Notes about my work, projects, training, and life.
A lot of frustration comes from expecting people to understand something you never clearly asked for.
Say what you need. Say what matters. Say what the decision actually is.
Clarity is not aggression.
It is respect for your time, their time, and the work in front of you.
Make the ask clear.
https://jimlunsford.com/discipline-dispatch-make-the-ask-clear/
One thing I’m struggling with as I get older is accepting that I cannot always keep up at the same rate I used to.
A typical jail day starts at 3:45 AM. Eat, shower, out the door by 5:00. Take my son to work, drive about 50 minutes, then work 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM.
After that, it’s the drive home, family, chores, then a 30- to 60-minute run depending on what I’m training for.
Clean up. Bed. Repeat.
I can still do it.
But even a year ago, that load felt easier.
That is taking some adjustment.
You don't talk your way back into trusting yourself.
You've already heard every promise you could make.
So has the part of you that keeps score.
The self does not trust speeches.
It trusts evidence.
So keep one small promise today.
Get up when you said you would. Finish the work. Shut the screen at the time you set.
Then do it again tomorrow.
Trust was damaged by evidence.
It has to be rebuilt by evidence.
That's Chapter 9 of The Disciplined Operator.
Nobody has to see it.
Proof can stand in an empty room.
I was away from technology most of the day yesterday.
Kelly and I took three of the four grandkids to the Fort Vallonia Days festival in Vallonia, Indiana. After that, it was a whirlwind of getting all the chores handled before bed.
Family day yesterday.
Today and tomorrow, back to the jail.
I will change when life slows down.
I will start when I feel ready.
I know what I need to do, but…
"That last word is where the old life keeps breathing."
I lived in that sentence for years.
I knew my life was falling apart. I just kept adding conditions to the truth.
That's why I called the book The PERIOD Code.
A period doesn't erase what came before it. It closes it.
Your past may explain part of the sentence.
It doesn't get to write the ending.
Put the period on it.
I am definitely a Ryan Bingham fan after tonight’s show.
I went in working security.
I came out adding another artist to the list.
Great show, great sound, and one of those nights where the job comes with a pretty damn good perk.
Nobody wakes up and decides to wreck their life.
It happens slower than that.
You put it off once.
Delay becomes permission.
Permission becomes repetition.
Repetition becomes identity.
Identity becomes the life.
That's the chain I wrote about in The Disciplined Operator.
The way out isn't a big speech or a fresh start on Monday.
It's shutting down the argument in your head and making the next move while it's still clear.
A man does not have to choose ruin for ruin to arrive.
He just has to keep waiting.
Broke away from the laptop long enough to get a solid 30-minute run in.
Yard work is up next, then I’m heading to the Brown County Music Center for tonight’s shift.
I’ll be working security for Ryan Bingham and The Texas Gentlemen.
Run, yard work, live music.
Pretty full day.
Bad news does not become easier because you refuse to hear it.
Discipline means staying present when the answer is not what you wanted, the result is disappointing, or reality forces a change in direction.
Hear it clearly.
Do not flinch. Do not distort it.
Then decide what the next move actually is.
Quiet morning.
Just me, Milo, the laptop, and coffee.
I’m spending the morning working on Proof, my custom WordPress theme, while Claude keeps grinding away in the background on modernizing some old code.
Later, I’ve got a shift at the Brown County Music Center.
For now, though, I’m enjoying the quiet and getting some work done.
More on tonight later.
