This morning, I woke up and skipped my morning routine of coffee and breakfast. I started working and tidying up the apartment right away. Now something feels off. I know from experience that when I skip my routine and jump straight into the day, the whole day tends to feel a little off.

However, when I remember my routine, every day seems to go a little smoother and be a little more enjoyable. There’s something grounding about doing the same thing at the same time once a day.

What’s your favorite morning ritual?

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I’m writing from Colorado Springs.

I arrived here on Monday to visit my family over Thanksgiving week.

Tonight, I’m writing at Agia Sophia, one of my favorite coffee shops in the entire world. I’m sipping on a double dirty chai and listening to the live Irish session happening downstairs. It’s dark outside, but I can still make out the shadow of the mountains beyond the window. Agia Sophia is nestled right up against the foothills of Pikes Peak. It’s a beautiful place to be. Especially when it’s snowing (no snow today unfortunately).

I love this place.

I love Colorado.

Colorado is a place that speaks to me. I will always feel at home here in the mountains. The air is crisp and thin. People move a little bit slower. Leaving Colorado is always difficult, and returning is always anticipated.

Colorado will always be close to my heart. A place that I visit to recharge.

What place is close to your heart?

These people work 100-hour weeks trying to make it to the top and are never satisfied to simply be.

We also don’t need more “perfect” people.

These people pride themselves on knowing it all, being the absolute best, and reassuring themselves that there’s no one better than themselves.

We need authentic people.

People who live real lives. People who make real mistakes, but at the same time strive for true excellence (not perfection). People who push to grow but still stumble. People who are vulnerable.

We need more real people.

How “real” are you being?

OK, that’s an understatement.

I really don’t like Starbucks.

Ever since I started caring about my coffee, Starbucks has disappointed me consistently. Over-roasted beans left to stale, horrible milk steaming habits and even more horrible pouring techniques, high high prices, lake of care in drink assembly…I could go on for quite awhile.

Needless to say, you won’t often find me at a Starbucks store.

But.

For some reason, I come back to Starbucks a few times every fall and winter for a Pumpkin Spice Latte. I have loads of nostalgia and enjoyable memories laced up in this one drink. Not that I ever really consumed these frequently. Even when I didn’t purposely avoid Starbucks, I only had maybe 5 of these a year. But every time I buy this drink, I’m reminded of the snow. The Colorado mountains. When I first started dating my lovely girlfriend. And I love it.

It’s funny. The drink isn’t even that great. Actually it’s pretty dismal. The espresso is bad as always, the milk steaming/pour doesn’t get any better. The pumpkin spice doesn’t quite taste like pumpkin spice and it’s often overpowering and too sweet. The drink sucks.

The memories are wonderful.

Per my own suggestion, I think I should define the purpose of this website. I’ve done this in the past, but I think it’s important to constant re-evaluate. That’s how you maintain truth and simultaneously evolve.

The purpose of this website is simple and two-fold:

1. Sharing my experiences as I grow and live in the world. These experiences may be profound, or they may be mundane, but they will be genuine, and have impact in my life.
2. Help you in your journey by allowing you to observe mine, giving us the opportunity to grow collectively.

With these things in mind, writing becomes easy.

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What is the purpose of your online work?

However, I think a lot of us get caught in a rut when it comes to the how of building and strengthening relationships. It’s easy to convince yourself that relationship building happens in specific settings, with specific “props”, and specific environments.

This isn’t true at all. And we all know it. We just need to be reminded.

Relationships don’t always need to be nurtured with lattes at your favorite coffee shop, or even over an amazing meal at the dinner table.

Yes, these are important moments in relationship building. Relationships are augmented and deepened in these intimate instances when you sit face-to-face with some and eliminate the distractions.

But…

Relationships are strengthened and stabilized every day, when you simply choose to involve someone in the mundane things that simply happen.

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Here’s how to strengthen and stabilize your relationships in these mundane instances:

Invite someone to run errands with you. You’ll always have to go get groceries, pick up cleaning supplies, or a new ream of paper. Instead of going alone, invite someone with you.

Carpool to an event. Going somewhere? Have a friend along for the ride! Ride-sharing is not only an amazing opportunity for conversation, but it saves fuel and wear on the car!

Volunteer together. Take an afternoon with a close friend to go volunteer at a soup kitchen. Or build a fence for a struggling neighbor. Using your community to help others is one of the best ways to build relationships.

