My First Blog Post. I Need to Change My Life. Hold Me Accountable.

It’s Day One.

31 Aug, 2020 and I’m starting a new journey. I’m going to bring you along with me through this blog and through my YouTube channel. To be transparent, I’m bringing you along for a self reason; I need Accountability.

I believe Accountability is what drives success. Sometimes, people are Accountable to themselves, which we describe as Self-Discipline. Other-times, people are accountable to something bigger than themselves. This ‘something bigger’ may be a brotherhood, a religion, ethos, creed, family, etc. Whether it is internal or external, I think being accountable to something helps to shape our inner voices, which impact our choices, big and small, everyday. These daily choices and action come together and Compound to make us who we are, because who are we if not a culmination of all of our decisions and actions through life?

I used to have great self-discipline, I used to be self-accountable. In my early 20’s, I was a professional athlete, I put myself through college and received my MBA, I met and woo’ed the woman of my dreams, but somewhere along the way, I lost it. I can’t tell you when, how, or why I lost it, but I did. I gave up on taking care of my physical health and ballooned out of control over the last decade-plus. Now, this wasn’t a big life changing decision where I had a revelation that I was suddenly throwing in the towel, it was a series of choices where I started choosing the ‘bad’ option more than the ‘good.’ You don’t see it at first, it slowly creeps up. I gained five pounds? Nothing major, I can get that back in control. Say the same thing for the next five, and the next, and the next…before you know it, it’s 20 lbs and a little bigger of a problem. Guess I’d better start being healthier…but first, I’ll have one last pizza night…12 years later (and many, many pizza nights), and you’re up nearly 200 lbs and the journey back to health is long, scary, and you can’t remember exactly which direction it is you need to go to get there. That’s where I am today.

I’ve had great streaks of discipline over the years where I’ll start to get my life back in control and will make great strides. If I’d continued any of those streaks, I’d long ago have reached a comfortable health, but I always fell off the wagon. Starting today, 1 Sept, I’ve going to ask you, the entire world, to hold me Accountable as I make more changes. In the coming days, weeks, and months, I’ll make this website ‘prettier.’ I’ll learn how to add pictures and vary up the colors. I’ll learn how to improve in my posting and publishing. But today….today is Day One and it’s a starting point.

Health is my ultimate goal, but I have other reasons to use this medium to help me. I don’t come from privilege and silver spoons. For me, most of my life, money has been something to both horde and loathe equally. I grew up thinking wealthy people were evil, mean, and uncaring, and they obtained wealth by stepping on everyone else around them. It took 30 years on this Earth to realize that wasn’t (usually) the case, and instead it was growing up without great financial well-being which led me to look upon it so unfavorably. The last few years, I’ve learned and applied my little knowledge of personal finance to my family, and it has already started changing our trajectory greatly. In the last five years, we’ve paid off our student loans, medical debt, credit cards, etc. and now, aside from mortgages, we live debt free. Even the mortgages, two of them are for rental properties which should slowly increase our net worth over time. In addition to my health journey, I will share what I am learning and applying in personal finance as well. It’s easy to get distracted by the squirrels out there in the world and change your investing plans to chase them, but their is an old proverb that ‘If you chase two rabbits, you’ll lose them both.’ When it comes to personal finance, I want to set a general direction and make sure we’re not chasing too many rabbits. I’m excited to share what my family is learning in this space and have dialogue with others to learn from and enlighten others as we grow.

Thanks for joining me on this journey. When you’re held Accountable, like I will be, the efforts today, plus the efforts tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day…they will Compound over time…because: Accountability Compounds.