles are chronically tight while others are incredibly loose, and therefore incredibly weak.

The book is a combination of recommended guidelines and mobility exercises to start undoing the damage caused by a lifetime of sitting. One of my favorite aspects of each of Starrett’s books is that he gives practical suggestions and hacks for working on mobility 10-15 minutes per day. In this latest book, he takes into account that some people may be stuck in an office and has developed a “deskbound” version of some of these mobility exercises.

One of the biggest takeaways I have had since reading the book is that I am now more cognizant of (and trying to correct) my mechanics when performing certain activities. As an example, for the last few years, when possible I work from a standing desk. While the standing desk is a move in the right direction (prolonged sitting and the sedentary lifestyle are definitely terrible for us on a number of levels), Starrett’s book has made me more cognizant of my (poor) posture and I now focus energy toward correcting, strengthening, and improving mobility.

Deskbound has four main guidelines for preventing and solving problems related to sitting.

  1. Reduce optional sitting in your life. Some of us are stuck at a desk, or we are driving a bus or car for long periods. But, there are times when we have a choice. We can watch TV standing up. We can choose to have conversations with friends while walking. Just by getting up and moving, we can start undoing damage and prevent further damage.
  2. For every 30 minutes we are sitting, move for at least 2 minutes. This one is particularly helpful for me when I am away from home, and I’m sitting in a coffee shop or office space working on a project. I can get “in the zone” and sit for a long period focused on writing or working on projects on my laptop. These activities slow my circulation and I will catch myself leaning forward with hunched shoulders. Getting up for a couple of minutes every half hour helps me reset and correct. It also helps me focus too. I can jump right back into the work refreshed and energized.
  3. Prioritize position and mechanics when possible. For me, this is the big area of focus. Whether I am standing, walking, or running I try to think through how my body is stacked and if I need to make corrections to my stance. Sometimes when Jamie and I are walking she will poke her fingers into my thoracic spine if she sees me slouching. Her reminder helps me to focus and prioritize good position and mechanics.
  4. Perform 10-15 minutes of daily maintenance/mobility. This just means taking time to work through areas of tension and weakness so that physiologically the body is working better. Starrett recommends that if a person is trying to improve mobility, then a stretch or other mobility activity should be done for at least two minutes to have benefit. One of the stretches he (and I) highly recommend is the couch stretch—which does not mean laying on the couch.

I highly recommend all of Dr. Starrett’s books, but if I were choosing one based on the greatest need and area of focus for most of us, I would choose Deskbound. All of his books talk about mobility and provide helpful photos and explanations of proper positioning and exercises, but in Deskbound, Kelly takes a very close look at specific mechanical faults caused by sitting that lead us to injury in sport and in daily life and also offers a pathway to making corrections. May we each move more freely, and carve out time from behind the desk to move well!

Reflection: Looking Back At My Goals For 2018

by billy, posted in Uncategorized

Each year, as I start one year and end another, I like to take some time to look back over goals for the previous year, to reflect, and to recalibrate. In recent years, I’ve been able to track some of these goals more frequently and diligently by using a Passion Planner to as a tool to keep me on track. I’ve also been able to encourage my teammates at Nuru International to do the same.

Many of my goals could also fall into the category of habit maintenance as much as they are goals. I feel like they have evolved over the years from aspirational hopes to habits that I wish to maintain moving forward. And, as I write this, I find myself thinking about the many habits that I don’t write down in a goal format because they have just become a part of who I am.

Here’s a look at a few of those habits and goals and how I fared.

Spend time outside. For about five years now,  I’ve made it a personal goal to get outside for at least 30 minutes a day. In reality, this isn’t a lot of time, but I’ve noticed that just by spending a brief period outside I feel more grounded, more grateful, and more focused for the day ahead.

Exercise daily. This habit has taken man forms, and since 2017 I’ve had an added dimension of accountability through the acquisition of an Apple Watch. Each day, I seek to at least close my “move” ring as that indicates that I’m at least doing something active. Most days I’ve been able to get in some time walking, running, stretching, or doing a variety of bodyweight exercises. The end result is that I feel healthier than I did ten years ago.

