North Star

This page defines why I believe that I exist, what do I want to accomplish in this life, for whom? How will I act? How will I measure progress along the way? The final few sections of the page help define who I am that helps influence my North Star.

My first blog post defines why I write in the first place, the second post documented and explained my North Star as of June 2023. This page will remain up-to-date to keep myself focused and motivated to reach the better future I envision. I hope that it inspires others to identify their own North Stars to envision and achieve the future world state they are uniquely positioned to enable!

My Vision

Why do I exist? Always start with why. What outcome do I hope to achieve with my existence?

My Value Proposition

What makes me uniquely positioned to achieve my vision?

People connect with me to find inspiration to believe they can achieve their vision and to collaboratively explore strategies and plans to get there. I dive deep to see you for who you are today and affirm you are on the right path, your own. I help us hope together for a future that you are uniquely positioned to enable. I love you and am with you always!

My Guiding Principles

What reminders help me choose how to act?

1. Prioritize her. Find fulfillment; but remember that it will feel worthless without her. Keep and deepen her love.
2. Hope tirelessly. Trust that time will solve all. Assume the best intentions of others, always. Champion that hope for everyone.
3. Empathize patiently. Ask why to calmly help others identify their feelings and needs. See them, allow them to be themself, love them.
4. Share openly. Share with the faith that others will reciprocate. Strengthen the trust in all relationships via your openness. Never exclude anyone, ensure that all feel welcomed.
5. Influence respectfully. Inspire, don’t dictate. Every person has a unique capacity for change. Give them space to empower them to identify their own path and next steps when they are ready.
6. Explore curiously. Be drawn to, not afraid of, the unknown and ambiguous to bring clarity for yourself and others. Live to learn!
7. Evolve rapidly. Adapt to those around you. Meet them where they are; then, look forward to identify how we can grow stronger together. Adjust course as new information becomes available.
8. Lead confidently. Believe that you belong and are uniquely positioned to succeed in driving positive change. Help others find their confidence and place in our shared world.
9. Dream big. Don’t settle for incremental improvements, imagine a step function positive change that you enabled. Move people with your vision; they won’t be inspired by small thinking.
10. Deliver measurably. It isn’t enough to set a vision, you must execute to achieve it and track your progress along the way.

My Mental Model for Perpetual Growth

How do I organize my activity to ensure I’m always evolving and growing towards the vision I’ve set?

For me, I learn and share my mind which motivates me to live healthily to extend my mind’s physical existence and breathe slowly to slow down the precious time my body has. I spend wisely to support the long life I intend to live and to fund the time and activity I hope to share with others to connect deeply. For you, I learn and share others’ minds which motivates me to explore happily into the world to bring hope to others. As I witness the needs of others around me, I share tangibly my goods to enable deeper connection and fulfillment. This, in turn, drives more learning and sharing to spin both wheels faster. The growth for me intersects with the growth for you to align my activity for love that perpetually evolves and grows with time.

My Drivers & KPIs

What do I do to make progress towards my goals and measure that along the way with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)?

1. Connect deeply. Spend quality time with the ones you love, it gives you energy and it gives others energy. Ultimately it is directly driving progress toward making this world a more loving and hopeful place. Do it more! Prioritize those smiles with your children over sending that email/Slack at 6PM. Measure how often you connect with your loved ones and friends. Measure your time.
2. Learn and share the mind. Live to learn (read) and share (write). Measure how much you read and how much you write. Don’t limit yourself to writing publicly, somethings are best kept private but still helpful to write down and work through, so journal as well as blog!
3. Explore happily. Go out into the world with a smile on your face with the aim to share that joy and calmness with others you come across. Look to leave an impression on them that will stay with them for hours afterwards, helping them to feel uplifted from that passing interaction with you. Reflect at the end of the day on how many people you seemed to move and the percentage of opportunities you missed.
4. Live healthily. A dead person doesn’t add any more new information and perspective to an evolving world. Don’t die yet! Pay attention to what you consume and how you move your body. Track how many miles a day you move to stay fit for yourself and your family.
5. Breathe slowly (through your nose). Remain calm. Stop and pause to breathe and think before speaking and acting. Don’t react, anticipate and consider the consequences. Measure your resting heart rate and breathing rate to track how wisely and patiently you act.
6. Spend wisely. Earn and save money to fund your life’s future but do so to balance the unknown needs of the future with the known needs of today. Track your after tax monthly income, your disposable income (subtract expenditures on food, shelter, health, other staples), and your bottom line contributions to your net worth. But also track capital expenditures in a good way, make a target for what you want to spend on “big” purchases and vacations to make sure you balance enjoying the now while preparing for the future.
7. Share tangibly. You must also share measurable and tangible goods such as monetary resources, and rarely used and unneeded possessions that someone else could benefit more from. Donate 10% of my bottom-line income (the amount otherwise going fully to your net worth) to non-profit organizations. Measure how often you clean out the closets and identify clothes, toys, and other possessions that you aren’t using to donate to someone else.

