Hey friends, today is my birthday. To celebrate I wanted to let you know that you can do it!

don't worry

Get Started

don't worry

Make Mistakes

don't worry

Keep Going

don't worry

Do It Anyway!

I want you to succeed this year. I know that you are capable. I know that you have what it takes.

Go GO GO!

Oh yeah, and Happy Birthday to me

1. Lose 50 pounds
2. Write a Book
3. Earn additional income

Identifying your goals is an important first step, but it is not the final one. While these are good they are either not specific enough or not actionable actionable.

Let's work these until we have something we can use. We need to take these and make some SMART goals. Here is how we define SMART goals.

Specific: A Clear Unambigiuous Statement

Measureable: How Do We Quanitfy Success

Actionable: How Will The Goal Be Achieved

Realistic: Is It Attainable

Time-bound: What Is The Timeframe

Time-bound

So what do we do with our first goal? We can start with the time-bound part. These are the goals for year 41. so we will start this way.

In 365 days...

Realistic

Next we need to have a realistic goal that is still challenging. This is where the amount of pounds lost will be listed. With an expectation of 1-2 pounds lost per week 50 pounds makes sense.

... I will have lost 50 pounds.

Specific Measurable Actions

I am combining these three because it makes sense in this context.

This will be achieved through tracking calories (1920/day) and exercise(3x/week).

Put It Together

Goal #1

In 365 days I will have lost 50 pounds by eating 1920 calories per day and exercising 3 times per week.

Goal #2

In 365 days I will have written a novel of at least 50,000 words by participating in National Novel Writing Month and writing at least 1700 words per day.

Goal #3

In 365 days I will have created another stream of income. This stream will generate an additional $500 throughout the year. This income will be generated through speaking and advertising revenue.

A Quote that I heard today jumped out and hit me in the head. I hope it resonates with you the same way.

Do not worry about being perfect before you get started because Crooked sticks make straight lines too.

Go do something amazing today.

Go Go GO!

Image Credit: iCollector

Man moving is messing up my plans.

I cannot say enough how much I appreciate Dr. Eric Thomas for sharing his passion with the world. If you are not familiar with Dr. Thomas or ET The Hip Hop Preacher you are missing out. I have been following him for years now and travelled up to NY back in 2015 to see him live. I even got a few moments to talk with him after the event.

If you want to hear more from him check out the links above. If you are looking for motiviation and accountability from ET and the squad consider joining Breath University. I have been a member for the last year and while I am not the most active member but the constant reminders to stay after my goals have kick started a lot of things.

Are you committed to yourself and your goals to get started? If you are then you can go get it done!

Go Go GO!

In an effort to keep this going here are 2 sketches that I created on my iPad using an Apple Pencil. It was fun working in Adobe Sketch. It has been a long time since I have actively drawn so having layers was super helpful.

This is side eye from Moon Girl. If you have not checked out Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur comic you should. It is fun. I think there are plans to being her story to TV. She is commenting on the fact that Barry Allen ended up in Time Jail at the end of the last season of The Flash. In my house, Barry Allen is the worst. Free Wally West!

This image started out as 2 Chibi style manga characters that morphed into my wife and I walking hand in hand. I used it for the cover art of episode 15 of our podcast.

Have a great weekend!

So about the February declaration…

According to my log I am four days behind. I'd like to fill your screen with lots of excuses. I'm sure I could come up with a large list of reasons why I have not been posting but they would be just that, excuses.

So here's what I will do, the below image taken today is me. I should be doing something a little more substantive but here I am being unproductive and showing my ugly toe.

I just finished power washing the roof of my gazebo as well as my front porch and walkway. I really miss the day is when I didn't have to go to an office. Working from home was a godsend. I wish I could find a contract that allowed for telework. While my hours were unconventional I got much more accomplished during that time.

Anyone want to hire a remote developer, data analyst, technologist?

Regardless make sure you do something amazing today.

Go Go GO!

So keeping with yesterday's post about doing the impossible. One of the most impossible things for my wife and I for many years of our marriage was to have a success Valentines Day. For the first 13 years of our 16 year marriage, Valentines Day would always result in us being mad with each other. We couldn't explain why, we don't typically fight, but somehow on Valentines Day we would be mad with each other. It was so bad that we would mark V-Day on the calendar and go out of our way to just avoid each other until it was over. That is difficult when you have 2 daughters who wanted to do cards, ballons and such. Then 3 years ago we righted the ship. What wasit that changed our situation? I have no idea. All I do know is that we decided that it had been long enough and BOOM no V-Day fight.

We decided to celebrate our 3rd successful Valentines Day with a quick podcast episode. I hope you enjoy it.

You can find us in your podcast player of choice by searching Life in the Clouds.

You can send us an email at feedback@lifeinthecloudspod.com

You can find all of our other episodes over at Life In The Clouds

Now for something impossible.

