09/03/2011

I Have a ZERO Birthday Coming Up

Turning 40: Just another day

On the other hand you only have 8 of them in your typical life.

So to mark 40 I’m writing 40 in 40.

40 lessons I’ve learned in 40 years.

All the great lessons in life have been handed down from someone else. And for that I’m thankful. There is wisdom in lessons that stand the test of time. These are a few of mine.

Lesson #1

A lesson I teach my kids when they start middle school and we begin meeting together weekly for breakfast:

You become who you follow

This is one of the fundamental truths in life. For better or worse, come hell, or high water who I follow will shape me.

Talk to anyone for an hour about real things in life and you will hear who they are following. Watch teenage kids and how they dress and what they are listening to and you will get a glimpse into who they follow. Look into any culture anywhere and you will see who people are following.

We talk a lot about leaders and I believe leaders are incredibly important.

But in my own life who I follow is THE decision.

Notice I didn’t say who you read or watch or listen to (although these are all good things). I said follow. Following is another ballgame altogether.

Who are you following?

Keep moving forward,

Greg

08/23/2011

I imagined this day coming

I threw away my last, blue, glass gem this weekend.

You might remember this post from a few years ago:

My day to day time with Caleb living under our roof is over for now.

I imagined this day coming and it was a lot like I imagined it.

It was emotional for each of the Rittler’s. Elise lead the way in tears but all of us were feeling deep emotions.

For Josh he shared how he felt like Caleb had been a good leader and example for him. He was so thankful that his older brother had been a senior as he entered Towson High School. Caleb and Josh have a special bond that I admire as brothers.

Josh and Caleb have shared a room since they were little boys and for the first Josh will now be the big brother in the house.

Riley is naturally both dramatic and very sensitive to what others are feeling. She shared how grateful she was that Caleb was kind and cared about her as the only sister. She was sad when we left and was very empathetic toward everyone else and Elise in particular.

Seth is our most verbal processor in some ways (like his oldest brother). He talked through some of what it would be like not having Caleb around and his excitement for moving up in the world to share a room with his big brother (Josh) now.

For Elise there seemed like a mix of emotions: obviously sadness, excitement, a flood of memories came back (“I can still see him in his careseat”), and more. Elise is the glue in our family and the emotional leader. It was great to be with her as she let go of her firstborn.

For me I made light of a lot of it. I spent a fair amount of time playfully teasing Elise for her tears (although I’m secretly jealous of her ability to feel her deep emotions so consciously and process them with such awareness). I made a lot of jokes about feeling like we were forgetting something. And I watched how everyone else was processing the event.

Deep down inside it felt like a win.

I’ve had two goals for my time at home with my children:

I wanted to enjoy being with them and hopefully have them enjoy being with me.
I wanted to see them able to handle life maturely when they left home.

As we drove away from Caleb’s dorm I watched him in the rear view mirror walking towards the dorm I felt a deep sense of peace that by God’s grace I’d been given the gift of meeting those goals.

I couldn’t have achieved the goals without imagining them first.

Now I’m off to spend more time with the remaining three. Time is short this side of eternity.

Keep moving forward,

Greg

06/21/2011

Greg’s Special Pasta Sauce

Greg’s Bolognese Sauce

I love to cook. More now than ever. One of my favorite things is almost anything Italian.

And with most Italian food the secret is in the sauce. Here’s my staple Bolognese sauce. I make a double or triple batch and then use it in a variety of dishes or just over my favorite al dente pasta. It also freezes very well.

Ingredients:

2 lbs Italian sausage remove from casing
1 large sweet onion
1/2 cup of red wine
3 (14.5 oz) cans of tomato sauce
1 (14.5 oz) cans of diced tomatoes
1 (12 oz) can of tomato paste
10 cloves of garlic diced
2 tbs italian seasoning
1 tbs dried basil
1 tbs dried oregano
2 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup brown sugar
optional: red peper flakes to taste

Preparation:

Brown sausage in olive oil in a large sauce pan. Add onion and saute until translucent. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for an hour

Enjoy!

Greg

p.s. I’d love to hear your suggestions for recipes. If you have any feel free to leave them in the comments below.

