Five years ago this month, I started a blog project I called 365 days. As I'd started my writing career, I'd spent every writing day reading for 15 minutes on writing and then 15 minutes on general life success. I did this for several years. I'd learned so much, but felt I'd only scratched the surface of it. To force my hand, I had the idea to apply all the things I'd learned about living a highly successful life and write about the

results daily for one year. This included things like building positive habits and taking time each day to be actively gracious about what was good in my life. It involved practicing mindful meditation and Metta meditation (loving kindness).

The blog project failed. As so often happens, I got all caught up in life and didn't follow up on it, which I was a bit hard on myself over.

However, the other day, a realization suddenly dawned on me... While I hadn't kept up on the blog project, I had kept up on the practices. Not perfectly... but consistently enough it would seem. I realized some pretty cool things had transpired in my life over the last five years. This is in order and is not comprehensive...

- I when to Costa Rica and learned to surf. - I began a relationship with a loving, wonderful, sincere, kind, and cute af woman (Leah) - I bought my dream car, a Model S Tesla (still going strong with 140k miles now) - I travelled to Japan - I got a critical promotion at work that transformed many elements of my life - I got engaged to her ^^^ - I went back to Costa Rica for more surfing and pizza - I got married to her ^^^ - I received three promotions in Jiu Jitsu over a year and a half after going many years without one - I published the first novel I've released in 8 years - I graduated with a second graduate degree - I kept Multiple Sclerosis completely in remission - All the while, I saw a young man from 13 to 18 while maintaining a constructive relationship with him. He's about to graduate with his High School diploma and an associate degree and head of to Oregon State with a 3.8+ GPA

And to think the whole time I was kidding myself that I wasn't doing enough... I think there's something to this successful mindset stuff, and I find myself asking... what if I applied it even more? I'll check back in in five years and let you know how it went...