Positive Habit Transfer

The Weekly Q Point relayed on the 1st F channel yesterday by Saigon Sam – namely, “Positive Habit Transfer: Ingraining Advantageous Tendencies in Others” – struck a chord. Indulge me in a bit of table-setting as I explain how…

Our son, Jesse, graduated from Bates College in Maine two weekends ago. He’s got a lot in the hopper – his own trading card web site; communications director for a US House of Representatives candidate; events manager for the executive director of a national foundation; and his ongoing pursuit of fluency in Mandarin.

Flying home from Maine, I reminisced how our relationship has evolved. Think about how parenting starts. It’s pretty straightforward – do whatever it takes to stop them from crying so you can get some sleep; don’t let them fall down the stairs or touch the hot Big Green Egg; and, ultimately, shepherd them through K-12 so that they matriculate into colleges that even Elon Musk can’t afford.

All the while, we are teaching. But how do we teach? Are we reactive? Are we proactive? I could’ve/should’ve done a better job being proactive. Indeed, if I could go back in time and give some advice to about-to-be-a-father Slash in 1999, I’d tell him, A) back up the truck on Amazon.com stock; B) avoid the salmonella platter that was masquerading as yellowfin sushi at that fateful work party in the fall of 1999; and C) be more proactive with Positive Habit Transfer with the 2.0s.

While I whiffed on A and still gag at the thought of B, I’m glad to say I’ve made some progress with C. When my kids went off to college, it really hit me that there was a lot I wanted to say to them that I had not. I had spent decades writing articles for magazines and research reports for investment firms. But I had never written for my most important audience – my children.

So they began to receive letters from me. Letters that passed along lessons from my life experiences, why some things worked out, why some things didn’t. What they’ll ultimately take from these writings, I don’t know. They say they’ve read them. They say they’ve printed them out and saved them. This much I know – they’re going to keep getting them, as these letters are a way for me to tangibly convey – with more clarity and permanence than the everyday spoken word – what they most need and deserve to know. The transfer continues.

Onto the workout…

Warm-up: Michael Phelps, short mosey, fire hydrants, merkins, down dog, reacher.

20 stations – 32 seconds of work, 18 seconds to run a lap around the flagpole and get to the next station. Rinse and repeat. The stations:

Merkins
Bosu Ball Merkins
Mountain Climbers
Bear Crawl
Monkey Humpers
Squat Thrust w/ Cinderblock
Lunge (left foot on curb)
Lunge (right foot on curb)
Groiners
Flutter Kicks
Low Plank / Hover
LBCs
Dips
Side Raises w/ Bricks
Overhead Press w/ Barbell
Slam Ball
Side Leg Raise (left hand down)
Side Leg Raise (right hand down)
Jump Rope
Curls

COT / BOM chatter:
• Relatively few announcements out of the Nantan this morning, who did note the upcoming Terrain Race in Jax on 6/25. There is an F3 team participating.
• Our boy Sushi only has a couple of more weeks with us, as he and his wife are heading for the Gulf Coast, where she has a new job opportunity. We wish them the best of luck but we will miss Sushi – always a smiling, upbeat presence in the gloom (despite the peculiar tendency to sometimes wear Tennessee Volunteer garb). Good luck, brother!
• Godspeed to Left Turn who this weekend is participating in a triathlon in Claremont, Florida, which will feature a lake swim. Fortunately, Left Turn did participate in our workout this morning, so he avoided hearing Yard Sale cover a litany of biological threats present in Florida lakes that would send chills up the spine of Anthony Fauci.
• Prayers for needs spoken and unspoken.
• Pledge.

Always a pleasure to lead.