05/13/2011

The Best of the Words I’ve Consumed 5-14-11

IStock 000000063151Medium

Highlights From The Weekly Reading List

Here’s the best of what the iPad brought to me this week:

A Small-Scale Approach to Achieving Great Things is a great primer on personal, professional and other change. I highly recommend it. I have one financial and one physical goal I am shooting for and this post was a great inspiration to help me move in the right direction.
In case you missed it my beautiful bride joined twitter. She’s already adding great stuff to the Twitterverse including beating me to the punch on a couple of things that I would normally post. My father in law also jumped on the twitter train. Give him a follow.
For the spiritually interested: Dallas Willard interviewed by John Ortberg. Two of my long time heroes of spiritual life. One takeaway I’ve already been working on: “We have a prayer life but need to have a praying life. We have a devotional life but need a devoted life.
Rocks, Sand and Water (shameless self promotion).
I’m finally plodding my way through The Checklist Manifesto which was recommended to me by Josh Itzoe at Greenspring Wealth
As usual the Wizard of Ads was fantastic on Why Ads Fail.HINT: it’s not about targeting your audience better it’s about your message.
I am enjoying a new blog from Chris Jones (of Esquire Magazine) and particularly this post on writing something for nothing (a topic I have been thinking a lot about lately and am going to be writing more about this coming week).

Finally I had the great privilege of listening to Eugene Peterson talk at St. Mary’s Seminary Ecumenical Institute on Friday with my friend Josh Glaser. The Message has long been an incredible resource for me personally and it was an honor to hear from him. His gentle, pastoral heart (things I most often don’t possess) was inspiring and Josh and I both were encouraged.

If you’ve never read the Message here’s some excerpts from one of my favorite passage in this translation (from Psalm 16):

Keep me safe, O God, I’ve run for dear life to you.
I say to God, “Be my Lord!”
Without you, nothing makes sense.

The wise counsel God gives when I’m awake
is confirmed by my sleeping heart.
Day and night I’ll stick with God;
I’ve got a good thing going and I’m not letting go.

I’m happy from the inside out,
and from the outside in, I’m firmly formed.
You canceled my ticket to hell—
that’s not my destination!

Now you’ve got my feet on the life path,
all radiant from the shining of your face.
Ever since you took my hand,
I’m on the right way.

Keep Moving Forward,

Greg

05/10/2011

The Rocks in My Life

IStock 000002046295Large

My Rocks

I pontificated about rocks, water and sand this week in the Blue Ocean Ideas Weekly Idea.

I thought I’d share at least a few of the rocks in my life that I have tried to place before the sand and water.

Rocks in My Life

I take each of my kids out to breakfast ever Friday morning while they are in middle school. I’ve found this time to be invaluable for me and for my kids in creating a meaningful relationship during what can be turbulent middle school years.
Elise and I try to get out to dinner alone as often as we can. We love the meals out together and always have a great time. Our lives are hectic so 2 hours away from everything where we can be together feels like a mini vacation to me.
I read, study, and pray for 1 hour a day. During the week this is usually from 7-8am. On the weekend it’s generally a little later.
I keep my email inbox at close to 0 and my todo lists up to date. While I may not always get done everything on my todo lists I at least stay current. If I’m not getting something done I at least know about it and am able to consciously manage what I am and am not getting to. The zero inbox principle has made my life much easier to manage even though it is hard work keeping it there.
At least a couple of times a month I get together with friends. Friendships are important to me and they don’t happen by accident.
I spend time with older adults being mentored and younger adults mentoring. I longed for this when I was younger and committed in my early 30′s to make sure I spend time in these relationships.
I workout at least 4-5 times a week. This is always hard to fit in but the truth is no one is ever fit by accident. It’s always intentional.

Things that I want to be rocks

I want to be more consistent in managing my team each week. I know I have more to offer than I am bringing that will benefit everyone. It is incredibly easy in my business to get caught up in the daily things that need to get done and neglect spending quality time with my staff.
I want to add a more deliberate strength training routine into my life. I know how important this is and know I would see benefits immediately. Right now I run or swim 3-4 times per week, play ultimate frisbee once, and play football once. All of that is great but I am lacking on the strength front.
I want to be more committed to budgeting and managing our finances well. Elise and I have recently committed to a new budget and so far it has gone well. This is an important rock that I want to make sure is placed in our lives first.

So my question for you is “What are some of the rocks in your life or that you want in your life?”

Keep moving forward,

Greg