There are few things that are truly impossible. Most things are possible if you put in the time and effort to bring them to pass.

Go out and do the impossible today!

Go Go GO!

The drums however were calling her. We signed her up for lessons a few years ago, finally. She took to the lessons immediately and didn't want to miss any.Every week after her lessons she would look at this drum kit in the store. We were concerned about buying something that would not get used but ultimately she (thanks Grandma) got it.

She continued with her lessons, and her practice at home.

Then this happened

And This

This

And finally this one

Shout out to her drum coach Chris Johnson. He has been awesome.

I couldn't be prouder of the work she has been doing. Continue to work on your craft. It might seem slow but it is worth it.

Go Go GO!

To say that I am excited to see Black Panther would be an understatement. I love this character and he ranks in my top 10 comic characters.

When the character posters began to make the rounds online I was taken by the tagline on T'Challa's poster says, "His Father's Legacy". The mantle of Black Panther can be traced back through a single family lineage. Marvel even released an offical family tree this week.

I could talk for days about Black Panther and what he meant to me growing up as a little nerd that is not the focus of this post. I want to talk about legacy.

Honor the Legacy

Last night my wife and i were talking about our kids self-esteem. It seems an important part of the discussion I hear other parents discuss. I told her that my parents did think about my self-esteem that much. If anything I felt that my Mom wanted to make sure that I never thought too highly of myself. This was a good thing. She knew what I didn't think about until I was older. I was a pretty arrogant kid. Some of it was because of the mentality of youth. The other part was because of my family lineage.

This is going to sound way more arrogant than I intend it. I am a Matthews. Not only that I am the combination of Matthews and Butler families. Now that might not mean anything to you but my family has produced some pretty prestigious firsts in our area. There are streets named for the families in the area. Specifically I grew up on Matthewstown Rd where the neighborhood was once the sole ownership of my Great Great Grandfather Papa Nick.

Growing up I heard about my family's history and how we as kids were expected to live up to it. Many of my older cousins went on to careers in public service, law, engineering and entertainment. There was an idea that there wasn't anything that we couldn't do if we pushed towards it. Even for those of us who didn't push towards some crazy goal we knew there was something diffrent about us. Something powerful that we needed to honor. Something that shouldn't be forgotten.

What is Your Story?

So what is it about knowing your history that creates confidence. Knowing your connection to the things around you mean you don't have to worry about your place. Knowing who you are means you have something to push back against requests that are out of character. Knowing your family history can often highlight patterns you need to look out for.

I am not saying that everyone needs to become or hire a geneologist. Here is what you need to do.

• Know your IDENTITY
• Know your HISTORY
• Establish your STANDARDS

As far as the February declartion I missed the weekend posts. I will post them as they are available.

Go Out There and Do Something Amazing!

Go Go GO!

Image Credit: Marvel Studios

"Well at least you are paying your bills." - Well Meaning Coworker

Contracting is a weird business. Especially in my current industry. Everyone lives and dies based on funding. This is the land of hurry up and wait, where you can be told that your funding is gone and you need to stop work over night or you can sit for weeks waiting. These situations are also not mutually exclusive.

At the end of 2017 I learned that funding for my position was being eliminated. In fact it was actually never there so I would have a few weeks for my company to find me a new contract. No problem. I do a few interviews, get a few offers and I am back in the game with no break. So that was a fast action, now for a slow one.

I started on my new project but there are several things that need to happen before I can start working. Some things are within my control and others are not. I put in requests for things outside of my control and work on the stuff I CAN do. I finished my tasks in the first few days and so now I am playing the waiting game.

1. Week passes
2. Weeks pass
3. Weeks pass

Full disclosure I had to resubmit one request, which everyone on my team thinks is unusual, that is still pending as we roll into me being on this project for 1 month. For those keeping score that means that I have been unable to do meaningful work for 4 weeks.

Now I am pretty patient guy. I am not prone to losing my temper, even though I have one, however I am reaching my limit. I had to step outside yesterday when one of my co-workers said the aforementioned quote. While I do not disagree with him it was not what I needed to hear at that moment.

It is important to be grateful and to look for the positive in difficult situations, sometimes however, it is best to just say nothing. Sometimes a person might just need to vent. Sometimes venting is the best use of the persons time as it allows them to get their frustrations out so they can move forward.

However, since he wanted me to be grateful and I never want to leave a post on a negative point here are some things I am grateful for:

1. Black Panther is ALMOST HERE
2. The Baby is trying to crawl
3. We have had very little snow so far this winter (#endWintersTyranny)

Be grateful for what you have and stop complaining - it bores everybody else, does you no good, and doesn't solve any problems. - Zig Ziglar

Cover Image Credit: http://gretahillwellness.com

So my bride and I are both sick. That makes for an interesting time with our expanded family. With a teen and a double digit kid who are pretty self sufficient we could manage but with a 6 month old it can be pretty challenging. We don't want to get him sick because baby, but we can't just hand him off to his sisters either.

