For me, the road to tomorrow begins with baby steps. My hope is that they will be a true start and steps forward. craig’s journey to impact is one of those baby steps. It is an artificial forcing mechanism to get me going and keep me going. I will find my way in making this part of my daily life. My apologies as I’m sure this is all a bit stream-of-consciousness and will be in the beginning.
The greatest benefit to me with the launch is having people take their time to read these words and to have a few subscribers. This is the start of an official Team Craig. I’ve scheduled a few calls through this initial launch next week. I’m thankful for those who have offered, and I know it will be a great benefit for me to renew the art of conversing with others. It may sound very foreign to most people, but I think I have less than ten conversations a week with people who don’t live in my house, less than five a week if you remove parent discussions on the soccer pitch. I had lunch with a good friend in November, the first lunch I had with someone in many months. I had been contemplating this substack and somehow jumpstarting my life. It was an odd experience when I found myself mentally and physically drained with ten minutes to spare in the lunch.
I grew up as a real extrovert people person, professionally found myself as an introvert who was great in front of people and orchestrating things/terrible in a cocktail party. Now I’ve become an introvert bordering on being a recluse. My daily life of sitting in my basement at the computer pushes me further and furth underground. My great achievements are baby steps yet encouraging. I went to my second Friday Morning Men’s Breakfast in the last three weeks. This is a group of ten or so leaders of our small Presybterian church who have met together for a dozen years I assume. This second morning I found the courage to smile, to give my opinion, to ramble a bit, to listen. These men have been gracious enough to allow me in. I don’t know that they know the personal ministry they are proving to me—giving me an opportunity to sit with other people for an hour, allowing me to spit out words, letting me nod my head up and down to demonstrate understanding, providing a point of view that let’s me digest thoughts then formulate a response.
My wife and I went to a cooking class last night, a gift from our oldest son. This was another opportunity for me to be a participant, to feel warmth and joy. Here I was given the responsibility of searing lamb chops for two-three minutes on each side without a watch and to plate with all of the bones sticking out in the same direction. I tried my best to bite my tongue as another of the recipes was gumbo starting with shortening, adding a bit of tomato paste, a can of Rotel tomatoes, along with the typical vegetables. It was a gumbo used as a condiment for an andouille sausage hot dog with a relish of a zillion things plus this gumbo.
The second and fourth Friday of each month will be devoted to answering questions that I receive throughout the week. Email questions to csquard@gmail.com or leave in the comments here. No topic is out of bounds (I think!).
My goals for next week:
Conduct five calls
Apply to fifteen job postings
Ask for five referrals
Interview two people about their process
Document two life hacks that I try next week and give the results
Schedule one meeting in February
Mail three direct mail packages
Please leave comments. I don’t know if having a paid subscriber option reduces the number of free subscribers. I want as many free subscribers as possible as I think it will give me more people to build community, more prayers for me, more brains thinking of next steps, more resources I can be pointed to. I thank those who have taken the time to read one of these posts, and I especially thank those who are subscribing. It is a great encouragement.
Upset about this gumbo situation… but excited about your getting out there. Undiscliplined is my baseline which is why i liked orange theory (for a time) and being financially punished if i didnt show up… but that’s how deep it runs for me. I applaud these baby steps. Connection is what we are built for and for sure it takes work & vulnerability… the scariest of them all. Proud of you for sharing online and in person. Those are huge.
I would like it known than when “Dear Craig” is a syndicated column in all markets below the mason Dixon line, your favorite brother was the one who suggested it.
I love the ambition, but I think we need some graphs and ways of tracking weekly progress.
Also, I love that you’re taking a cooking class. You’ve always loved cooking.