This is my journal entry from February 15, 2026 — my real, unedited day, shared just as it happened.
Woke up this morning with a vision that life coaching is the way to go. And I need to do a dedicated life coaching letter based on my previous letter attempts. And then offer people a free session with the call to action being to text me to meet up to schedule a time. That's what we're looking for is to get numbers, show that I'm local. I don't want to use any online scheduling crap. I started off at 7.44 a.m. today dictating an hour-long 16-page letter that talks about loneliness, money, fear, obesity, alcoholism, childhood, divorce, grief, dating, hopelessness, and breaking through that, honesty, finding hope, and recovery, inspiration, opportunity, faith, clarity, parenting, recovery, as I said, you know, invitation and courage. I'm really happy with how this letter is coming out. As I'm writing this, I've got 16 pages. I'm working on an edit for it. And it feels like it really gives, you really get to know me reading this letter. And what's nice, it's very present. It's very current. It's not something historical. Like I did this five years ago. It's like, hey, I did this two days ago. This is exactly where I'm at. This is what I'm going through. And this is what I've been through. I think it does a great job explaining how we're lonely. And to me, one of the biggest things we need in our life is real human connection. And where I can help out is if you're lacking in real human connection, I can fill the gap. And one of the most valuable ways to spend money is anything that gives you real human connection.
After doing that letter, I went to play my singles ultimate match. And I was surprised to find that when I walked into the tennis center, I just started to feel like I fit in. I'm like, these are my people. This is my place. And I'm like, this is it right here. I had a feeling I might be joining. And I played a fellow tennis player. I lost to 2-6, 2-6. And I barely got the two in the second set because he was up 0-5 on me. I came back and won a couple of games to get those matches. And I fell in love with the tennis center and I joined and I made it my, I'm going to make it my new home because it's a lot like my old club, but it's so cheap. It's only $775 for a whole year of membership instead of my old club, which I was paying $260 a month for. Although that was a family, it still would have cost $200 a month for a single. So my old club, you're looking at $2,400 a year. So it's thousands of dollars cheaper. Although if you do 50 clinics for $20 each at the tennis center, then that would add up to another thousand bucks. Whereas my old club has the men's clinic is included in the cost of membership. But it's nice because you only pay if you actually use the clinic. And the clinics are often full and they have a ton of them. And I felt right at home. And I joined right away.
I really enjoy having a tennis club. And it seems like it's just what I'm looking for. I enjoyed hanging out with this fellow tennis player so much that he was part of the reason I joined. And we had a great time playing. I had some incredible shots during the game. Despite the score, for the first time ever, I hit a shot that went over the net on his side, landed right next to the net, and then popped back up and fell over on my side of the net, meaning I won the point. He said out of all the tennis he's played in the last five years, he's only seen that one other time. And I'm like, that was really cool. I hit another shot where he dribbled the ball over the net. It fell down inches in front of the net. Right before it hit the ground, I kind of flipped my racket and the ball literally skipped up the net and fell over on his side. He was shocked. And we had so much fun. I left the tennis center feeling absolutely fantastic.
And I got to work editing the letter I wrote this morning for hours. And I got ready for the kids to come over. I know I'm doing work that matters and I'm really excited about when I just time disappears. And I spent hours, you know, I ate and then I worked on the letter and the kids came over. The kids gave me some hugs and snuggles and almost immediately wanted to go over and play with other kids across the street, which they did. I then threw myself back into editing the letter, talked to my sponsor on the phone, and eventually the kids came back over at 530 crying. My son first had come over and was angry about something, but he wouldn't tell me what it was. Then my daughter comes over, you know, red face, crying, tears down her face. And then my son comes in right after her, you know, still a bit angry. Then the kids from across the street come after they get in and they say that there was a, you know, just a regular old sibling fight, some hair pulling and hitting. So my ex-wife and I talked to the kids and it's like, you know, what happened? Can we? You know, do something to prevent this in the future. Like, son, why didn't you talk to me instead of going back across the street? Apparently what happened was my daughter took this sword away from my son kind of roughly. And then he got all hurt and frustrated. And then he went back and, you know, started hitting her and pulling her hair because she took the sword. And I'm like, come on, guys. Like, that's, you know, especially in another kid's house. Getting into a knockdown, drag out fight. I think we can be nicer. And I commented, an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind. Someone needs to be the person who forgives and loves and accepts and moves on. We can't just keep hurting each other until there's nothing left.