Simplify and de-clutter. Minimalism seems to be trending these days, but Jamie and I have made it an annual tradition to habitually downsize our material possessions. From clothes and books to furniture and appliances, we make our way through our belongings each year asking questions like, “Am I going to wear this again? Will this bring someone else joy? Is this being actively used?” By asking questions like these, we have been able to say goodbye to bags of clothing and vehicles full of objects that have served their purpose well in our home, but we feel that it is time to share them and make them available to others. We usually donate items to a local thrift store in Morgantown called the Ranch Community Store.

Run the Marine Corps Marathon. Since 2013, each year we run the Marine Corps Marathon with a group of runners from around the country in support of Nuru International. This year we were able to do so with Jamie’s dad too!

Lower Our Footprint. Each year we strive to take steps to lower our footprint, and over the last few years, we have made significant investments into ways we might do so. Of course there are little things like adjusting thermostats and switching to LED lighting, but we also invested in replacing our furnace and air conditioner. When the guy from Grogg’s Heating And Air Conditioning came to the house a couple of years ago, he said my 47 year old furnace had a 40% efficiency when it was new, and my 29 year old air conditioner had a 7 SEER rating when it was new. Our replacement heat pump/furnace has a 96% efficiency and a 15 SEER rating. We have seen steady improvements in heating and cooling AND our utility bills since the switch.

Detach from devices. A few years ago, I started the habit of sleeping with my phone in a separate room to charge, and it has helped me get more restful sleep and deepen my focus. I also started practicing the discipline of not picking up my phone (or at least not looking at email, etc.) for an hour or two in the morning after I awake. This combination has also helped me to break the habit of routinely looking at my phone throughout the day when I have a free moment. The habit is still not fully broken, but I’m slowly transitioning to make sure my use of devices is actually adding value to my day, and not leaving me perpetually distracted. With a two-year-old daughter, I have a whole new reason to reduce my distractedness.

Home Improvement. This is partially tied to simplifying and lowering our footprint, but thanks to some strong support from Jamie’s mom and dad, we made some great strides in home improvement. While I was away on a trip last summer, they came up and painted our house. In addition, they helped me hang a new screen door on our house, and I was able to get our deck cleaned and sealed. Thanks to Jamie’s parent’s positive experience with replacement window installation, I also reached out to Window World to get energy efficient replacement windows for our house.

Blog Consistently. In 2018, I hardly posted any blogs, but I have aspirations to change that in 2019. This post is one more step in that direction. I’m hoping to re-establish this habit in 2019.

Practice sabbath, solitude, silence, and meditation. At one time, these disciplines were a steady part of my weekly rhythm, but in recent years I have struggled to maintain them. While I did not develop a robust practice of sabbath during 2018, I was able to inject a rhythm of silence and meditation into my mornings, at least during the days we were home.

Pursue a blue belt in Gracie Jiu Jitsu with my family.  This one has been an aspiration since Sylvia was born. Through Gracie University I had hoped to get our whole family practicing jiu jitsu when we were home, but in 2018 it just didn’t happen. I have hopes for the future, but rather than re-commit to this goal, I think I’m going to focus on other forms of fitness for the time being.

While I didn’t “nail” every goal or cultivate every habit I had in mind at the start of 2018, and at various points during the year I felt like I was spinning my wheels and getting nowhere, looking back over the year I feel proud of the progress I made in the areas listed above, and areas not listed as well. I’m hopeful that 2019 will be a year of continued progress, forward movement, and learning. May it be the same for you as well!

Review: Resilience by Eric Greitens

by billy, posted in Review

A couple years ago, I sat down in a bookstore and read Navy SEAL Eric Greiten’s first book, The Heart And The Fist and subsequently wrote a review. In my bookstore exploration I also discovered he had just written a new book, Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom For Living A Better Life. During that time I also discovered Greitens was also running for Governor of Missouri.

