This is my journal entry from February 17, 2026 — my real, unedited day, shared just as it happened.
I wake up with the kids here this morning, and my son especially is slow getting up. I'm like, man, I told y'all we should have went to bed a little bit earlier, but we get up and make it to school on time, have a nice morning. I cook the burrito in the microwave for my son for his food, and they got their lunches all packed last night, so we get off to school, and I get back home. I'm thinking as I get home, I haven't been listening to any audio books or reading anything. I've been taking a diet, just trying to really focus in, think about money, think about the future of my work and not be distracted with anything else.
After thinking about my plan for coaching yesterday, I'm like, man, that's not going to work. I'm not going to be able to get clients for $250 an hour. Even though people have paid me that much for crypto help, I just don't see promoting something like that directly. What kind of guy that's doing well and charging 250 hours is going to drop an envelope on your front porch advertising his services? It doesn't work. So I have a little chat with ChatGPT finally, and it basically says that it sounds like what I really want to do is a show. And I do. I really want to do the Jerry Banfield show. But the thing is with it, in doing the Jerry Banfield show, I'm thinking, well, if I end up dating somebody on this matchmaking service and I end up needing to move somewhere like Orlando or Miami, then, you know, I'm going to have to burn down the whole show, which sucks. ChatGPT gives some good feedback and says, stop designing around a hypothetical woman. You're pre-sacrificing something that doesn't exist. That is future tripping. I'm like, that is pretty good. And I like that. You know, the ChatGPT says the real answer is probably both build the show as a magnet. Then the coaching can be the back end offer. And that seems ideal because the show is something that'd be easy to promote and puts me in a position where I look like I'm real successful in bringing people together. And that's somebody you'd want to have coaching with. Whereas if I'm dropping invitations on doorsteps directly for coaching, that's just not going to work. The money certainly sounds fantastic. If it's pretty easy to make $10,000 a month having the show, and especially if you throw in a little bit of coaching.
So I'm thinking today the show is the thing to do. The show is the way to move forward with my work, and then I can offer coaching on the back end. I really do love the energy in the room. When I was at yoga and I was in distress on Friday, a few days ago on the 13th, I absolutely wanted a show. I didn't want a coach for $250 an hour that I'd be paying to tell me why I shouldn't feel that way or what I was going to do next time. I just wanted a room full of people to share that experience in and make fun of it. So I'm really glad today I've got some clarity. I know exactly what I want. I want a show. And I want a living room full of people.
I talked to a friend this morning. And I end up telling him how patient he's been with his wife. Him and his wife had some friction when they first got together. She's five years younger than him. And she was like 21 when they met. So they've really grown up so nicely together. And they've compromised really well. They were together right around the same time my ex-wife and I got together. And they did a much better job compromising and growing together. She wanted more kids than he did. And he compromised on, you know, having another kid. And she wanted a bigger house, but she compromised on waiting for that because he said, you need to get a job if you want a bigger house. And she didn't want a job. She wanted to stay home with the kids. So, and, you know, he was patient with her on like her weight and stuff like that. And she's patient with him on, you know, all the work he was doing and, you know, how often he was gone and still making time for him and his hobbies and all, you know, she's at home with the kids all day. They did really well over the years compromising and keeping a great relationship. It's funny, you look at the long-term relationships. In the beginning, most people thought my ex-wife and I were going to be together longer than them, and we didn't think they'd make it that far. But what they did really well over time is growing together and compromising and being patient with each other. My ex-wife and I both didn't do as well with both compromising and being patient with each other. But that's okay, too, because I can have another woman and expand the family I've already got. I'm thinking today that I do need to be willing to move, but this conflicts directly with the work, which is so annoying.
As I'm thinking about all this, after I talk to my friend, I go to an AA meeting this morning, and I see my sponsor there. He's chairing it. And I say hi to him and chat with him. I get called on right towards the end of the meeting, call on a girl that I love hearing her share. She's so honest, just like me. It's wonderful. The same one I started the meeting with last year. And then I head over to the power yoga flow, leaving a meeting like 10 minutes early. I get there and I put my mat down towards the back today. And man, it's a hot, sweaty ass power flow today, which is great. I haven't done yoga since my little crying on the mat on Friday. And it's a nice stretch. It's a nice workout. Great sweat. And then I see a woman that I talked to at a yoga studio, the one that was really friendly and kind of seemed like she wanted me to ask for her number, but I didn't. That one. I see her again. And afterwards, I say hi to her and shake her hand and she gives me this weak handshake first, like non-committal. I'm like, come on, give me a real handshake. Anytime somebody gives me that lame, it doesn't really go in. I'm like, give me a real handshake. So she's like, oh, I was kind of sweaty. So, you know, I didn't want to get you all sweaty. I'm like, in my experience, I don't really worry about germs. So I'm not worried about that. She's like, I don't worry about that either. I'm like, really? I was raised on it, but I've come to believe differently. And she shared that she'd come to see medicine differently too, that she doesn't really believe in it. I'm like, nice. It sounds like she's went a little further along this than I have. It was a great chat, but because I paid for the matchmaking service, I'm not trying to get a number or date or anything like that. I'm not worried about it, which was great.
