This year I embraced becoming a father and loved every minute of it. I started off the year with two weeks of paternity leave.
When you have a tiny human that you and your wife are responsible for, it's an incredible feeling. It's been great being alongside Violet during her first year journey. Violet's learned so much: how to say da-da, ma-ma, k-k, making monkey noises, crawling, walking, and her love for the guitar and music. We wonder if she'll continue the interest in the guitar - she even knows how to strum it. I can't believe she's already one year old! I'm looking forward making more memories and sharing more firsts with her.
I also became an uncle again as we celebrated Eric Steven Verboncouer Jr. coming into the world.
We bought our house in November of 2017 and had little furniture after minimizing in our journey moving to Hawaii and back. We've enjoyed filling our home with pieces we value and find useful beauty in.
I also purchased an electric guitar and have a goal of learning the live solo of John Mayer's Gravity from the Where the Light is tour. I'm about 80% of the way through learning it all.
I also continued learning a lot as I read 16 books last year. I'm looking to double that number in 2019!
We took our first vacation as a family and revisited our old stomping grounds in Hawaii for 2 weeks. Traveling with an infant is challenging but we made the most of it. Nostalgia ensued; revisiting our favorite beaches and local restaurants.
We also had our first professional photos taken as a family along a rocky coastal beach.
I did my best to be mindful of how much I was traveling, specifically in the beginning of the year. This allowed me to be present more at home and help around the house with Violet.
In August, I attended my 3rd Epicurrence, Summer Revival, in Yosemite National Park.
As a leadership team we started working with a professional EOS implementer. We've executed aspects of EOS in years prior, but hadn't committed to a full roll-out of the system before. Throughout the process we re-read "Traction" and read "Getting a Grip" and "Rocket Fuel" from the series.
Our team inhaled and exhaled a bit throughout the year. We had to say goodbye to some crew we loved and welcomed some new crew aboard. We're grateful for the memories and impact every member has had along the way.
Looking back, 2018 was a great year of growth both personally and professionally. I learned more about how I make progress on the things important to me and now have a better plan in place to create and complete more meaningful goals.
As I launch into a new year, there are some themes that I'm continuing to focus on. I have quantifiable goals and quarterly goals for each of these areas, but will write more about those in a future post.
Lose fat and decrease BF%. I've been yo-yo-ing for the past few years since I stopped pursuing football and stopped training for combines, and 2019 is the year that I change that for good.
Be more disciplined, frugal, and continue the debt snowball. Being more mindful of unnecessary spending - mostly on perishable items like food and coffee. Invest more in equipment, tools, and things that make these things easier and more enjoyable to do at home rather than out.
Get involved and serve at church. I've been wanting to get involved on the worship team and put my guitar to use, but will serve in other capacities wherever needed.
Spend more meaningful time with loved ones and friends. With how busy everyone is, it's easy to lose connections and conversations with the people in your life.
