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One of the best things about Father’s Day, as with a birthday or New Year’s Day, is that it serves as a mile post for measuring progress. It leads me to think about where I was a year ago and what has changed. Given that one of my overarching themes through life is the idea of making net progress each day, those little incremental steps should have added up to material change over the course of a full year. Each of those years of progress should then add up to even bigger change…positive change…over a lifetime.

(He's still working on his handwriting, but the message couldn't be better.)

This Fathers Day, I was perhaps spared a lot of introspection when I read my seven year-old son’s card. In it, he wrote “Over the year I have seen great joy in you”, and explained that I seem happier and yell less. I don’t know that this is definitively true, but I suppose there’s no more pure gauge than the perception of a child. And it is really gratifying to think that the positive change that I’ve been trying to achieve has translated into a better relationship with my son.

So as I reflect on the past year and look forward to the next, I feel like I’m on the right track. I’ll still make my mistakes, and certainly still have my character flaws, but little by little I am focusing on adding productive, fulfilling activities and crowding out unproductive and unsatisfying ones. I feel good about my family, my career, my health and my social life, and I am really excited for the year ahead. It really is a Happy Father’s Day.

And Gavin…I love you so much, too.