Fun Times :-)

On top of all of that there is also my February Declaration to consitently create. Today I am sharing a couple of items.

Life in the Clouds Episode 15 - Heavily Medicated

We fought our way through this one trying to finish before NyQuil madness set in for me. I don't handle medicine well or I should say it impacts me quickly. ;-) Enjoy

Graduation Invitation

I was trying to let my graduation go by with as little fanfare as possible. My wife and mother had other ideas. They both wanted me to walk the stage so I set out creating invitation but decided not to finish them. Here is the finished project.

Baby's 1st Dissertation

In a similar vein here is a funny want to tease your wife. We were having a disagreement about whether we should wake up the baby to feed him. My arguement is that you never wake a sleeping baby. My well reasoned arguement was met with disapproval and so off I went to feed the baby. I thought that a more scholarly approach, from a different presenter was needed.

I think I win this round.

Get out there and do something amazing!

Go Go GO!

Don't judge your life by someone else's highlight reel.

I love living in the future. I mean I named this blog Living in the Future because many of the things I dreamed of as a child have come to pass. The biggest driver of that has been the increasing influence of technology and the internet. I am part of the generation of straddlers. We straddled the line between life with internet and life without.

Do you remember when you touched your first computer? I remember it like it was yesterday. I tell the story often, in fact I shared pieces of it with a younger developer who just left our team.

cue flashback sound
Location: Harmans Elementary School
scene: 3rd grade class filled with some rowdy boys

Teacher: If you boys don't calm down you are going to be on the wall at recess today.

Recess was really best time of the day. After being stuck at a desk for what seemed like an eternity was about to come to an end. No one, I mean no one, wanted to lose recess. Especially not by being on the wall.

The wall was the worse punishment that there was. Going to recess was an event. We marched in a straight line from the classroom down a seemingly narrow hallway. The hallway was lined with lockers. Each set being a different primary color. The lockers were broken up by different classrooms. The 3rd graders were the last grade at Harmans that made this walk. It was torture because you had to be quiet. There were other classes going on. You couldn't disturb them. Imagine being a kid in this environment. This was your only time of freedom. You wanted nothing but to head outside, play with your friends. No matter what the game you wanted to get out and play!

So right before we could line up something happened, as it does with children. Somehow I got in trouble and was condemned to a recess on the wall. I wouldn't wall alone but there was no talking allowed on the wall. I immediately pled for leniency and upon receiving none asked if I could be sent to the library instead. Like briar rabbit I got my teacher to link that I would not enjoy this at all. Like Farmer McGreggor my teacher sent me to my punishment and like briar rabbit I was content to do read instead of being on THE WALL.

Little did I know that God, and the Anne Arundel School System, had something else in store for me. You see that year our school got its first set of computers, Commodore 64s. The librarian was installing the thing onto a cart as I came in and she put me to work helping. It didn't take long to plug everything in.

Image Credit: The Telegraph

She explained to me that the computer could do a variety of things faster than a person. the thing that I remember was her telling me the thing could play games. She even showed me how to load them. If you have ever used a c64 say it with me, LOAD * ,8,1

The screen flashed and I was greeted by the intro screen to some kind of math game. Number Crunchers maybe. My young mind was blown. I wanted to know everything I could about this thing. I went back to the library at recess over and over.

One day I asked the librarian how do you make the games? She mentioned that you had to enter in "codes". That was all she knew but there was a book that came with the computer. It had some "codes" in it. I spent the next few recesses copying these codes into the computer. After many typos I made my first square appear onscreen. I was so excited I called the librarian over to see. She was underwhelmed. This thing had become my obsession.

I begged my parents for a computer. They relented and bought me a TI-99A. They also got me this huge spiral book of different computer programs that I could learn. As new tech embraced it.

Hardware...
Software...
It was LIFE!!

I have now worked in technology for over 20 years. From gaming to the public service I have written code or built hardware that has been been touched by users around the globe.

So what does this have to do with my opening statement? While the future has allowed people to shortcut a lot of the early work, everyone pays their dues. Growth takes time and if you spend it worried about what someone else has done you will only hinder yourself. Put your head down and hone your craft. Stop looking at the scoreboard.

I know this is hard in our social media landscape. We see everyone living their best lives online but that is only the highlight reel. It is not the day to day. It is not, in many cases, REAL.

1. Know your Goals
2. Create your Plans
3. Pray and Execute
4. Repeat Daily

Sorry about the long story but I wanted to get it down as part of February's Declaration.

Go Go GO!

Header Image Credit: https://adrhighlightreel.wordpress.com/

Consistency is one of the keys to success. If this is as true as we believe what are you consistently doing every day? Does that thing align with your goals?

Something to think about, huh?

Get going!!!