Don Kowalewski
Writer. Ad Sales and Marketing. Social Media Content Creator. Aeropress Coffee. Makes the best salsa in the world.
‘Sup, dude.
Sup dude. This is me taking a quick video and then quick blogging it. I mostly want to see if the video embeds. I also want everyone to know that just because I didn’t make a big deal on my blog about I Love Don Week doesn’t mean it wasn’t epic and that it’s not still important. Check it out. A belated birthday gift.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0js3tXbVbMw&feature=share
5-Minute Blogging
7:43 – Start
Tim Ferriss, my ultimate guru, recommends writing in a journal for 5-minutes to start each day. He also recommends meditating daily. He recommends cold showers, exercise, fasting, and delegating tasks to free up time for big things. I’ve been a devoted follower for years and I’m starting to wonder if I’m full of anxiety because I can’t reach his level of discipline, or maybe I just don’t do the things he says I should do.
Do I get bogged down in the minutia? Do I dwell on the past failures and fear future failures, while never enjoying the present, the past successes, and being energized by the amazing things I’m yet to do.
Do I look around and let jealousy, envy, and distrust dominate my day while not embracing the goodness, honesty, and friendship that people offer?
The morning journal is supposed to be 5-minutes where I write down all the worst-case scenarios and put on paper the doom and gloom, and then I’m supposed to revisit it at bedtime and see what was imagined and what was reality.
7:48 – End.
Obsessed with My Lawn, But I Come By It Naturally
I’ll bet, like every father, my Dad occasionally sits around wondering, “I wonder if I made an impression on my children and taught them something?”
Well, Dad, rest assured, you did. Especially when it comes to my lawn. My Dad always had the best lawn on the block. Period. And he seemed to have it effortlessly. He didn’t pay for a sprinkler system. He mowed it himself. He watered it with a oscillating sprinkler. He didn’t hire a service to fertilize and treat his lawn. But it was perfect. He plucked dandelions by hand.
His most amazing feat happened when we moved to a new house in the summer of 1988. Most everyone in the neighborhood had sod delivered and installed. Insta-lawn. Lawn in a day. And then they ran their in-ground sprinklers to make sure it took. My Dad? He planted seed. Not spray-on seed like many more of the new builds used. Nope. Grass seed that he spread by hand. He was patient. And disciplined. He watered. He overseeded. He mowed and trimmed. Overseeded some more. Fertilized four times a year.
It was an awesome lawn.
Now, here I am, almost 30 years later and I obsess about my lawn. It’s my pride an joy. I mow it myself. I fertilize it myself. I pull weeds by hand. I spot spray others. And now I’m remaking my backyard to be a grown-up/teen friendly yard and it required me to get rid of my sandbox, a play structure, and we had to take down a dead pine. I found some bricks to build a fire pit, but what I’m most excited about? I’m most excited about the sandbox area and the areas that surrounded the pine and how I’m planting grass seed and how, by next spring, it will be like a carpet around my firepit.
This either makes me borderline insane, or it shows I have a hobby, albeit unorthodox and not quite golfing or running. I like my lawn and take pride in it. My wife bought an outdoor couch at a garage sale. I built a fire pit. We’re rethinking and redesigning our garden path (which mostly became a weed-ville). And as Droopy says, ya know what? I’m happy.
To my blog readers – I’ll keep ya updated.
Oh, and I’m obsessed with this guy, The Lawn Care Nut.
It’s Like I’m Not Even Excited About I Love Don Week
I need to seek counseling or perhaps mood altering drugs, because here we sit exactly 4 days until the kick-off of “I Love Don Week” and I’m not excited. My list is pathetic
- Cub Cadet riding lawnmower
- new Shieldon case for my iPhone 5s
- more Kiehl’s stuff
- Leaf blower (exactly like the Black & Decker I have that’s dying)
- Men’s Health subscription
- Johnston & Murphy classic penny or tassel loafers
Just …look …at …that …list. It’s sad and pathetic. How can anyone get excited for “I Love Don Week” with a piss-poor list like that?
I knew this day might come when I …gulp …mature a little and grow up. I was walking around today thinking how blessed I am and thinking, “I have my family and my health and that’s all I want for my birthday,” and I really had to take my temperature. For the record, I’m not running a fever.
Help me help you celebrate me. Help me get excited. What am I missing? Why am I feeling content and feeling like I don’t wanna make a big deal about the week and my 43rd birthday!?!?!?
Help. If you need me, I’ll be at Urgent Care asking them to check all my vitals.
Be a Beacon
This morning, I sat through a fascinating lecture by Bob Kernan of jacapps (an app developer) and I sorta made a spectacle of myself during the Q&A (I swore I would play it low-key). That’s not really the point of this blog. You know why I blog, right? Because I think my blog can be a place to pull little lessons about life from the little moments in our life. Maybe I’m blogging just for me. But maybe you like it, too.
