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Animal Looking Back In Grass

Written by Jason Montoya. Posted in My Life.

Looking Back: 21 April 2018 Discoveries + News & Updates

We've now completed the fourth month of 2018! And, if you want to slow down time, I recommend doing a monthly looking forward and looking back journal entry (private or public). The activity helps me remember what happened while also providing a mindfulness throughout the month in expectation of these exercises. Anyway, here's what to expect in the following reflection point:

  • 21 discoveries (insights, quotes, & reminders)
  • 4 New resources to explore
  • Watch my daughter's Baptism testimony and experience
  • A new milestone for this blog
  • Organic traffic continues to grow month over month
  • April & 2018 goals progress reports
  • This month's new articles and Quora answers

 Let's get at it!

21 Rapid Fire Discoveries From April 2018

The following collection of bullets are insights, quotes, and reminders I collected from this past month and share with you to inform and inspire.

  1. "A ready person never needs to get ready— he is ready. " - Oswald Chambers
  2. A Little perspective goes a long way.
  3. Don't kill your client's/boss' ideas. Instead, present pros, cons, and alternative paths.
  4. And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about." - Haruki Murakami
  5. We have many small pockets of time each day. It's in these small windows, we can make small steps of progress on our dream.
  6. People really dislike the Last Jedi and many of them really dislike anyone who disagrees.
  7. "When you are joyful, be joyful; when you are sad, be sad. If God has given you a sweet cup, don’t make it bitter; and if He has given you a bitter cup, don’t try and make it sweet; take things as they come." - Oswald Chambers
  8. Get Nimble. Remove Friction.
  9. Arguing on Twitter and Facebook is an emotional and enjoyable endeavor.
  10. "I find for myself that my first thought is never my best thought. My first thought is always someone else's; it's always what I've already heard about the subject, always the conventional wisdom." William Deresiewicz, via Farnam Street
  11. When we're overcommitted and want to sustain with excellence, we need to get serious about freeing up the margin to make it easier to do well.
  12. "Our work is not to save souls, but to disciple them... Whenever our Lord talked about discipleship, He always prefaced His words with an “if,” never with the forceful or dogmatic statement— “You must.” Discipleship carries with it an option. " - Oswald Chambers
  13. By default, we're all consumers. But true success happens when we become creators and contributors to the ecosystem.
  14. Business tends to not want to pay for a consultant or vendor to assess their organizational situation. Whether or not you pay for the discovery determines what type of engagement you'll have going forward. When you pay for people's time, they won't focus on selling you, they'll focus on solving your problem.
  15. "We never enter into the Kingdom of God by having our head questions answered, but only by commitment." - Oswald Chambers
  16. Ultimate Evil is the complete lack of goodness, driven by complete selfishness. Its outward manifestation includes harmful intents, and acts. 
  17. Ultimate Good is complete goodness driven by complete selflessness. Its outward manifestation includes beneficial intents and acts. 
  18. "The vital relationship which the Christian has to the Bible is not that he worships the letter, but that the Holy Spirit makes the words of the Bible spirit and life to him." - Oswald Chambers
  19. Writers scribe culture. Books, Movies, Music, Blogs, & Ghost Writers influence most of our world without people truly ever noticing.
  20. "Jesus Christ can afford to be misunderstood; we cannot. Our weakness lies in always wanting to vindicate ourselves." - Oswald Chambers
  21. How does a writer create when they don't care about the topic? By loving the craft of writing.

4 New Interesting Links & Resources

My Daughter Publicly Shared Her Commitment to Jesus Christ With A Baptism

Recently, my daughter Madison at eight years of age, publicly expressed her commitment to Jesus as she was baptized at Gwinnett Church. If there's anything in life I consider a win, this would be top of that list. Watch the video below to hear her story and watch the baptism. Click here if you'd like to explore the reasons for our faith.

 

New Milestone - Most Page Views in a Single Day

Last week, I had an unexpected success with my recent article about the backlash around the Last Jedi. Publishing and sharing this article led to the most visitors in a single day since I began this blog. The prior record was 446 users in 2015 with my blog post outlining the various software tools I use to get work done.

This new Star Wars article had 452 users, topping the previous record by six people. To give you context, the average number of daily visitors is around 30 people. So this one day is a half a month's worth of traffic in 24 hours. In total, the article is currently just short of hitting 1,000 visitors. With as much time as I spent creating the extensive article, it feels great to have a marketing success go along with it.

Organic Traffic Google Analytics Chart

Organic Traffic Continues To Grow

The graph above shows organic visitors over time starting when I began publishing blogs here in January 2014. At the beginning of 2017, search traffic began climbing and at the offset of this year, things took an even sharper turn for the better with 300 visitors showing up in April. It's looking quite clear that my goal of publishing 400 articles by year's end is going to have significant benefit to growing my blog's reach.

April 2018 Goals: Status Updates

At the beginning of each month, I share my goals and now that April has concluded I'm happy to report that all three of my goals have been completed!

  1. Finish Populating Pre-Written Content In My Second Book: The first rough draft of my book for business owners is now complete. My next mission is going to involve reading and ironing out the content order I've created to build a better flow and more relevant expression.
  2. Update my "Why The Universe Is The Way It Is" Blog Post: I've successfully migrated my Facebook content for the book commentary to the blog post. This will make it a richer experience for the reader and get better prioritization on the search engines for relevant keyphrases.
  3. Organize & Clean Out Garage Office: We now have a clean and organize garage office and tool center. Well, 

2018 Goals Progress Report

Here's the monthly update on my goals set for 2018.

  • Daily Utmost & Bible Verse Of The Day: While I'm still coasting well on this one, I did miss two days reading My Utmost For His Highest.
  • Read Hidden Treasures In The Book Of Job With Wife: With everything going on in life right now, we've decided to pause this read and discussion. We'll revisit it in a few months and see if we can kick it back up. With a new baby landing this fall, it's possible my goals for the year may be disrupted and this one is potentially one of the casualties.
  • Evening Kiddo Snuggle Time: With only a few misses, this continues to happen on a regular basis.
  • Small Group Engagement With Men: We had a terrific time going to Main Event for dinner and bowling an evening last month.
  • Kia Sedona Loan Eliminated: $18,215.74 Paid
  • Finish 2nd Book: See monthly goals above for progress update.
  • 400 Total Published Blog Posts in 2018:
    • 287 Published Articles = End of 2017
    • 10 = January 2018
    • 12 = February
    • 13 = March
    • 13 = April
    • 48 = 2018 Total Blog Count
    • -2 = Archived Blogs
    • 333 = All-Time Total Articles
    • 67 = Remaining For 2018 (to hit 400 goal)
  • Sustain 2017 Income With Few Hours in 2018:
    • January Hours: 128.25/122 (+6.5)
    • February: 122.25/122 (+0.25)
    • March: 127/122 (+5)
    • April: 106/122 (-16)
    • YTD Total: 483.50 (-4.5 under)
  • One Mile, Eight Times/Month:
    • January = 2 miles
    • February = 3 miles
    • March = 4 miles
    • April = 6 Miles
  • Gwinnett Church Volunteering: I apprenticed as a greeter a few Sundays back, and provided my feedback about the experience. Now, I wait to hear back about next steps to volunteer regularly.
  • Habitica (Habit management app) Report: For a majority of April, I rested at the inn. Which essentially means I paused damage. This meant I couldn't die and was not penalized for not accomplishing tasks. I did move along with my habits, dailies, and actions, but I wanted a break from the tension of consequences.

This Month's New Blog Articles

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Recent Quora Answers

Hero Photo by Avel Chuklanov on Unsplash

Monthly Reflection Point

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