When the world ends on December 21st, 2012…I hope to have done the following:
I hope to have built on the foundations that have been put in place. I hope to take my exercise, parenting and
If I do these things, I should have accomplished the following
If I do that, everything will be gravy.
I am currently working my way through Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project for the second time. The book details her year-long attempt to become happier through the improvement in 12 important areas of her life.
Both times, the premise of the book has spoken to me. Though living a fantastic life, I often find myself unhappy with my development in the most important and valuable facets of my life. I realize that small improvements within these areas would lead to a major improvement in myself and my happiness. I can be a better father, have a better diet, workout better and many other small personal changes.
I have decided that I am going to go all-in and start my own personal growth project:
Greg’s Year of Exceptional Being
The goal is to become a much better person through the development and improvement of myself in 10 areas of my life:
Let the adventure begin!
I guess the easy question is, how do you ever come close to replicating your 20′s. For me, I started my 20′s as a bespeckled, overweight college student with no direction. Now, I have graduated college, got married, bought a house, ran 4 around the bay races, had 2 beautiful children, started working for a pro sports team, had laser eye surgery, saw 15 baseball stadiums and countless other life defining moments.
Perhaps the right approach is not to beat the last decade but to build on it…
Here are some goals, aspirations, dreams and other crazy hopes for the next decade of my life:
FAMILY
Coach 1 of Evie’s Teams
Coach 1 of Camden’s Teams
Buy our Dream House
PAy off a Mortgage
Take an Annual Special Trip – Dad + Kid
HEALTH
Run a marathon
Qualify for Boston (probably need to go the charity route)
Complete a Triathlon
Complete an Ironman
Get a 6-pack (not the alcoholic variety)
Run Around The Bay in under 2:30
SPORTS
Go to the Super Bowl
Go to a World Series Game
Go to the Final Four
See a no-hitter Live
Win a championship Ring
TRAVEL
Take the Kids to Disneyland
Go to Europe
Go to Every Baseball Stadium
Go to Australia
CAREER
Become a Vice-President
Become a President
Make 6 Figures
Start a company
Join a board
WRITING
Get some of my writing published
Blog Daily
Develop a persona on-line
MISCELLANEOUS
Grow a Beard for 6 months
Teach a class
Earn an MBa or a 2nd Degree
Go to at least 2 concets every year
Go 6 months without TV
Work on my public Speaking
Have a net worth over $1,000,000 at 40.
Jump out of a plane or bungee jump or both
Should be easy!
Something about this article (subscription required) by Tim Keown of ESPN.com has been bouncing around in my head for the last few days. It wasn’t the story of Tim Alderson or any of the other pitchers who have seen their velocity diminish when they changed their pitching programs. What is still blowing my mind is this:
Most organizations, the Pirates included, employ a structured, one-size-fits-all throwing routine commonly known as the 120 program. Each day begins the same way, with pitchers lining up next to cones that are 60 feet apart. They throw for 10 minutes from each of three distances: 60, 90 and 120 feet. Throws are to be kept on a line to mimic game conditions.
What I write next is not a condemnation of the 120 program or an endorsement of the long-toss program. I know very little about either and which is most effective in producing major league talent.
What boggles my mind is that a sports organization, even one that hasn’t had a winning season since 1992, would treat it’s million dollar investments as nothing more then interchangeable parts. The cost of identifying and tailoring unique throwing programs to each individual player is so minute in comparison to the initial investment. I am also mildly surprised (sadly, I am not really ) that the ‘moneyball revolution’ has not brought along innovations across all levels of the game.
How much of the inefficiencies associated with the amateur draft are actually inefficiencies related to the development of a player from within an organization? How many careers have been ruined by inserting all of an organization’s players into a one size fits all programs?
I would hope that there is someone in Pittsburgh’s (and every other) organization whose entire job is to try to answer questions such as these. I highly doubt that there is.
There are two undeniable facts about the role sports have played in my life:
1) I have been madly in love with all aspects of sports since I was 4 years old.
2) I am unable to play any sport at an average level.
A retrospective video of my sports highlights would show me managing a City championship midget basketball team, being the beat reporter for a 4-time provincial champion football team and selling t-shirts for a pro sports team. Bo Jackson, I am not.
When I was 4, I started to learn basic math via the baseball boxscores in the back of the sports section. I would fall asleep nightly listening to Ernie Hartwell whisper from beneath my pillow.
Since I graduated university, I have had two jobs: 1) creating the same boxscores I grew up analyzing and 2) operating a retail program for a Canadian Football League team.
My average week now consists of a pick-up football or softball game, 50-60 hours of ‘work’ for a sports team, watching sports, reading about sports, teaching my kids about sports and I figure, why the hell not, lets start writing about sports.
This is my blog. It is about sports, sports business, analytics, fantasy sports and anything that I can relate back to sports. It will focus on football and baseball with a touch of other sports when something interesting happens.