After class, I ended up talking to the yoga instructor a bit and asking him questions about donations and how that gets paid. It sounds like they don't hardly get anything if I pay to be a member. So maybe I will just go back to making individual donations instead of being a member because that seems like the yoga instructors get paid better off of that. And I'm only going to like two or three yoga classes a week right now. So the membership's like, you know, almost $90 a month. If I went to like nine classes a month, I could just give a $10 donation every time. And the instructor would get more versus paying for the membership. So I might go back to doing that. And then I'd be more free if I wanted to go to some other studio or workout class to not feel committed either.
After the power flow, I come back home and it's on me to pick the kids up today. I take a shower and then have my... I have nachos today. I had a little salad before. And then I have nachos. These nachos just have cooked chickpeas, a little bit of broccoli slaw, and some organic medium salsa. I'm looking at the video a fellow tennis player sent me from our ultimate match at the tennis center on Sunday, and it's so cool. I'm able to watch our entire match with all the like double faults and kind of between points edited. The whole match video is like 50 minutes, which is... The actual match itself was probably an hour and a half or a little more. So a lot of the slow parts cut. And it's so cool to be able to watch the whole match. I see the point where I hit the shot where it went over the net on his side and then came back over the net and bounced on my side to win the point. I can see the serve speeds, although they're a little slower than TV speeds. It looks like my fastest serve is like 50 miles an hour or so. The camera speed and maybe that'd be like 60 miles an hour for a TV speed so I'm generally not trying to hit my serves as fast as I can either. And it seems like one of the biggest areas in my game I could probably improve would be my serve to see if I could get some more points off my serve. So maybe if I do some lessons, I'll work on seeing if I can hit the serve faster. Then again when I did hit the serve faster, I feel like I hurt myself doing that some. It was really cool, though, to watch the tennis game. I watched the whole thing back while I was eating lunch.
Then I left to go pick the kids up after that. I got there at like, the bell rings at like 2.40. I usually get there at like 2.30, but I got there at like 2.45 today, which worked out fine. I picked the kids up, bring the kids home. They have a little snack and rest for a little bit. Then my ex-wife comes over to bring the dog to the dog park. My ex-wife comes in and we catch up on everything, walk to the dog park. I tell her that, you know, if I have to choose, you know, to be here or to have a second family somewhere else, then, you know, that's the second family is the top priority. And but after I tell her that, I'm like, man, I got to rethink that. I also talked to her about the show. And, you know, we have our usual jokes and stuff. We walk around the dog park. I get some nice snuggles with my son while I'm carrying him. And then we come back. My ex-wife heads out. The kids go play with their friends right across the street right after that. I clean up around the house. And then after they're playing with the kids for like an hour, they come back over and want me to take them to the park. I take the kids out to the park. We bring the RC car, the baseball bat, and the tennis balls. But it's too dark to use the baseball bat. My son's upset about that. But we play on the playground, and I drive the RC car up the slide. And although my son drove it up there faster and with fewer failures than I did, which is pretty cool to see.
We go to the park. They start hustling some beads that they made, some little bracelets. And they get this one very pretty girl gives them $3 just as a donation. Then they get this other beautiful girl from the Ukraine and her mom to buy bracelets as well and they end up coming home with like five dollars and then the girl's mom across the street gives them each five more dollars so that they all have the same amount of money which was nice. I bring the kids over to my house and my mother just arrived. My mother reads and helps my son with his homework while my daughter and I get ready. My daughter gets upset because I'm not gonna go get milk for her. I think about it but my mother's parked behind me and then my mother says I can take her car but I'm like you know I gotta change all the mirrors and stuff for like a, you know, five minute drive. I'm like we don't need milk that bad, I'll just keep it from now on, sorry about that. Then they both take showers, I showered earlier after that sweaty power flow and we get into bed at a nice time tonight about nine o'clock.
