There was this riddle I remember as a kid that really stuck with me for some reason:

“If a hole is ten feet by ten feet by ten feet, how big is half a hole?”

Answer: there’s no such thing as half a hole.

I think I found it clever because it really got me – I had spent a while trying to puzzle out if the question wanted me to say “five feet by five feet by five feet” or “ten by ten by five” or actually figure out what each dimension would be in order for them to all be the same but still halve the volume or what (it was roughly 7.94 feet cubed or something). So when I read the answer it was like getting knocked in the head, and it made me laugh.

Because it’s true! There’s no such thing as half a hole. If you have a hole in a boat and you patch up one side of it, the boat still sinks.

You can’t jump halfway off a cliff. You can’t dig half a hole. You can’t solve half a problem.

Some things truly are “all or nothing.”

Today was just one of those days where it’s absolutely perfect to be a father.

Lazy lounging morning with egg sandwiches and snuggles. Then snowball fights and snowman building outside. When it got too cold and wet, hot chocolate and arts & crafts in the kitchen. Then a movie night and home-cooked dinner (devoured by kids that had worked up quite an appetite). Bath, books, bed.

Just perfect.

The thing is, I planned a lot for this day. I knew the weather was coming, so I had snow gear prepared, as well as a staging area in the kitchen for pulling it all off without making a mess. I had bought disposable tablecloths for the arts and crafts. Fixings for hot chocolate and meals the kids love. Everything squared away so I could say “yes” to as many requests as possible. So that we could engage with the day.

There aren’t too many days like this in your life, but there are some. Perfect ones, just waiting for you to engage them. Don’t get caught unprepared when they happen.

Sometimes I’ll sit down to write, and the topics that pop into my head first are topics I don’t actually want to write about. That’s usually a signal to me that my attention has been stolen; I’ve lost control of my focus.

The thoughts that grow, grow from the seeds you plant. If all you do is watch cable news or doom-scroll social media, you’ll grow angry, stunted thoughts.

Better instead to realign. Decide what you’d like to think about, and then give yourself the right start to those thoughts. I’m off to my books; good night!

When you come up with smart things, you should record them. And you should read them! Nothing is more embarrassing than when you forget a lesson that you yourself have taught.

I made a mistake this week that I’ve warned against – in this very blog! I violated the advice my father gave me, which is that while it’s fine to make mistakes, you should try at least to make all unique ones and not repeat any.

But all humans are flawed! So what do we do? Write it down again.

Hammer it in. Lessons repeated are lessons learned. Personal responsibility and self-ownership are hallmark lessons, and I shouldn’t have missed it. I’ll forgive myself – but I will strive to do better. I will own the mistake and get better.

I will try to make a new mistake next time.

Crystal clear water has a ton of uses. So does solid earth. But mud is… mud. There are definitely a few obscure uses here and there, but for the average person mud is an inconvenience at best, and a disaster at worst.

Lots of things are like that – at their absolute worst in the absolute middle. We’re often taught to compromise, take a middle-of-the-road approach, consider all viewpoints and reach a consensus, that sort of thing. But for a lot of problems, that’s the absolute worst case scenario.

Someone’s about to jump a big gorge on their motorcycle. One person advises: “Give it all you’ve got! Full speed is the only way you’ll make it across!” Another says: “Don’t go at all, it’s a terrible idea! Stay here!” So the guy decides to compromise: “I’ll go, but I’ll go at half speed.”

Worst possible outcome.

Appreciation for anything must come from nothing.

Kings – men born to royalty who have never tasted anything else – cannot eat like kings. They can only eat like men. They can only taste food with a dull tongue that has never been sharpened by hunger, never learned to savor.

But the men who have climbed from nothing, when they eat the meal they’ve earned, they eat like kings.

Lots of people have their normal, everyday wardrobe, and then they have their “work clothes.” For some people, that means casual clothes on the weekends but a suit during the week. Or it might mean pajamas on most days but a smart outfit for meetings. Whatever the case, most people who do this have a routine they use to make sure their “work clothes” are ready before going to work.

Makes sense! You don’t want to worry about finding and assembling your outfit when you’re trying to get ready to go to work. You want the suit of garments you’ll wear to be prepared.

Do the same with your attitude.

Some people go into “work mode” when they’re at work. Maybe they’re more relaxed in their speech at home, but want to be professional in a work environment. Maybe they’re casual about their responsibilities in their own apartment, but have to be buttoned-up at work.

The thing is, if you’re rusty, you want to prepare your thoughts the way you prepare your clothes.

You know that “back to school” feeling you get on the night before returning to work after an absence? You make sure your clothes are all together, your bag is packed, your car has gas in it, all that stuff. But what about your mind? Have you given some thought to how you want your attitude to be different in that environment?

Make some notes, write them down, and put them with your things. Read them out loud as you’re getting ready in the morning. Remind yourself what you’ll do with idle time, how you want to react to stress, and what you want to accomplish. Put on your suit of thoughts the same as anything else.

It’s the most important thing. Don’t neglect it.