Week #31 of 2025 has arrived... I bought my daughter a car this week.  By the time a child turns 14, they have already spent 80% of the time they will spend with their parents.

Time to walk over to your 4K Weeks poster and fill in another square.  Done?

Bittersweet. That's the only way to describe it.  I love watching my kids grow into themselves. At the same time I hate that the clock is ticking down.

So, I look that painful truth in the face regularly and that makes me more present in the time I do have with them.  

I also created a poster to help put it into the same stark visual terms as my 4K Weeks Poster. It's called the Blink of An Eye. Check it out if the spirit moves you. I dare you to give it as a baby shower gift...It's personalizable!

ON WEEK #31 OF 1945...

Wilbur "Chuck" Gwinn, a PV-1 Ventura pilot, spotted the surviving crew of USS Indianapolis in the Philippine Sea 3.5 days after it had sunk. There were 316 survivors who went through exhaustion, lack of water, and shark attacks.

She was 1,300 weeks or 24.93 years old.

WHAT I CONSUMED THIS WEEK

	My wife shared this amazing Humans of New York story with me. Two links, read them in order. Link one. Link two.
	What Dan Read. My wife sent me this. Dan Pelzer kept a log of every book he read beginning in 1962. When he died in July 2025, his family shared the list online. It's an example of why the internet is so awesome. Here's an article about it.
	The Grey Area, With Sean Illing, "Can College Survive Trump?" This was an awesome interview with college president Michael Roth,  a very interesting discussion about the faults and successes of college through the eyes of a thoughtful and intelligent human. It’s not political… I promise it’s not.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of intelligent effort." - John Ruskin

There are just so damn many things you can ignore. In fact, your senses are built on their ability to ignore things.

And so it’s easy to look right past some small little details that don’t seem to matter. The trouble is, over time, those details all really start to matter. 

This is why I get after my children when they don’t put a toilet paper roll on the dispenser. 

If you can’t be bothered to deal with that very public facing tiny detail, then you certainly are letting other more important and less visible details slip.

In any important effort, there are always too many details to get right all at once. And that’s why it’s the little daily efforts that matter.

WHAT I AM THINKING ABOUT THIS WEEK

This week, I'm throwing back to what I was thinking about this time last year. It's a useful practice to look back and make sure I'm sharing valuable content. This one holds up. 

All of the meat of this email pops out of my brain each week.  And most of the time it's an extension of the personal struggles and victories that have been swishing around in my brain.

In an interview with Tim Ferriss, Arnold Schwartzenegger was asked how he gained the confidence he had a a very young age... he won the Mr. Europe bodybuilding contest at 19, Ferriss remarked on the confidence on his face, saying that if they just looked at the photos it would have been clear that he would win.

He days "My confidence always came from my vision.  If you have a very clear vision of where you want to go, then the rest is much easier, because you know why you have to.. {do all the things}...It's not like oh my god, I have to do another 200 sit ups,  It's more like 'I can't wait to do another 200 sit-ups because that will get me one step closer to the abs I need to win.'"

I have been thinking a lot about this quote this week. It takes courage to have a vision, but before that it takes clarity. Clarity is in short supply with me right now. (note: a year on from this I have a ton more clarity in a few important areas.)

But that's ok.  I have enough courage to stand here and wait until the vision is clear.

How about you? Do you have a very clear vision of how the next 5 years will go for you?  If not, is it courage you are lacking, or clarity? I would love to know... reply to me.

I think most of us have enough courage once we need it... but not enough clarity.  We need to get clear on what we want so the forces of the universe can rise up to meet us.

I know that is where I am now... and maybe knowing that is exactly the step I need to be on right now... or maybe not... it's unclear

Until next week!

Spencer,

Owner of 4KWeeks

P.S. Click on this reward if you feel like letting me know you read the whole newsletter: I don't know who. this guy is, but I am here for a guy heaping praise on his wife. My wife is the greatest thing in my life. It's also a really beautiful little video.