OK. So after the lecture, I got into a nice, long conversation with a former co-worker who I haven’t talked to in ages (but she complimented me on how thin and healthy I look, so of course I wanted to talk with her more just in case she had more nice things to say about me). I’m joking. I talked with her because it was nice to reminisce and I wanted to hear what she was doing, these days. She had quite a tale to tell.
The lesson for myself I took from it was (a) smile, (b) go into a room with a positive attitude, and (c) be grateful. Be in the moment. Every person in that room was a competitor with everyone else, but take away our business cards, and you quickly realize we’re all mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, friends, members of our Church, volunteer coaches, and hundreds of other every day, normal things.
I put on my Uncle Jerry hat (recall he’s the guy that made everyone in his life feel like #1), and suddenly the meeting was better, as was the conversation afterward.
The lesson is, we should all keep living and doing the promises we made to ourselves the last time something inspiring happened to us. Like, for me, it was when my Uncle Jerry died earlier this year. I told myself, when I’m stressed and knee deep in the drudgery, I really do need to take a deep breath and realize . . . hey . . . I just took a deep breath. I’m alive. I woke up on this side of the earth/ground. I can choose to be negative, gossipy, and think about all the ways everyone around me is an idiot or a jackass, or I can choose to be the opposite of those things.
Part of the lecture was about beacons that track your phone via Bluetooth. Basically, when you walk in range of a beacon, it spots you and starts talking to you. But all my co-worker (L.R.) could think about was the song You Can’t Be A Beacon, If Your Light Don’t Shine and while it might seem silly, I’d never heard the song before and it perfectly captured my mood and why I try to make every conversation, every meeting, and every opportunity something interesting and useful.
Sunday To-Do List Became a This-Week To-Do List
I posted my to-do list. I did my best. I had a dance recital to attend and a few moments of laziness, and ripping apart the overgrown foliage on the north side of my house took much longer than I had planned, and then I didn’t have lawn and leaf bags, so I had to make a trip to the hardware store. But never fear …this give me goals for the week.
Clean all windows in my homeStrip, wash, and make the bedsDust and vacuum the family room and all three bedrooms- Vacuum and detail my car’s interior
Organize under my bed and my nightstand- Organize/straighten the north wall of my garage (it acts as our catch-all mudroom and it’s starting to look like a hoarder lives here)
Clean my shower floor- Chop down a bush, pull weeds, and move my wood pile
Clear the weeds and brush on the north side of my house- Mop the kitchen floor.
And lastly, I like this picture. I like to think if I won the Mega Millions or Powerball, this is where you’d find me.
Oh,
Not a Lazy Sunday
Who made the rule that Sundays have to be a lazy day?
Here’s the ten things I wanna get done, today.
Clean all windows in my homeStrip, wash, and make the bedsDust and vacuum the family room and all three bedrooms- Vacuum and detail my car’s interior
- Organize under my bed and my nightstand
- Organize/straighten the north wall of my garage (it acts as our catch-all mudroom and it’s starting to look like a hoarder lives here)
- Clean my shower floor
- Chop down a bush, pull weeds, and move my wood pile
- Clear the weeds and brush on the north side of my house
- Mop the kitchen floor.
Go!
Challenging Myself
My good friend, N.G., recently laid down some “we can’t” and “we don’t have” and some other obstacles that I haven’t been able to get outta my head. Who says I can’t have a YouTube channel for myself, and another one completely devoted to my day job? Who says I can’t more aggressively use LinkedIn to prospect and find clients. Like, why can’t I post something like this on LinkedIn?
I’m looking for a clinic or Doctor who specializes in sleep disorders and sleep problems who would like to advertise. I have an idea for a very powerful ad campaign and this is important and very personal to me.
It’s honest. It’s real. I feel very strongly about the power of sleep and that it helps depression, anxiety, weight loss, productivity, and . . . well . . . everything. I struggled with sleep for almost two years. It was crushing my soul. In this era of glowing screens and always being “on” and connected, it feels like everyone has a sleep problem. An ad campaign that speaks to this common problem would be like a public service. Oh, and I feel very strongly about the power of radio when it’s done correctly.
Why couldn’t I post that on Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook? Tell me?
