From January 2013 to October 2026, I published 421 posts covering approximately 120 different topics and themes…and around 300,000 words.
That’s a lot of thinking out loud.
What Keeps Coming Up?
Leadership, courage, growth, perspective, learning, and service appeared more frequently than almost anything else.
Family, faith, gratitude, forgiveness, relationships, humility, and the importance of making intentional choices about how we spend our time appeared repeatedly as well.
What stands out:
-People deserve encouragement.
-Leadership is an opportunity to serve.
-We grow through experience, including experiences that don’t turn out as planned.
-Our relationships deserve our attention.
-Our time is valuable, and we should choose carefully how we use it.
In 2014, I wrote Your Employees Don’t Work for You, arguing that managers exist to help their employees succeed. Eleven years later, I was exploring coaching, creating room for failure, and building organizational environments where people can grow.
My underlying conviction hasn’t changed. My understanding of how to put it into practice has expanded.
I noticed a similar evolution in my posts about failure.
Initially, I emphasized perseverance, overcoming obstacles, and personal accountability. Later, I began exploring failure as an experiment that could produce valuable learning. More recently, I’ve written about helping others feel comfortable taking risks and learning from unsuccessful attempts.
In 2014, I wrote Start Anywhere!, encouraging people to begin rather than spending endless time preparing. In 2026, I wrote Solving the Right Problem, questioning our tendency to become more efficient at things we might be better off eliminating.
In 2015, I wrote The Truth About Grudges, exploring the burden we carry when we hold on to resentment. In September 2026, Selfish Forgiveness revisited essentially the same idea from a different perspective.
The Stories Behind the Ideas
A rewarding part of this review exercise was rediscovering stories.
My dad getting ready for family camping trips. Experiences from my childhood in Southern California. People I’ve worked with, learned from, and occasionally struggled with.
Lessons from starting, buying, operating, and selling businesses.
My daughters growing up, and now watching my grandkids experience the world from their perspective.
Stories about faith, friendship, adventure, disappointment, forgiveness, and ordinary moments that have become more meaningful with time.
In a recent post, The Things We Forget to Remember, I reflected on how details of our parents’ and grandparents’ everyday lives disappear. We remember important events but lose the ordinary details that made them who they were.
Without realizing it, I’ve preserved lots of those details in these posts.
Something happens. It catches my attention. I write about it. Years later, I can revisit that experience, relive a memory, and occasionally discover something new in a story I thought I already understood.
So, What About the Next Ten Years?
I’ve spent most of my adult life helping organizations solve problems, develop people, improve performance, and prepare for the future. I’ve enjoyed that work tremendously.
But many of the things I find most rewarding extend well beyond my professional responsibilities.
Learning something new. Helping someone see an opportunity they hadn’t considered. Encouraging someone who’s struggling. Exploring an interesting idea. Sharing an experience that might help another person.
These activities have been part of my life for decades, regardless of where I happened to be working.
I’d especially like to help people discover the freedom that comes from discipline. Saving early, taking care of our health, and staying focused on our goals despite competing distractions will provide greater freedom and more choices down the road.
Life is a series of marathons and sprints. We rarely know which one we’re running at the time. Discipline prepares us for both, giving us the endurance to stay the course and the ability to make the most of opportunities when they arise.
Any New Projects?
I have a bunch of things underway.
For the past two years, I’ve been working on a book and companion workbook that bring together my faith and experiences in leadership. I explore connections between Scripture, the lives of the saints, and the fundamental principles of good leadership. Both are nearly complete.
I launched the Grandpa Bob Encouraging Leadership podcast earlier this year. I’ve published ten episodes so far. It’s a collection of stories and lessons from life and leadership, intended for my grandkids and anyone else who might find them helpful. I’ve let other commitments and shiny objects distract me from it, but I’m looking forward to getting back to recording.
There are trails to clear and sheds to build, campsites to finish, concrete to pour, and countless unnecessary opportunities to put my tractor and mini-excavator to work around our property.
And I’ve got a crew of grandkids I plan to keep involved in as many of these projects as possible. They’ll learn a ton, and we’ll enjoy making memories together.
I hope some of the days working alongside Grandpa will become stories they’ll tell.
Photo by Dennis Guten on Unsplash.
Why a photo of Mount Rushmore?
I’ve traveled to lots of countries and nearly every state, but somehow, I’ve never made it to Mount Rushmore.
We’ve been talking about making that road trip since at least 2010. I thought we’d finally make it in 2013, but other commitments and adventures jumped ahead of it.
Sixteen years later, Mount Rushmore is back on the short list.
I think it’s waited long enough.
