[The Sprint Review] Sprint 23 - Unexpected Holidays
Every bug can be a feature.
Dear Stakeholders,
an unexpected short “holiday” is coming to an end now.
My Journey: Cadiz to Faro
My bike took me from Cadiz to Seville to Huelva. From there I had to continue my journey by bus - but let me get back to that a bit later.
I had a truly brilliant time in Cadiz!
My first hostel stay. A truly inspiring encounter with ripple effects still influencing me now. Some casual “coaching” in the hostel. A sudden end to Netflix binging in the evenings. A surprisingly nice city.
And this continued in Seville ..
.. after a rough ride.
My longest day on the bike yet. Despite the flat area, the headwind and the tricky gravel road made this a real challenge. I was looking forward to the second half - which I typically spend with a podcast, after riding in silence. Lex Friedman’s interview with Sam Altman was great company!
When I finally arrived? Another really nice hostel with a very home-y atmosphere!
I was sad to leave, but that’s part of the lifestyle ..
However, for the stretch from Huelva to Faro I needed to switch to a bus, because of ..
1 Obstacle I Faced
There was a squeaky sound already when I left Seville.
The bike also felt a bit less stable. But I didn’t think of it much and made it to Huelva. Spend one day in this rather uninspiring city. And just when I started heading towards Faro, I realised that ..
One rim was broken in 2 places where the spokes are fixated on.
Within 3 kms riding to a bike shop this got so much worse! It was clear I couldn’t continue! And they didn’t have the right parts.
I was not happy to say the least.
This would take quite a while to be fixed. Spares are often limited and hard to get. No way I could stay and wait in Huelva. After all I needed to be in Faro to meet a friend.
The solution? Take a bus!
I’m amazed myself, how quickly I can recover from blows like this one. Not only to find alternative solutions - but also to see the positive side of things. Positive? Really? Yes!
It gave me the opportunity to learn how to take my bike apart, pack it up safely and reassemble it.
This will definitely come handy in the future!
And it gave me a good reason to extend my little holiday that I had planned in Faro where I met a friend for the Easter weekend.
1 Person I Met
There are 4 Alex’ that I interact with somewhat regularly.
Now the second of those has visited me during my trip1.
For him: a nice getaway from the cold and dark German winter.
For me: a long needed opportunity to interact with someone I really know.
We had a really awesome Easter weekend2!
I broke my fast (hadn’t eaten any sweets or drank any alcohol since December 30th). We enjoy not one, but two Thai Massages. Went out dancing to live music in a pub. Had brunch for at least 3 hours every day. And many seriously enjoyable conversations - with each other and many other people.
And spend hours trying to solve the Brooklyn 99 Islanders Puzzle. (We failed and I have yet to look up a solution. Or finally solve it.)
Alex, thanks so much for stopping by!
One of those conversations also sparked ..
1 Decision I Made
We both took a Yoga Teacher Training in the past few years ..
.. and so meditation, mindfulness, healthy eating and just overall well-being are definitely hot topics for us. But non of them were hot topics for myself recently!
So I decided to start focusing more on a healthy, Yogi-like lifestyle again.
What that means?
I’ll meditate 30 minutes twice per day for the next 30 days (even create an accountability channel on Slack, in case anyone wants to join),
I extended my Yoga practice to be daily again,
I increased the time I spend journaling every morning,
I started eating “as vegan as possible” from Monday to Saturday again (instead of only vegetarian) ..
.. and I set out to do nothing more often.
Just a few days into this I already feel much more aligned, relaxed and calm.
It seems like there is something to the hype after all ;-)
1 Professional Update.
This is a Sprint Review after all, so let’s look at what is happening on the business side.
Sprint Goal: Kind of Achieved.
I wanted to be ready to start Cohort 0 - and I feel ready!
Nevertheless I had soo many ideas what that would entail - and only took care of a small subset of those.
I discontinued the How I Met My First Scrum Master Job efforts and made respective refunds.
I created a #goscrumyourself slack channel that I use for near-time feedback of potential cohort members.
I finally invested some time to read up on the idea of Scanner Personalities (coined by Barbara Sher) and understood the strong connection with Go Scrum Yourself and especially The Inner Scrum Team. This might be the missing puzzle piece that I needed for my positioning ..
.. which makes me think of:
The next Sprint Goal: I have an updated positioning!
Or more precisely: “I have updated my positioning and all associated resources, so they effectively talk to gifted Scanners and introduce Go Scrum Yourself as a solution to create a suitable and sustainable lifestyle by becoming Solopreneurs”.
Definitely not an easy feat! Let’s see what remains of it in the end.
And if you want to join the first little cohort and Go Scrum Yourself in a small group - please reach out!
Cohort 0 will start on 21st April with the full-blown Cohort 1 following just 4 weeks later on 19th May. But plans obviously might change - this is about agility, right ;-)
And that’s it for today.
Until next time: Go Scrum Yourself!
Yes, this is a tease for any other Alex on this distribution list - let’s meet in Santiago de Compostela.
I even forgot that I normally write a newsletter every week, which makes this a rather long issue.