Two gurus I love – Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk. Seth Godin’s mantra (one of his mantras) is “pick yourself”. Meaning, stop waiting for someone to say, “hey, Don, you have permission to think outside the box and used LinkedIn for prospecting.” Or, “Don, you can make a YouTube channel and create a little video message for  your clients, targets, and prospects every Friday.” I’m just going to do it. Because I enjoy doing it. Mostly I post videos about coffee. Why not try something else? Right? And Gary Vaynerchuk says never stop hustling and he’s living proof that a person (me) should just trust their (my) gut and if I feel like a weekly video about radio and advertising, and a Podcast (“hey, Don, who’s going to listen to your Podcast?”), and some targeted Tweets and Snaps might be interesting, entertaining, or helpful . . . why not?
Pick myself. Pick yourself. Hustle. And it’s about time I write some more and flex my creative muscles.
Developing a Rock Solid Morning Routine
Yesterday I wrote about morning routines. Most of yesterday I thought about my morning routine. Thinking things like, “if I dominate mornings, I’m going to make a better life for myself.” I think dumb stuff like that. But is it “dumb?” What is a morning routine? Is it a win because I make a plan and stick to it? Is it a win because I actually accomplish something in the span of time where I usually get poor quality sleep and listen to a boring audio book to distract me from the fact I know I should be up and tackling my morning routine?
I ask questions on this blog without having true answers. I ask questions and some people answer me on Twitter and in the comments. I ask questions to get myself and you thinking. I know the answers. You know the answers. The blogosphere, the self-help section of bookstores, your Pastor, and motivation Tweeters have the answers. The ancient Greek philosophers had the answers. Then Buddha, and Jesus, and Mohammed had the answers. Philosophers of the Renaissance had the answers. Tony Robbins has the answers.
And yet . . . we all still ask questions. “We all” isn’t fair. Let’s say “many of us”.
Many of us still ask questions and seek advice, wisdom, and direction. But we know the answers.
I know a morning routine would be all of the above. A jump start to my day. A smart thing to do. Will ease my mind with prayerful meditation. Will start my day with a small win (I’m using the word “win” as, I guess, something checked-off the to-do list or the mini-bucket-list …like …tomorrow morning I’m going to swing my kettle bell for 10 minutes, and then when I do, I’ll call it a “win”). I’ll feel good that when I make a decision and commit to doing something, lo and behold, I do it. I’m a doer. I’m an achiever.
I admit. Â I hit the snooze bar but was up and at ’em at 5:05 and out walking the dog by 5:15. It’s now 6:14 a.m. and I’m finishing this blog entry and next up . . . breakfast. Win.
And finally. I’m not kidding. “Morning routine” is going to be my new obsession. This is a work in progress, but here’s my goal.
- 4:45 a.m. … wake, walk the dog, pray the Rosary, meditate, and/or reflect
- 5:15 a.m. … make coffee, boot up the computer
- 5:25 a.m. …write for 20-minutes (personal)
- 5:55 a.m. … read (1) article on writing; read (1) article on sales
- 6:15 a.m. … make quick breakfast & 2nd cuppa coffee
- 6:30 a.m. … shower and get ready for the day
- 6:55 a.m. … wake kids, make them breakfast, empty dishwasher
- 7:15 a.m. … clean-up kitchen, brush teeth, get things together for commute
- 7:25 a.m. … leave for work; listen to something inspiring or educational on commute
- 7:55 a.m. … arrive at work, read (1) article on sales
“It takes the failures to get you to the successes.” Â –Darren Hardy
Oh, and here’s something really good from Darren Hardy worth your 8-minutes. Tomorrow, I’m gonna talk Podcasts.
On the Topic of Morning Routines
I go to bed at night with a plan in mind for the morning. I listen to Podcasts and read books about the importance of a morning routine.
I wake up and my bed it too cozy and I feel too tired. I hit the snooze or reset my alarm for 45-minutes later.
And when I finally drag myself outta bed, I’m rushing. A half-hour walk with my dog turns into a walk to the end of the street and back, just long enough for her to pee and poop. I don’t spend 5, 10, of 15 minutes meditating or praying. I churn out a hasty blog post like this. I don’t read the headlines. I delete a few of the emails I purposely subscribe to because I have this thing where I will only check my personal email at home and never at work. I don’t eat a good breakfast, because time is short.
I had a plan. I felt really good about it. I abandoned the plan before it even started.
How can I break that cycle? Why do I abandon my best-laid plans within 48-hours? Is it lack of excitement for what I’m committing to do?
Yesterday was a great day. I got up early. I prayed the Rosary while walking my dog and was completely in the moment, dedicating the Rosary to my son and my Uncle. My brain felt good all day long and I was better. Today? I’m already scrambling.
Stick to the plan. Follow through. And even if the night before you stay up too late, and maybe have a cocktail, don’t let your night-time you derail the morning-amazing-you. If it means 5-hours of sleep, live with those consequences. Do better the next night by going to bed early (and not having a cocktail).
That’s it. Make a plan. Stick to it.
