A Lesson I Learned from Becoming a Dad
It’s been almost two weeks since my last blog post. I think I’m ready to get back into my morning writing again. I purposefully took a break so I can enjoy the mornings as best as I can with my wife and my little man.
Being a Dad has been a blast so far. I have no idea what everyone was talking about when they kept trying to warn me of the gloom and doom of parenting.
“Oh man, your life is going to be over.”
“You’re never going to get a good night sleep again.”
Wtf are you talking about? It’s been great. It’s been enjoyable. For the most part, Jules and I have been able to sleep just fine. Sure, there have been some tough nights, (more so for her than me) but whatever. It’s been so fun.
So yeah… I’m ready to get back into it.
No More Room for Bullshit
I wrote about this a bit in a previous post, but something has happened to me during fatherhood. I suddenly no longer have the urge to want to chase after all of my ideas and projects.
My anxiety has actually dropped, a lot. I’ve been feeling this contentment where I know the things I am working on are the things I am supposed to be working on.
I keep thinking of that Derek Sivers line.
“If it’s not a hell yeah, than it’s a hell no!”
Every time I would hear that, I would always think it makes sense, but I could never find the emotional fortitude to apply it.
Now, I get it. I have no time in my life to do things that I don’t feel “hell yeah” about.
The things I am working on now are all “hell yeah” projects.
I’ll always keep an ear open for new investments, so I can continue putting my money to work. But other than that, I’m fully content with where I am.
Here’s a Quick Breakdown
1. Stodzy - Stodzy is the lifeblood of my enterprise. Everything starts and ends with Stodzy. We launched the new site, the brand has never been better, the business has never been better, the results we are generating have never been better. Just yesterday we finished the “our team” page, and it made me so happy to see my entire crew stacked up next to each other.
I can’t tell you how proud I am of this company. I started this 10 years ago. It was nothing. I had to go to Starbucks every day for internet.
2. Copyblogger - The day before Juliana went into labor, I launched the new product I have been working on. It’s been a huge success. Sales are up and only 2 people in the last 30 days have asks for refunds.
Also, we just released Digital Commerce, which will be the services wing of Copyblogger. It’s really cool.
3. Recovery Local - The work is so important, and I'm more proud of this than I’ve ever been. We are creating great partnerships and establishing a media entity that will help people for decades to come.
4. TimStodz - I took all of my other projects and combined them into one. TimStodz is the professional arm of my investments. The end goal is to be able to step away from the day to day grind, and be an investor. So TimStodz is the start of my investment firm. I only publish long form content on that site that will generate search traffic.
I need to keep having fun with that site. Every time it starts to feel like work, I hate it.
5. My Blog - I think I want to change the name. Something not named after me. It could create some confusion at first, but I don’t care. I love waking up in the morning and writing my blog with some morning coffee.
Tricia told me that I am not allowed to give up my daily blog. She says that I need something where where I can write for the sake of writing and not for the sake of generating results. She’s right It’s important for me. I want to think of a cool name for it.
So Here I Am
Life is good. After 34 years of “working on myself,” it took me being a dad to finally be able to stop and truly appreciate everything I have.
I’ll always work towards improvement. I’ll always want to better myself and my success. But the game feels different now.
It feels like I’m playing for a different reward.
I’m glad to be back. I’m happy to be writing this post. Talk to you all tomorrow. :)