It feels like the talk of interest rates and how high they are is everywhere. I don’t think I go a day without reading or hearing someone mention how high rates are. I do it myself as well. As a homeowner, I talk and think about the rate I got versus the rate I would get today. I found this chart put together by Axios with info from NYT and Federal Housing Finance Agency puts into perspective why it is such a prominent topic. Dating back to 1998, the gap has never been as wide as it is now.  

When I shared this chart with someone who has bought homes since the 80s, I learned more about this delta further back in time. He told me about an assumable mortgage he used to finance a house in 1981. The market mortgage rate he said was 18% and he picked up the seller’s existing mortgage at 9% which is a wider delta than we have today. This gives me hope that America can get through this. We’ve done it before.

A listen I found valuable this week is a podcast from Cal Newport. He goes through the history of productivity over the last 20 years with important themes and popular books.

One book he talks about is Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I remember I had a hockey coach teach me about this book in the early 2000s. I took notes on each as he walked through them. I was an early teenager at the time and thinking back I remember enjoying the classroom part of the hockey camp where I learned about this. It was good to get the mind going as well as the body physically moving.

Also posting the Spotify link here.

In 2023, I successfully created an exercise habit that is now ingrained in me. I believe some of the lessons I learned from this experience are applicable to building good habits for anyone trying to reach their goals whether it be fitness or something else. 

At the end of 2022, I got a Fitbit for Christmas and programmed a goal of 5 days of exercise per week. I ended up hitting 7 days most of the 52 weeks. I only didn’t exercise 26/365 days. I didn’t miss a workout day in June, August, and December. I did this on top of having my second kid during the month of April. 

I really surprised myself with this. I have always loved exercise but have never been this consistent in my life until now. A few changes in mindset or actions really helped achieve this:

• I kept the bar low with the aim of 10 to 20 minutes a day. I sometimes did more but as long as I hit 10 mins, that was enough. 10 min jog, 10 min bike, 10 min foam roll, etc. The bar was low and still is. 
• Keeping the bar low also simplified the activity in my mind so it wasn’t such an ordeal. When I was crossfitting a lot, I made workouts an ordeal. I needed at least 1.5 hours to get the workout done. Now, I just started moving my body if I only have 15 minutes which lessened the mental burden of making it happen. 
• Lastly, I removed friction by laying workout clothes out the night before or just wearing whatever I had on. I made it really easy to change into workout clothes. 

That’s pretty much it. I never read the book but this experience made me think of Atomic Habits which I’ve talked about with a lot of people over the years. 

I am applying these lessons to 3 things so far in 2024 (1) nutrition (2) writing on this blog (3) personal finances. We’ll see how it goes!

I never knew that bringing a kid to work day was a national holiday until yesterday. Last year when my son was 2, I wanted to participate but our second child came a few days before. This year, I saw it on the calendar 2 weeks out, and knew I wanted to make sure we participated. As the date got closer, I let my son know he would be coming into work with me after school on Thursday. Like I always do for special events, I try to let him know a few days in advance and then remind him a few times a day after that. 

The wild thing I didn’t anticipate was the excitement built each day that came closer. His excitement passed to me as, especially as we headed out to drive to the office. My wife dressed him in a similar outfit to me and he was chatting it up about going to work with his dad. 

We got there and he had a blast. He was a little timid at times but found things he loved, which were cars, the view of the Charles River from the kitchen where we were watching the boats, and the snacks. I was also proud to hear him answer popular questions from people I work with such as, what is your name? and how old are you? 

This also brought back a few memories I had of joining my dad at work. Often using office supplies, admiring views, and meeting others. 

In today’s world where the youth population is dealing with a mix of mental health challenges, I find a day like this truly powerful. It gets kids out of their school routine into a different but real world experience that opens their eyes to career possibilities and allows them to meet new people.

I hope my family can participate in this national holiday for years to come.

Vacations are necessary for me, and I think most people. I took Thursday and Friday off last week and traveled to the Dominican Republic to celebrate a friend who is getting married in a few months. It was a fun time. Warm weather, sun, golf, good food, beach, pool, and most importantly many conversations and laughs with old friends. It is quite surreal spending time away from kids for a few days. It is great to get away from constant parenting once in a while but I also missed them. And when I got back they seemed like they grew up in 48 hours. 

Back to the point I want to make about returning from vacations. I’ve learned the importance of mindset on the first day back at work after a vacation. It is important to take the vacation and truly enjoy yourself during it. I used to take less vacation because I didn’t like coming back and feeling out of the loop and catching up. 

Rather than taking less vacation, I simply switch my mindset when I return. My mindset is to ease into the first day back. I do this by giving myself the morning to be meeting free. At least 830AM to 11AM or so. In that time I catch up on data, weekly planning, team priorities, and email/slack. I like to do this off a fresh night’s sleep. I find after spending 2 to 3 hours in these areas, I reap the recovery benefits of the vacation and I dive back into work with a mindset of excitement and control rather than letting calendar or other people’s priorities dictate my first half of the day which leads me feeling more stressed and bored than excited and engaged. 

Take the vacation, come back and be deliberate about your time for the first half of the day.