Get At It

“Don’t stop when you’re tired, stop when you’re done.”

– David Goggins

Oh, we’re a few days from 2023. You know that. Another year is staring you in the face. It’s staring me down too. I can feel it with anticipation and I’m ready to leave 2022 behind. Not because I want to forget it, I won’t. But because we have places to be.

I wrote an edition at the beginning of the quarter on sketching out the coming year in advance, you can read that here if you’re interested in some planning. I want to focus on the anticipation of a new year today. That feeling of charging up. Perhaps you can relate to slogging it out lately. A lot of people I’ve talked to recently have been hitting the sand and it can be discouraging. But here’s the thing, we take what we’ve learned and move out of it. We don’t need to stay there. It’s part of the growing process and if you aren’t growing, you’re dying.

I like taking the start of each year as the next round, like the ring of a boxing bell. We only get one go in life. For the young: it’s easy to waste time and let it slip by thinking we have time to kill. For the old: another day is a day we don’t have to lose. I’m walking the line between each. The bell is about to ring for 2023, are you ready for the next round or are you going to let 2023 get the first hit?

Let’s put our shoulders into this year and do great things. Wherever you’re at, start or continue but don’t sit. Get it. Get at it. Apply yourself hard in a direction worth going. If you find resistance, mow it down. If you fall, get up. Knock something out.

What is that going to be for you? How is this year going to be different?

Let’s do this year hard. Come Holy Spirit.

— Adam Jarosz

Founder/Leadership Coach

Righteous Co.

---

I love sharing insights and reflections for the faithfully productive – this article is from Righteous Co.’s weekly newsletter, The Climb. If you want to see content like this and more, subscribe here to get The Climb right in your email box, every Righteous Wednesday. You can also follow along on Instagram @righteousco.

Merry Christmas from the Jarosz’s

“Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home.”

G.K. Chesterton

I’m profoundly blessed in life to be able to pursue the things of my heart starting with my relationship with God which has led to starting a family all the while growing in skill and opportunity. I’m thankful for this journey. I’m thankful for you who continue to follow along and keep your dreaming and doing in front of you.

What’s great about this season is that as a reflection of what it is – the arrival of God made man for the purpose of bringing us Home, that’s the real gift. All the dreamings and doings are fruitless if we don’t recognize that this is what life is all about, the Incarnation and Jesus stepping in. Christmastide is a great time to count the blessings in the right order. Go to church, lead your family’s prayer at dinner, read the gospel accounts of the Nativity, offer a prayer of thanksgiving by the tree – many ways to do so.

Let this be a season of gratitude for us, the Righteous, to let our work flow from that starting point. Very quickly after we enter the Christmas season we’re into the next year. What a way to prime the changing of the calendar. There is grace in gratitude. Fruits come from grace. Let us take the time to soak it up and lean into the coming days of our Lord’s birth.

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!

---

I love sharing insights and reflections for the faithfully productive – this article is from Righteous Co.’s weekly newsletter, The Climb. If you want to see content like this and more, subscribe here to get The Climb right in your email box, every Righteous Wednesday. You can also follow along on Instagram @righteousco.

Thanksgiving and Hospitality

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”

– J.R.R. Tolkien

Food is an incredible gift. The pilgrims thought so too when the Wampanoag Indians came to celebrate that first Thanksgiving after a hard 1621, bringing a variety of local foods from around Plymouth. While cooking is enjoyable and fun, hospitality runs far deeper by setting the tone for relationships and environment.

Food is a cornerstone of the concept of hospitality – it livens our spirits and opens the door for conversation and fellowship. Food is a universal language that everyone speaks. The idea of good food alone can activate our salivary glands. When you add in the other senses, it can recapture our attention. As you cook and prepare over the next day or so, keep in mind the power of food over you – when you crack the oven to temp the roasting turkey, set the Dutch apple pie on the cooling rack, and pour another rich Pino Noir.

There is a depth to culinary that I really enjoy. The pairings of complementary flavors and diverse ingredients enrich the experience and tantalize the taste buds. While food in itself is a topic you can drown in, what interests me more is the end for culinary and hospitality – which is to bring people together. This is the whole point of it all. It fits in so many settings like family, business, ministry, and various levels of leadership. It’s a mindset that is different from where society finds itself today with transactional quick-serves and unconnected social responses.

What hospitality contributes to is the slowing of our life to notice those across from you. It’s an openness to give and receive generously of time and attention. Thanksgiving is the perfect holiday to reconnect with this. It’s a day that isn’t caught up in anything other than presenting thanks for what we have and sharing a meal. The natives and pilgrims were worlds apart in culture but the common ground they found was over hospitality and generosity. Jesus, Himself broke bread with so many as an example to us, not for the sake of ingesting but of so much more.

How are you creating the opportunity in your sphere for relationships to develop through the lens of hospitality? How can you become more hospitable to the people you lead and serve? Do you make time to share this in your own home?

Lastly, I want to hear from you – what are you making this year for the Thanksgiving table? Or what is your favorite dish? I’m especially excited to be roasting sliced Brussels sprouts with a little sea salt, thyme, and olive oil.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I am thankful for all of you. Cheers to a great meal!

— Adam Jarosz

Founder/Leadership Coach

Righteous Co.

---

This article is from Righteous Co.’s weekly newsletter, The Climb providing insights, reflections, and updates to help the faithfully productive dream, do, and be righteous. If you want to see content like this and more, subscribe here to get The Climb right in your email box, every Righteous Wednesday. You can also follow along on Instagram @righteousco. Stay righteous!

