January Findings

I was sick the entire Holiday season. It was one after another, and I couldn't sleep well nor hit the gym for workouts. Then after New Year I got the flu. I finally got better after that. Being health after a long bout of illness feels AMAZING. We always take our health for granted. When we get sick, you never really realize how great it is just being normal and healthy. The ability to breath without congestion or enjoy food. After 2 or so weeks of being back to normal, I am down again with some kind of cold. It's annoying and frustrating. I've been feeling so well leading up to last 2 months. Hope my immune system isnt getting weaker.

So eat well. Workout regularly. Take care of yourself proactively to reduce impact of illness in your lives. You cannot avoid viruses or colds, but you can reduce the duration. Don't take your good health for granted either. Go out and enjoy your life and outdoors. Plenty of time for devices or TV when you're home sick!

There's a big difference between going vacations and traveling.

My last trip, we went on vacation to Turks & Caicos and stayed at Beaches, an all-inclusive resort. Beaches was amazing! It had everything you needed, and we did almost ZERO work. We had all day to relax, eat like a pig, and play. It was refreshing and absolute stress free. The only time we left the resort was when we transferred to a Villa for our last 2 nights on the island. Those 2 days, we went island hopping and walked around the small town with shops. Now that was a vacation!

Another trip we took was to Spain. We flew into Madrid then went to Majorca. We spent 4 nights driving around the island, exploring beach towns, Palma and seeing the sites like Cathedral and castles. We flew back to Madrid and spent 3 days there. We walked all over the the city and ate some really great food. We checked out the parks and sites, cafes and hung out in the spaces with the locals. Had a chance to engage with both tourists and locals and learn more about the city. During the week, I walked over 120K steps. The only time we were in our hotel/apartment was at night time to relax and sleep. This is what I consider as "travelling.

Vacations are meant to be a time for you to recharge, re-center and re-focus yourself. Minimal work done. It's ok to be at ZERO productivity.

Traveling is meant to explore NEW places and learn as much as you can about it. It is to be an immersive experience so you can expand your experience and understanding of how other cultures live their lives. You will still be a tourist. But as you travel, you learn, you experience and you enjoy your surroundings.

With older kids, our next few trips are going to be more of a MIX of both vacation and travel. We like to explore ALOT. But I aslo LOVE sitting on the beach and doing absolutely nothing all day. Doing both seems to be the best balance for the family, so our next few destinations will be focusing on making sure we have balance.

Now that is something you don't hear quite too often lately. It's been a rough experience for Gooners since the last few years of Sir Arsene's reign so it sounds crazy but it's true! Any NLD win is great, but when it pushes the Gunners up farther, it becomes special. Arsenal is on top of the Premier League by 8 pts over City. My heart says this may finally be the year. But realistically, the season is just at the halfway point, and Arsenal has given me enough heartaches to last 3 lifetimes. Regardless, this is one of the best and most exciting teams Arsenal produced in a long time, led by Mikel Arteta. Like Wenger, he has that leadership quality that I admire; I tend to watch all his pressers to learn how he conducts himself and how he sets the club up towards his vision. The All or Nothing Series in Amazon Prime gave us Gooners great insight into his brain. For leaders everywhere, I think it’s a great way to learn how to coach, lead and manage teams or organizations. Now the club just needs to continue the momentum by signing a couple players to add depth. The season is only 18 matches young and schedule still includes playing City both home and away so anything can happen. However, Gooners around the globe are dreaming this week!