Category: Notes

Being what most would simply call ‘blog posts’. Quick posts [usually] about a single idea.


  • Winter Is Coming

    My family lived in Kentucky for about three years when I was growing up, which meant I heard the name Henry Clay quite often in my history classes. Clay was a transplant from Virginia who made his name as a lawyer in the Bluegrass State before he gained national notoriety as a senator, representative, Secretary […]

    Read more…


  • Know This: Motivating Yourself Can Be Difficult

    Questions often asked of me by people who frequent ToVa include: How do I find the time? How do I maintain the energy? How can I be so organized? Confession: it’s not as easy as I try to make it look. I started taking personal development seriously nearly three years ago. I’ve always chased opportunities […]

    Read more…


  • It’s Not Your Job To Hold Down The Score

    Football season is upon us once again! Sport offers no end of inspiration and lessons in preparation and success, so why not look toward America’s favorite sport for a little Wednesday inspiration? … It’s not my job to hold down the score – that’s your job. This was legendary college football coach Bobby Bowden’s response […]

    Read more…


  • I Am Groot

    Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy stole a lot of hearts over this year’s blockbuster season (I would say “summer”, but it’s winter here in Australia!), including my own. As you know, I love finding lessons in non-traditional places and there were lessons aplenty in this comedic space western. Spoiler alert: engaged. Establishing Your Personal Brand Ain’t […]

    Read more…


  • Sometimes Your To-Do List Is Best Left Unfinished

    On Monday we discussed using context and prioritization to better organize our to-do lists. Keeping the highest priority items at the top of our lists ensures that we’re getting the right things done in order to make real progress toward achieving our goals. Less important tasks get relegated to the bottom of the list and naturally […]

    Read more…


  • Prioritize And Contextualize Your To-Do List

    An integral part of whatever productivity system you decide to establish is a mechanism for managing all of the tasks that you’ll have on your plate at any one time. Some will call this ‘task management’ and employ any number of synced apps or custom systems to stay across everything. Others will go the pen-and-notecard […]

    Read more…


  • Make A Habit Of Passion, Learn From Kids, Be Inspired

    The weekend is here again! Rituals were the theme of the week, which happens to coincide with the first weekend link about making a habit of pursuing your passion projects. Kids pervade the other two links by showing us how to channel our inner nine-year-old and allowing for a little inspiration after a disappointing loss […]

    Read more…


  • Use Rituals To Engineer Your Perfect Day

    A powerful way to start living the life you want to live while making progress toward your grandest goals is to map out what your average perfect day would look like (via). Not your fantasy perfect day, but a perfect day that you can engineer out of the raw material of reality. Naturally this perfect day […]

    Read more…


  • Convert Routines Into Rituals For Meaningful Progress

    You might not think that you’re a creature of routine but consider the course of your average day for a few seconds. Maybe you always have a cup of coffee in the morning and try to wait until noon before having another. You iron your shirt for the next work day just before you go […]

    Read more…


  • Self-Awareness, Being Provocative, Shaking Up The NFL

    An unintentional theme developed as I compiled the links for this weekend: moving confidently forward and shaking things up. The first link shows us how to establish a foundation for development before the second challenges us to not just question the status quo but to take action toward changing it. A piece on Chip Kelly, […]

    Read more…