Several years later and a new journal that Mark called Project Retool. He will briefly discuss work life, personal life, family life and church life. He then begins to evaluate and analyze his work life including the pros and cons of a possible move. He doesn’t go beyond that, so I will just include that brief discussion/introduction but I will add that he did continue to “retool” and improve throughout the rest of his life. I am sure there is not a single person out there would does not need a little “retooling” themselves…
Mark’s words will be italicized.
It is time to do a self assessment of my life and “retool” some things. By “retool” I mean acquire some new skills or make changes to the “processes” I follow in daily life. This applies to my work life, personal life, family life and church life.
Retooling is about changing the “self” that I project into the world. The self is a make up of the skills, processes used and attitude.
The entire self must work together so you can’t just focus on profession and ignore the personal and be successful. So a retooling effort must focus on all four elements.
ALL ABOUT ME!
The retooling must only focus on elements that I can control. I can only focus on what makes up the ME or the SELF. If I focus on others then I have put others in control of my success and happiness. Sure I can reach out for help… but… the changes in SKILLS, PROCESSES or ATTITUDES are mine and mine alone.
As Mark analyzes (at length) his professional self, he make lists of current skills and needed skills, current processes and needed processes and then his current attitude. I would have loved to see his list for his family life and personal life, but these were not recorded.
I’m left to wonder what my list would look like??
…Later… I wrote this post about a month ago but throughout the night I kept thinking about the Passover. In April 2025 I hosted a Passover Seder. As I researched in preparation I was intrigued to learn that this feast is not just about remembering ancient Israel being led out of Egyptian bondage. This is something to be remembered every day of an individual’s life. That is, to become free every day by improving oneself. Any day that we are willing to just stay in our comfort zone we are considered to be back in slavery. Freedom comes from exercising our agency to progress, change, improve, etc.
I believe that these can be small things such as smiling a little more, forgiving a little more, making a better choice… I think that this is what Mark was doing. He looked at his current self and asked what was needed.
Speaking of what is needed someone reached out and told me that they want to read these posts in order but they find them on Facebook and it is tricky to find them. Here is a link to the 12 year list of blog posts – very simple format and easy to find: https://learning-laughing-loving-life.blog
For some reason that link won’t embed… so here is the (inverted) list of Mark’s Memoirs to-date:
Learning-Laughing-Loving-Life 