Honestly, the title of Greitens’ book (along with the excellence of his other book) drew me toward reading it. Whether in discussing the lives of farmers and their families in our work at Nuru or talking about personal perseverance, the word resilience has become quite a popular word in my estimation. And, similar to Greitens, I also believe that resilience is a skill to be developed as well as a purposeful way of living life. As he says, “Resilient people do not bounce back from hard experiences, they find healthy ways to integrate them into their lives.” And “Resilience is the key to a well-lived life.”

The book was originally a set of letters sent to a friend and fellow SEAL who was encountering a series of hardships back on the home front. Greitens edited the letters to make them available and accessible to a wider audience, and they really are robust and thoughtful pieces whether read individually or as a whole. As I read the book, I found myself filled with gratitude for incredible friends who have (similar to Eric with his friend) spoken truth and shared wisdom with me.

The chapters of the book walk through subjects including why resilience is important and what it is, and then offers a series of practical tools that everyone should seek out to develop their own resilience. Greitens reminds his friend (and his readers that everyone can develop resilience, but no one can do it for you, and it takes time, intentionality, and hard work. He also spends chapter after chapter reminding his readers of the tools and benefits of resilience, and roots his writing in both lived experience and historic literature.

If you are looking for a book to explore and improve your own resilience, I highly recommend Resilience by former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens. It bears repeating though that buying the book will not develop your resilience. Only you can do that, and the fact that you can do it is, in itself, an incredible gift. May we each seek the mentors, the motivation, and the mindful discipline to cultivate resilience in our lives for the good of ourselves and our world.

Leadership and Executive Coaching

by billy, posted in Coaching, Training

A few years back, I launched a personal commitment to develop in a whole new arena, coaching leaders. Since roughly 2013, both my friend Jake and myself have benefitted greatly from working with a Leadership/Executive Coach to improve our self-leadership, our management, and our ability to bring the best service possible to our supporters at Nuru as well as the more than 120,000 beneficiaries and over 200 leaders we work with in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Nigeria.

To be fair, the field of coaching has had a fair share of criticism, and much of this is the result of people who have no formal training deciding that they will assert that they are coaches. When I had the opportunity to begin being coached, I have to admit I had a mix of expectant curiosity and jaded cynicism about the whole process. I mean, on the one hand, who wouldn’t want to tap into another level of capabilities to bring their very best offering to serve others. But, on the other hand, I had a little bit of anxiety that this “coaching” stuff was just going to be a bunch of navel-gazing, cheerleading, and hype. What I found was a resource far better than I could have imagined.

I worked with a coach named Andy Scantland who is the principal of a company called Upside-Partners.  Andy has been great! He and his wife have become incredible friends to myself and Jamie, and he really helped me take my leadership capacity and ability to a whole other level. I truly believe that Jamie and I have both benefitted from my work with Andy, and I believe Nuru has as well. Over the course of my time working with Andy, I believe I have become a better leader, and I have become more aware of pitfalls that can hurt my performance in both work and life. I am also more physically fit, more focused, and healthier than I think I have been for a long time.

Over most of my adult life, through my time working in vocational ministry, my time serving in my tribal community, and in other arenas. I have had the opportunity to work informally in several arenas that called on me to not only bring out my best, but also to bring out the best in others. Through these experiences and as a result of working with a coach, the transformation that has taken place in my own ability to lead, manage, process, and be fully present led me to begin formal training to be a leadership/executive coach. I talked with Andy about it, and he was really encouraging! He talked to me about some of my specific strengths that would be of incredible service to others if I were to receive formal training to be a coach. He also sent me a few links to reputable training and certification programs including the program he went through with the Coaches Training Institute (CTI). I began researching, and decided that CTI, aside from being one of the oldest and most reputable coaching organizations in the world, had the kind of rigor and depth of content and training that I wanted to have for the good of this world and future clients.