My Customers

Who is it all for, what do they need from me?

1. My wife needs me to be present and available to help our busy family remain steady and confident that they are cared for and all will be well. She sincerely wants me to find fulfillment but she needs me to not lose sight of what it is all for. She needs my unconditional and focused love always. She needs me to be her best friend and partner in life till death when we just continue together to a different place.
2. My kids need a father to lead them to a better place but a friend to help them smile and live life to the fullest in the moment. They need to know my love is with them always, even when I have passed on.
3. I need to find fulfillment by seeing myself make a meaningful contribution to bettering this world.
4. My family I was born into need a steady constant that keeps us all marching forward no matter what. They need me to not damage myself in my pursuit of familial peace. They want me to move forward to a better future place, but never forget where I came from.
5. My close friends need to know that I am with them even when I’m not physically with them. We are all so busy with our own growing families; but we all have confidence in each other and their place in our hearts. We will continue to find times to connect; they may be fewer in quantity, but they will be deeper in quality.
6. My network want inspiration when they want and are ready for it, they don’t want me to force my views upon them. They need me to accurately read the situation to know when and what to share. Sometimes they just want to talk about the weather without it turning into a philosophical meaning-of-life discussion.
7. The world’s people need a smile and a look in the eyes from a caring person who makes them smile in response. They need hope that their community is there for them and together we will become stronger.

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Who Am I?

This section isn’t as much my “North Star” as it is grounding information on who I am that helps inform where I want to go and how to get there.

More information as to exactly who I am is on my page to Connect. I am a visionary who loves to learn from others with the hope of collaboratively working together to identify where we want to go, why, for whom, and then develop strategies and plans to get there. I am an INFJ-A personality type, I’d love to know yours!?

Strengths & Weaknesses

What are the traits which can be strengths in some situations but weaknesses in others? Find ways to bring out the best of you.

Trait	When it’s a Strength	When it’s a Weakness
Principled	Leading and influencing others to change in a way that aligns with these principles.	Receiving criticism about the “path I’m on” or being asked to do something that may not align with these principles.
Insightful	Diving deep into areas that are ambiguous yet in need of clarity around their true purpose.	Being asked to execute something that is either too simple/tactical or before bringing clarity to that task’s purpose.
Empathetic	Good listener and advisor by coming to deeply understand someone’s feelings.	Taking on others’ feelings as my own leading to emotional burnout.
Assertive	Making sure I am “heard” and respectfully contributing to the group to get dialog going.	When I assert more often than I listen, I can come across as conceited, aggressive, and thinking myself “better” than others.

Spirit Boosters & Dampers

The following “fills my cup” and encourages me to be my authentic self:

1. I feel connected when others share with me their feelings and show genuine interest in mine. Sincere sharing between two people leads to real connection and a feeling that the world is becoming closer together toward a happier and more loving place. Being seen by others and seeing and understanding others brings me real joy and hope.
2. I feel accepted for who I am when I receive a deep hug. I’ll take a handshake with a solid and authentic look in the eyes; but I prefer a legit hug that makes me feel connected to you as one.
3. Hearing words of confirmation that I am on the “right path” confirms my hope for the future. Affirmation I’m heading in the right direction keeps my heart beating to power me forward to the better place I seek.

The following can depress me and give me pause that I am on the right path:

1. I feel defeated when others assume my intent is negative and to propel myself forward at their own expense. I genuinely seek out paths forward that benefit the collective community. I know my words can be “intense” and seem self-absorbed in the delivery sometimes. When I’ve given deep thought to find a path that benefits all yet hear skepticism of my true intentions I temporarily lose hope that I can effectively spread my hope with the world.
2. Being surrounded by despair gives me pause and makes me think that I’ll be unable to achieve my vision of making this world a more hopeful place. I’m not someone drawn to the darkness, I’m someone drawn to the light. I want to be surrounded by others that are hopeful. All I need is a tiny flicker of that light to keep me motivated it will brighten.
3. When I am personally left out or see others left out I find myself wondering if the world can build the inclusive community it needs. I don’t understand what good it does to all to purposefully leave someone out and excluded. I understand that mistakes happen, but why not go out of our way to make all feel welcomed? We may get surprised by the fun and joy that others can bring when they are included.

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My Gratitude

Thank you for learning a little bit about me, I hope you are inspired to learn more about yourself to achieve the vision you are uniquely qualified to enable!