Advent Reset

“The giver of every good and perfect gift has called upon us to mimic
His giving, by grace, through faith, and this is not of ourselves.”

St. Nicholas of Myra

I got halfway through writing this Climb when I thought better of it and started over. I’ve been rather critical of the cheap secularization of Christmas lately and was leaning into that for this edition however, prudence calls for peace in honor of the Prince of Peace. I’ll save the critique for another time.

I think another take comes from a moment I had two nights ago – we had brought up some of the Christmas gear and the kids were really excited about it. They wanted to help but really it was too much. Each box was opened and tossed around, fragile ornaments flipped and flopped, lots of giddy screaming, and to top it all off… all of the Christmas tree lights didn’t go on. All of them. I even checked other outlets, didn’t matter… tossed. What was it? One season? I put them away working, a year later all dead? So there I was.

Flustered.

But I recognized that I was losing patience and I took a deep breath. Time out. This is actually the dream for me. Our kids were excited about Christmas. This is such a small window. They’re growing quickly and I need to embrace the moments.

Advent is more than Christmas to-dos. After I took a long exhale and regrouped I changed my mind. We put a YouTube crackling fire on the TV and opened up some books and snuggled in. The kids smothered me on the floor as I read and Ani sat behind me on the couch while the soft electronic glow of the fire lit the room. Eventually, we tucked the kids in and settled in front of the TV fire again and had my pregnant wife fall asleep on my shoulder.

The dream.

Yesterday morning continued the graceful Advent moment where we continued the Advent reflections and prayer around the candles at breakfast. We read from a little devotional that might be a little over their heads but for the questions in it, their little answers were the same, “because Jesus loves us.”

That’s the answer, isn’t it? That’s the season. That’s Advent. Because Jesus loves us. It’s easy to be caught up in the preparation of it all. It can stress us out. Let’s take it another way. Embrace the moment. Because while Advent will return, we’ll never have another moment like the one we’re experiencing right now. A future Advent will have its turn, but this Advent is now. Embrace who and what is in front of you and dig into that with love. Why? “Because Jesus loves us,” (first).

Happy Advent Everyone!

— Adam Jarosz

Founder/Leadership Coach

Righteous Co.

---

I love sharing insights and reflections for the faithfully productive – this article is from Righteous Co.’s weekly newsletter, The Climb. If you want to see content like this and more, subscribe here to get The Climb right in your email box, every Righteous Wednesday. You can also follow along on Instagram @righteousco.

Make That Vacation Time!

“The end of labor is to gain leisure.”

Aristotle

I started my vacation time on Monday. I’ve got two weeks off from ministry and totally need the break – mentally, spiritually, and physically. But I don’t think there is anyone who appreciates this break more than my wife Ani, the rockstar who makes it all work at home. She gets the break too. 

I’m not great at the vacation thing in this season of life, maybe you can relate. There’s so much to do and two weeks doesn’t seem like a lot of time to do it. I have plenty of run-over from work on my mind. I’ll have finished vacation time by the time my head realizes I’m on it.

Taking a break is so important. Our minds need to take a step back to get a better field of view. To recharge. To refresh. Lord knows I need a recharge. 

While I love traveling, we’re not doing too much of that with the little ones right now. So we’re making the most out of local stops and the outdoors. It doesn’t have to be big and grandiose to get the same results. Whether you have a big budget or a little one, a lot of time or a little; make the most out of the break.

Be intentional! If you go into the vacation with questions about the next steps on your heart, give some time to pray and contemplate it. Let the aim of your vacation have a start and a finish to it, how do you want to feel when it comes to an end? What will you have to do to achieve that?

Put it on the calendar, give it a plan and a purpose, include who you want (or don’t), and set your budget. 

So when are you going on vacation next and why?

---

This article is from Righteous Co.’s weekly newsletter, The Climb. If you want to see content like this and more, subscribe here to get The Climb right in your email box, every Righteous Wednesday. You can also follow along on Instagram @righteousco.

Christmas season – Vocational thoughts

As I sit at Delta Sonic waiting for an oil change for Ani’s car, I thought I’d put together some thoughts I’ve been having over Christmas. It’s the second day of Christmas and my true love sent to me, one adorable family.

I didn’t think it was possible but I’ve been growing more in love everyday with my wife and baby. Both surprise me more everyday. Ani has been having a tough go with sleep lately but regardless, still has a glow to her. Izzy just keeps getting cuter everyday. She is becoming more aware and audible, melting my heart just over a week ago with her first “dada!”.

I was sitting down with the girls Christmas morning opening Izzy’s first gift, a dolly, and I just had a moment where I couldn’t be more greatful for my vocation of marriage. Me and my girls, sitting on the floor by the tree, just having fun. I just took a mental note. God has done wonders through this marriage to my heart as I continue to discipline myself to be the husband and father I’m created to be. God is good.

The girls and I will be representing the Holy family tonight at St. Greg’s and I’m just reminded of St. Joseph’s example. As a young dad, I’m sure he had his fears like the rest of us. Some relatable and some not. Relatable, how am I going to put food on the table? Not relatable, how am I going to raise the Son of God? 

He did it one day at a time, trusting the Almighty in his labor and love. So tonight, I will huddle with my wife and kid among live animals and hay, dressed as St. Joseph and just give my trust and thanks to God.