Hello my friends,

I have a great friend named Noble, who is the most reflective person I've ever met. He keeps his journal with him ALWAYS and spends more time thinking over lessons learned from different life experiences than anyone I know.

I wanted to try my hand at doing some reflecting over the last year of my life. I reviewed notes, books, social media posts, etc. to come up with this list that I'm excited to share with you today!

I'd love to hear your favorite, your least favorite, and any you found thought-provoking!

Here is the list:

1. Important things require sufficient amounts of time - This is true both professionally and personally. For a long time, I was short changing Seeking Excellence by not giving it sufficient attention and time. I can't sacrifice my family life for it, so other hobbies and time wasters had to go in order to make time for what matters most.

2. Investing in yourself pays off - I've done a couple of coaching programs and paid to have an office instead of working from home this past year. Our increase in income over the last 12 months show that it was well worth doing so.

3. If you promote any sort of ideals or values (which you should), people will see you as a hypocrite. And that's okay.

4. Daily prayer (and I'm talking about dedicated 20-30 minutes with God) is the most essential ingredient to a good and happy life.

5. Intentionally dressing nicer than you normally would will boost your self-confidence and the respect others have for you.

6. Related - Challenging men to dress nicer for Church will result in exposing the true effeminacy of our generation.

7. You should prepare much more than you think you need to - I have spent more time preparing my talks when public speaking this past year than ever before and the quality of the talks certainly reflected this.

8a. St. Francis de Sales' book "Introduction to the Devout Life" might be my favorite Catholic book of all time.

8b. Father Elijah IS my favorite novel of all time.

9. Fatherhood just gets better and better with time.

10. Having intentional community is critical for the life of holiness.

11. Patience is such a misunderstood virtue. It's seen as being nice, when really it's the ability to be a gangster and stay cool under pressure and suffering.

12. Helping my wife achieve her dream of being a stay at home wife and mother has been one of the most fulfilling things of my lifetime.

13. Providing for a family on one income is nearly impossible in any major city today - which is why we need to work intentionally and diligently to increase our income AND our number of income streams as husbands and fathers.

14. Making any sort of criticisms of Catholic nonprofits and ESPECIALLY the self-fundraising model of many Catholic missionary organizations can get you a lot of heat, pushback, and even hate. 😅

15. Avoiding stupidity is often easier than seeking brilliance. This means that it's often easier to avoid massive mistakes that set you back immensely than it is to hit the jackpot. This is true for finance, relationships, professional life, and even fitness. Consistently do the small, right things and avoid the major losses by taking unnecessary risks.

16. Unspoken expectations are pre-meditated resentment. If you are holding expectations of someone - a spouse, a coworker, a friend, etc. - you must either express them or let them go. Otherwise, you can quickly become a toxic human.

17. You must choose in advance what you're going to suck at. Will it be golf and video games? Or will it be your career? Or will it be at family life? You can't be excellent at every single hobby AND your vocations. You will be bad at something, especially in your 20s and 30s.

18. The little trials, inconveniences, pains, and duties of daily life are a serious path to holiness if you embrace them with love, patience, and a heart that wants to glorify God.

19. Many feminists in the Church really hate the reality of Ephesians 5. The idea that a wife should unconditionally respect her husband as a husband should unconditionally love his wife is very controversial in modern Christian circles. There are obvious extreme exceptions to both charges, but this is the general rule put forth by Scripture and the Church Fathers.

20. There a great deal of people who make the intentional decision, and sometimes with great effort, to avoid or altogether reject God in their lives.

"It is impossible that anyone who is vigilant in seeking the truth should be condemned by God… ‘but how is it,’ you ask, ‘that they have not believed?’ It is because they did not wish to." - St. John Chrysostom

21. Seeing your son smile and yell "Dada" when your car pulls up to the house at the end of a workday can truly overcome any stress or sadness from the day.

22. Truly entering into the Sabbath Day is so important for your Vocation - both to holiness and to family life. We've made an intentional effort to just rest, play, read, and spend quality time together as a family on Sundays and it's truly been a game changer in our family life and in my spiritual life.

23. Excessive complaining is not just annoying to others. It is also a sign of a lack of virtue.

"Do not complain of the injuries done to you more than you can help, for undoubtedly, as a general thing he who complains, errs."

-St. Francis de Sales

24. Our masculinity crisis really starts in boyhood. The book "Boys Adrift" by Dr. Leonard Sax illustrates this point clearly. There are a number of factors that have greatly altered childhood and have almost entirely wrecked the male journey from boy to man.

25. Patrick Bet-David is awesome. I've shared this before, but the PBD podcast is my favorite source of news, insights, and entertainment. He shares all things from a calm, collected, conservative, and capitalist perspective while engaging with people who disagree with him in MAJOR ways - which I really respect.

26. People are really starting to yearn for practical holiness. This is what I try to give people through Seeking Excellence and I've sometimes been discouraged by how few people really want it. People remotely interested in personal growth can often fall into two camps: 1) spiritualize everything and only care about theology or 2) desire purely secular personal growth. My efforts to overlap the two seem to be more appealing to people as time goes on, which is exciting!

27. The solution to anxiety is more trust in God. The Litany of Trust has changed my life. Anxiety is fear of the unknown. Nothing is unknown to God. If you believe God has a plan for your life and that nothing but your own choices can separate you from His love, then you have nothing to worry about.

28. Many people view worrying as a badge of honor. That is comparable to going around bragging about any other vice or bad habit in your life. It's really a bad look.

29. There are three main things that limit people's success and growth in life: mindset (not believing change is possible), motivation (not caring enough to make a change), and methods (not knowing what to do to make the change). These are the three areas evangelists, leaders, and coaches must focus on to improve themselves, others, and organizations.

30. Don't take criticism from someone you wouldn't take advice from. Sure, you can hear them out. But don't let what they say have the slightest impact on your mission or confidence.

31. We have embraced and normalized cowardice way too much. From sharing political opinions, to promoting truth, to sharing our faith - we always have an excuse as to why we should remain sheepish and silent. And we've now begun defending silence to the point of cowardice in others. This is very bad for society.

Here's to the next year of Seeking Excellence together!