After multiple encouraging conversations with Jamie and other friends, and being counseled that it would be really easy to put off the training, I decided to take the plunge and hit the ground running back in 2016. I signed up that year for a full year of training and certification with CTI. It has been an amazing journey so far, and in a few future posts I look forward to sharingsome of my reflections and learning from a few of those training opportunities.

May each of us launch out in bold ways in the months and years ahead to bring our very best offering of ourselves for the good of others and the glory of God.

A Belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

by billy, posted in Holiday, Reflection

Well, 2018 was a full year, and largely it was a year with very little blogging or writing. I’m hoping to change that in 2019, and that includes sharing a few posts in the weeks ahead that I had hoped to share in the past.

The year was incredibly full for us as we witnessed our daughter growing and celebrating her second year of life on the earth. We spent a little less than half the year on the move, and had the privilege of seeing many old friends and making some new ones along the way.

And wow, were there some amazing moments in 2018! In February, I witnessed Jamie share her story of why she is so passionate about addressing extreme poverty…with leaders from all over the world who are part of the ONE campaign started by Bono. Jamie addressed a crowd of more than 200 leaders, and as she shared her story it was truly inspiring. I wept with joy and pride as I heard her share her passion in front of such a large crowd of leaders.

In April we took our first extended international vacation with Sylvia. Nuru was invited to participate in the Skoll World Forum in Oxford, and so Jamie and Sylvia traveled with me and we planned a little European vacation on the heels of the forum. We spent time in Paris, London, and Amsterdam, and were able to see some friends in Amsterdam along the way too! And, Sylvia ran all over the Gardens of Versailles while we were in Paris. Such fun times!

Lots more traveling took place throughout the year, and we were incredibly grateful to be able to connect with friends in Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, DC, Columbus, Portland, and Denver among other places.

Jamie and I have both had the blessing of being able to work helping people. Jamie has continued working at HealthWorks supporting patients in aquatic rehabilitation and leading aquatic fitness classes as well.  In addition, she has been moving forward with ONE, and was instrumental in getting others around our state involved with the movement.

We continue working to inspire others in confronting the crisis of extreme poverty and joining our efforts at Nuru. This year, Nuru was able to exit its second country project, and as an organization, we celebrated ten years of changing lives in remote, rural areas.

We also completed another Marine Corps Marathon this year. This time, Jamie’s dad joined us too! Honestly, if it had not been for his accountability for us, I’m afraid our training would have been hijacked by our travel this year. At sixty-two, Jamie’s dad nailed a bucket list project, and it was pretty awesome that he and Jamie were able to finish the race side-by-side.

And of course, we have been enjoying every day with Sylvia in our life. She is such a precious gift, and it has been wonderful to witness her growth and development. She has seen more of the world than either Jamie or I had ever dreamed of seeing in all of our years growing up. And she spreads joy everywhere she goes. Right now, a few of her favorite things include Pitzi (Pizza), Moana, and eating gummy snacks that Pa (my dad) supplies to her.

But the year wasn’t all fun times. In March, I had laser vein ablation surgery done on my left leg. It was a problem that I had honestly hoped would clear up with exercise and dietary changes. Not that I have ever been incredibly unhealthy, but I just hoped that making some changes would do the trick. Unfortunately, my physician and the specialist I saw told me that’s not exactly how these things work, but that I was “a good candidate for surgery.” I always knew I had potential 😉 The surgery has helped clear up a massive protrusion of veins in my calf, and I have significantly reduced swelling in my left leg and ankle as a result, and now, a few months away from the surgery, I’m getting stronger and I’m moving better too!

If there were one word to describe this last year, I think I would choose the word “full.” The year was full of blessings and unexpected gifts and joys, and honestly, I think if we look closely at every year, we will witness something similar. Each year has its own fulness, but our Creator equips us with everything we need to overcome and to thrive.

As we wind up 2018 and look toward 2019, I’m praying that you will be able to take some time to consider just how full your year was as well, and that you will savor that fullness in the year ahead. Thanks so much for being part of our lives and part of the adventure we have been called to! May you experience fullness in all that you do!