My ex-wife took the kids home after that. And I went to my AA anniversary thing there. One of the groups is having an anniversary dinner tonight. So I went there and met my sponsor and shook some hands and talked to some people there. Then I went over to my home group, which after getting pretty sour and thinking I'd start a Jerry Banfield show and I'd ever get to go there again, I went there tonight and it felt really good. Silly old me doing that again. One of the women I talked to there said she does the same thing and gets just as dramatic. And I felt really seen. I'm like, nice. This woman and I really get each other. I shared at the meeting about, you know, how bad I felt at the festival and, you know, made it about alcoholism. I didn't fully descend into the depths.
And there's this attractive woman there that's newly sober that's in her early 20s. And I've kind of been a little hostile towards her, dismissive, even though I'd been talking about how cute she was with some of the guys. I hadn't talked to her hardly at all. Well, tonight we sat next to each other at the business meeting. So I talked to her for I had like five minutes at least to talk to her and it was really nice. The energy has shifted because I paid for that dating service yesterday. I just feel so light again. I was feeling so heavy talking to girls and all this pressure to try and get them to like me and want to date me. And do I want to date them? And I was really happy to just talk to this girl. And it felt more like when I was married, like I can just talk. I don't have to worry about anything happening. It's not even on my mind. I mean, I certainly don't have the thought, but I'm like, I'm not worried about making anything happen. I'm just being myself and, you know, assuming nothing's going to happen. At this point, it'd almost be annoying if something happened in person when I dropped $7,500 on this 12-date package. I'd love for that to work, so I'm putting no effort into anything happening in person. And ironically, that sets me up to be much more natural and easy and lightweight and carefree, which ironically might make something happen in person.
I also am feeling really grounded with my work, like the life coaching, you know, but I don't know if I'm to brand it much life coaching. I'm branded as like listening and human connection and showing up. And I'm not going to use the phrase life coaching because people are kind of burnt out on that. But just like invite people to talk with me. I'm feeling like that could be a very easy path to 10 grand a month. You give out thousands of these deep letters. You get some responses. And then you meet up with some people in person. Some of those people become paying clients. Some of those people make referrals. And you got a business right there. It's that easy. This clarity, I feel, is part of unloading the part of my mind all concerned with dating. It's like, look, all you need to do is... You know, people are so lonely. Just reach out to people. And when people are lonely, talk to them. And once they start talking to you, some of them are going to really want to keep talking to you. And once you get busy, then you'll just charge for everybody that talks to you, which works fine.
I wrap up the AA meeting, tell a couple of friends about the matchmaking service. My one friend says, man, you'd be lucky to have any hot girls on there. I'm like, well, we'll see. I can think of several hot girls who really could have benefited from a matchmaking service. And my ex-wife is very attractive and would be a perfect fit for the matchmaking service whenever she wants to date. And she's a perfect example of a beautiful girl who just doesn't have a life situation that supports meeting guys that she'd want to date. And now I'm thinking of it, there's a woman I know of who seems to have money who also fits that demographic. Beautiful, single mom, works. When does she have time to date? And instead, this woman goes out and tries to pick guys up at the bar. I want the kind of woman that doesn't want to pick guys up at the bar, that has a life that's good enough and healthy enough where she's like, look, I want to find somebody to have kids with. I don't want to go to the bar and use dating apps. I'd rather just pay to have somebody help me with this. I'm super excited to see how it goes and that everybody else I talk to is so interested to see what happens.
I call my mother on the way home. She's a bit down and she'd been talking to my brother last night on my late father's birthday. Is it always your birthday once you're born and then you die? Is it still your birthday after you're dead? Because at some point you got to give that shit up, right? Like at one point, you know, in the year 4000, I went back, all right, February 14th, you know, my late father was born on Valentine's Day a couple thousand years ago. It's like, all right, at what point do you move on that somebody used to have a birthday on that day? Apparently not yet, for sure. I love my late father, and I feel my late father's always with me at the same time. His birthday was a while ago, and he's been dead a while, so that's that.
I showered, and I'm grateful to dictate this. Work more on editing. And I'm so grateful. Like, man, what a difference two nights makes. I'm glad I didn't spiral that bad. Now, my mind certainly spiraled. My mind spiraled, but my actions and my behavior did not spiral. And that's what I'm really happy about. That despite my mind being filled with all these insane thoughts on Friday and Saturday morning. You know, my actions, I didn't cause anybody any trouble that I know of, at least, you know, unlike that day a few months ago when I was a pain for my ex-wife and the kids. I didn't cause any trouble. Like, I just felt my feelings. In fact, I use those feelings to connect more deeply with people. And, you know, I've taken some massive action. And this is all going to add up to something amazing. Either that or it's at least going to be an interesting story.
If you connect with how I live and think, you can follow the rest of my days on YouTube in my Life playlist.