Ideas – Typical ZS

Hi Team,

This Monday, I am starting the week thinking about the Thanksgiving holiday. Several things come to mind for me.

First, my main focus is on the food. We have already been shopping to collect nearly all of the ingredients for a proper feast. I do like to make a great feast. I have an enjoyable recipe for keto stuffing and a funky Shepards pie that I continue to evolve. I love preparing the food and making excellent meals.

Second, I’m thinking about how grateful I am for all of the incredible blessings in my life. With my wife, kids, family, friends, colleagues, and all of the opportunities ahead of me, the universe is truly abundant. I am excited to continue learning and growing on this journey.

Third, I’ve got a busy week ahead in my personal life. The week-long retreat was fantastic, but getting back into the regular flow was a sprint to catch back up. We take on a lot of activities as a family, and we continuously work on managing our health and well-being. We know that we can’t be our best for ourselves and others if we don’t take of ourselves.

Fourth, my professional life does not take a break. I am in the process of building multiple lines of business, and my day job demands high performance.

All of this has me thinking more about time. Time is a resource we have not figured out how to get back. We have to protect our time fiercely because it is the most limited resource we possess. We want to use our time wisely, and we seek to know our value and increase it.

This week, I want to use my time mindfully. I want to be mindful of the value my time adds. It’s my time, and I may be using it in the service of others, but it is always for me. I am my best when I spend my time in balanced ways, filling all of the cups a little at a time. I feel out of sync when some cups are too full, and others are not full enough.

As you go through the week, consider where your time goes; how are you spending it? Are you using it mindfully? Do you value where your time is going? When you choose to spend time in one way over another, why do you spend it that way?

Happy Monday!

Stay Safe Out There,
~Zach

This week we are having a retreat to plan the next evolution of Branch Water and prepare for 2022. When you’re in the day-to-day melee of life, it’s often easy to just get into problem-solving mode. While there are goals, objectives, strategies, workflows, procedures, and all sorts of other tools available to help us continue in the desired direction, it is critical to take an objective look at where we are and what we want to do next.

We’ll use the outputs of this time to refocus the tools and ensure we’re still going in the direction that we want to be heading.

We’re excited about this year’s retreat because we’ve got a big plan to get through. We have had a really great year of growth that has opened up a lot of possibilities. We have several strong streams to work with, and we need to spend time focused on planning. Our goal is to enable a tremendous coordinated effort.

Our execution will continue to evolve and improve over time. We will continue to learn as we go. I know there will be times when I feel like I’ve botched something, but I’ll learn from it and do better.

This week we’re away from the office, away from the kids, away from all other commitments. This week, we’re regrouping in a location that lets us relax and unwind. Only through unwinding are we going to be able to really get a good the desired perspective.

We love being with everyone, and taking this time away to reset alone lets us be there more fully for the rest of the time. One thing we’re looking at is making this a quarterly plan. It makes a lot of sense to me to make more frequent, more minor course corrections. It adds an additional layer of logistics, but if we are getting more value out of our time, it may be worth it.

I am pretty existential today. I had the pleasure of spending some time this morning listening to a segment of the Lex Fridman podcast and his conversation with Stephen Wolfram. I’ve only had time to listen to about 45 minutes so far, but this is a fantastic conversation.

I love decoupling things from other things, whether it’s weight loss from exercise, earning money from time, or in this case, intelligence and consciousness and Time from Action.

I really love thinking about how the separation of action and time at the elemental level of the universe presents the theoretical possibility of warp speed and a similar concept for a ship that could travel through time. Then the conversation pivots to computational equivalence and irreducibility, tricky sounding phrases. Still, they are part of breaking down highly complex systems into their elemental components, like Time and Action.

What would the world look like to the weather? That’s an interesting question that I’d love to explore, even from a silly perspective. The earnest question implies the reality of consciousness or intelligence. Does a thunderstorm have a particular feeling about itself as we do?

My mind is blown! I see the coming together of all these concepts where my world view is getting more and more confirmations from every direction.

There is always something new to learn and a way to grow. The more perspectives and ideas we can take in, the better prepared we can be for the chaotic dance of life.

I am excited to set out our plans for the next evolution and take those forward into the unknown.
Stay Safe Out There,
~Zach