As I'm getting to bed and wrapping up the night, I'm thinking, you know, I think I got my I need to stay rooted. ChatGPT actually gave some really valuable feedback. It's like, you know, what's attractive in a man is being rooted and stable. And especially if you want to have kids like that's attractive. And I know that it is. So as I'm going to bed, I'm thinking it's time to commit and I'm going to commit to St. Petersburg. I'm going to commit to staying here. I'm going to commit to doing my show. And whoever I'm going to date, I'll work into the existing life I have because, you know, that's attractive to a woman, right? I was thinking, oh, I can't have, you know, my kids plus all the other stuff I do and show. It's like, well, a woman who's attracted to me is going to expect that as a successful man, I'm going to have a lot of stuff I'm doing already. And I can rearrange to some degree once I have a woman, but it could be a year before I have another woman. We need to go all out and do the show. And therefore, that feels good. Like, you know, I know I don't want to move away from St. Pete. They've also matched me with my matchmaker today, and I scheduled a call with her on Thursday at 9 a.m. Her name's the same as one of the girls I had a crush on, which is funny, and she's also very pretty. So I'm thinking, nice. I'm really excited to get started with this.
At the same time, I'm seeing now's a good time to set up the non-negotiable that no matter what happens with the matchmaking or dating, I'm not moving out of St. Petersburg. I want to be here for my kids. I want to be able to take my kids to school. I want to be able to go to my kids' stuff. If I can't be here for my first kids, I don't have to be there constantly. If at some point I had a newborn, we might drop the overnights with my kids, but I'm not going to have a newborn for at least a year at a minimum at this rate, if not significantly longer. You know, for the foreseeable future, I want to keep having overnights with my kids. My kids are at a great time where it really matters that I show up as a parent. If my ex-wife starts dating somebody else someday, you know, that's not going to happen anytime soon, likely. And that would take quite a while before she was bringing them around to kids also. So, you know, there's I want at least another year, if not several years where I can have quality time with the kids I've already got. And I'm not willing to sacrifice that to have a second family because there's no reason I can't have a second family with the kids I've already got, too. Like, it could be a great time to spend time with the kids I've got and to date a girl, you know, maybe for a few years before we have kids so we can spend some time without kids first. And then whenever she gets pregnant, you know, then we can prepare to transition. But my ex-wife could easily have the kids overnight every night again. And, you know, I could still see the kids I have.
I see I need to be here for my child care and stuff, too. I don't want to be stuck like a lot of parents are with nobody to watch the kids. They can't hardly go out and do anything or have anything fun. Like if I stay here, I've got my ex-wife. My ex-wife will babysit for my new baby. She already said that and she definitely means it. And my ex-wife would be happy to have a couple of my kids over along with her kids. Not all the time, but I could easily have a night or two out a week with my new woman and have somebody I really trust for childcare. And I imagine on the matchmaking service, I need to have my deal breakers set up that I need to be clear on those in advance. So my deal breakers, I want to be with somebody healthy. And healthy to me means a sober lifestyle, taking care of themselves, and no chronic illnesses. I want to be with somebody that can have two kids all naturally, no in vitro or adoption. And I want to be with somebody who is comfortable living for the foreseeable future in St. Petersburg. Now, if they're from somewhere else, you know, they could move here. I'd be happy to meet someone anywhere in the U.S. that'd be willing to move here eventually. I'd be happy to, you know, go fly out to Utah or something. If there's some Mormon girl out there who, you know, loves the idea of moving to St. Pete for a few years, you know, maybe have a couple of babies here, you know, and then when my kids were teenagers, I could move back out, you know, near her and her family in Utah or something like that could happen. But I'm staying here for the foreseeable future for the next several years. I'm not moving to Tampa, Sarasota, Orlando, Miami, any of that stuff now. I want my kids to at least be teenagers before I make that move.
So for girls from somewhere else, there's girls all over the country that might enjoy living in St. Petersburg for a few years. And, you know, especially like for a time of being single before having kids. And then I could negotiate if she wants to move home and be near her family to raise the kids like my ex-wife and I moved when our daughter was a year old. We moved from Sarasota to St. Petersburg. Like I could work with that. So that's really good that I've gotten clear on that today. That makes things so much easier. And now I know I can just commit to the show and all I need to figure out is the details and how to promote the show.
If you connect with how I live and think, you can follow the rest of my days on YouTube in my Life playlist.