This holiday weekend I am overwhelmed with gratitude for my family and the time I have this weekend to spend with them. They are the reason I am building this space. I would love to know what all of you are doing and what you are most grateful for right now?

Lately I have been scheduling every single minute of my day. Insane but very helpful in finding lost time. How do you all find the extra minutes you need to get stuff done? I find the hardest part is that I either have to steal them from myself, my wife or my kids. And that means that one of us is getting neglected to make progress in this community and the tools I am trying to build for parents. I appreciate everyone in here for being an early part of this. I promise you it is a slow build but it is for sure building… Share your time based hardships below if you want. I’d love to not feel like the only one who wishes he could add a few more hours to the clock every day. I also through a silly poll in this one.

A castle built on a bad foundation is destined to collapse under pressure…agree or disagree? When I work with young players they always want to skip the fundamentals and get into more exciting things like shooting or skill moves. What is difficult to explain to them is that there basic movements are wrong for a soccer player so correcting their shot is impossible, unless we start with the basics. This is where the BEST athletes in the world started their journey. They committed, at home, all by themselves, to being elite at the fundamentals. I can honestly say, even my own progress in the sport is curved by my mastery of fundamentals. If my running technique was more refined I would have conserved more energy and been more fit. If my left foot dribbling was equal to my right I would have given away possession less on my left side. If my knowledge of the game tactically at the time was better I would have improved my performance across the board. At the time though, nobody was holding me accountable for that level of mastery and most importantly, I wasn’t holding myself accountable for it either. The book extreme ownership by Jocko Willink changed how I think fundamentally when it comes to growth and progress. If only I had read it my sophomore year of college…who knows how I would have progressed. I’m proud of what I did and now on a mission to help others reach heights they weren’t sure they could get to. Mainly by helping them realize that hours at home becoming a master when nobody is looking is really the highlight tape that players should be focusing on more than the goals from their Sunday league games. Would love to hear what all of you think about this story and what your “at home mastery” looks like right now for you or for your child.

I have been thinking a lot this week about the role that reflection plays in my main career as an educator and wondering how all of you are utilizing this tool in your day to day lives. Is it a daily, weekly or monthly practice for you? Do you do it at all? Do you do it too much and its slowing down your progress? Leave a note here and lets hear how reflection is working, or not working, for you...