Co-work. If you’re like me, you often work from coffee shops or home. If you have a friend who also has things to get done, invite them to join you. I frequently co-work with my wonderful girlfriend. She’s actually across the table from me right now. We may not talk much, but the time together strengthens our relationship.

Never underestimate the power of togetherness and proximity as you build relationships. Sometimes the simplest of activities can be the best strengthener of friendship.

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For deeper content, check out The Letter.

I think this is a wonderful quick summary on how to create conversation around published content. Especially for blogs such as mine, on which comments have been disabled.

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Check out Ev Bogue’s work as well.

Defining your work is incredibly important. Because it’s easy to get distracted and forget what work needs to happen.

I often realize that my most important work is what happens offline, but when pushing publish, it’s easy to feel like the work is on the Net. Sometimes I lose the heart of my work.

The Net isn’t the heart.

The Net is simply how I share my experience in doing the work.

I’m experimenting with ways to make my Net presence better align with the heart of my work. The more I do that, the harder it will be to lose the heart.

Writing as I experiment is one of the best ways I can make things clear in my head.

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What is the heart of your work?

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I awoke 30 minutes ago to the chaos of a torrential downpour. Austin has been exceptionally dry over the last year, so the sound of any sort of rain is enough to rouse me from my sleep. It’s still going. There’s no “pitter-patter” of rain drops outside my window. The sound is more akin to a wash of cymbals. Yeah, it’s raining pretty hard.

I get up and look out the window. The rain is coming down in heavy sheets. More like blankets if you ask me. It’s ferociously windy. The trees are being tossed back and forth and the water in the street is flowing this way and that, frantically trying to run its natural course in the midst of the wind gusts.

Lightning flashes through the tightly-closed window blinds, illuminating my very dark room. Every 10-15 seconds the sound of thunder reverberates, causing the window glass to tremble ever so slightly. Someone’s car has a hyper-sensitive alarm system, because every time the thunder rolls, the alarm goes off for just a moment.

The rain is letting up ever so slightly and the wind has also died considerably. Now the sound is more akin to that “pitter-patter” I mentioned before. It reminds me of waiting out storms in a tent in the Rocky Mountains. I’m excited to go outside and feel the wet earth underneath my feet. In fact, I hope it keeps raining throughout the day.

Time to get up and put some water on the boil. I do believe this early-morning thunderstorm calls for a french press and some time spent sitting in silence.

Cíao.

Today, I started the final repairs on my car.

In case you didn’t hear, my car broke down several weeks ago. I’ve slowly been going about getting it repaired. This is really because I’m doing the repairs myself in order to save money.

By the end of this week, my car should be running smoothly once more.

In several ways, I’m glad and relieved to have the car back.

As a musician, transporting heavy gear on a regular basis really requires a vehicle other than public transportation or a bicycle. I’ve been able to get by over the past few weeks, but it has been a challenge and a hassle at times.

I also have some weekly commitments that happen outside of biking or public transportation range. This has meant a lot of ride coordination over the past few weeks. Again, I’ve been able to get by, but it hasn’t been anywhere near ideal. Having the car again will make life a lot more stress-free in this area.

In other ways though, I’ve been truly enjoying not having the vehicle on a daily basis.

Using alternative transportation has helped me go slower. It’s helped me be more present, and more appreciative of the things I do every day, even if it’s just running by the store to pick up groceries. There’s also less thinking when walking or using public transportation. When I drive the car, I have to be conscious of my fuel level, my driving habits, my parking, etc.  When I ride the bus I just scan my pass and get off at my stop. This has freed up a lot of mental space and energy.

Once I get the car back, I still plan on using alternative transportation regularly.

In fact, I hope to use alternative transportation more than I use my car.

But I’d be lying if I said that I wouldn’t be tempted to use my car for everything. I know that I’ll be very tempted to just take the car when I don’t really need to. I should just ride the bus to the coffee shop. It only takes 15 minutes, and I get some time to read and relax. But I’ll probably face the desire to just hop in the car and make a 15 minute trip a 5 minute drive. That’s just how the human mind works a lot of the time.

That said, I realize that it’s going to take conscious self-control for me to choose not to use the car 24/7. In the end, it’s a good arena for me to exercise self-control, because ultimately alternative transportation is healthier, cheaper, and simpler.

Sometimes, the pursuit of simplicity takes self-control. Many times we are led to believe that simple living and minimalism take no mental effort. This is rarely true. Simplicity frees up mental space, but not always mental effort.

This is a mental effort that I’m excited to make, because I know it will improve my life.

Where are you exercising self-control in order to achieve simplicity?

Discuss on Google+.

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