Right now, I can tell you this. I used to be a disaster.
Nothing else exists outside this truth. Just the mess I was in before Tickled crashed into my life circa end of Season 4.
Picture a seed buried deep. Suffocating under soil. No light. No air. Just darkness and pressure. That was me.
Four years into my streak with Chunk the Groundhog, I was walking right into a buzz saw. Spinning nowhere fast. Burned out.
Juggling posts across five platforms. Posting every single day. No matter what. Sickness. Death in the family. Vacations. I never missed a daily post on Instagram.
I thought I was in the grind. Chasing some imaginary finish line that didn’t even exist.
Sure, I’d get the achievement. A video posted. A streak kept alive. But everything else suffered. Family. Friends. The moment. Ignored.
I was obsessed with fixing everything instantly, like I could snap my fingers and make it all perfect. Insanity.
Doing the same grind over and over. Expecting different results. And it was taking a toll.
Memory problems. Lack of focus. I’d forget simple things and think… Man, is my brain just fried from all this stress and anxiety?
But I was wrong. My mind wasn’t broken. It was overloaded. Cluttered with garbage. Drowning in depression and pressure. Like trying to see through a fog.
Time management was trash. If I didn’t post right then, I felt like I was failing.
On the outside, everybody thought I was doing great. But inside, I was suffocating.
What was my end game? I didn’t even know. I was just lost.
But here’s the thing. That’s gone.
Why? Because Tickled hit me upside the skull like Moe from The Three Stooges.
It didn’t fix me in a flash though. I’m still the same scatterbrain Jeff.
That’s how God made me, and I accept that now. I’ve learned how to harness it.
Scatterbrain is an amazing thing. It brought Chunk to life.
But Tickled flipped my script. Tripped up that misaligned chase I was on.
It held a mirror to my face and said… Slow your roll, Jeff. Stop running. Start living.
I didn’t have memory issues from a broken mind. It was just too full.
Once I stopped forcing everything… once I got all that water out of the boat… my focus came back.
My memory? Like a steel trap. It was always there. Buried under the chaos.
I just had to stop chasing and start being.
I’ve learned that anything worth fighting for takes time. No magic pill. No instant fix.
Just slow, steady growth. Hard work. Perseverance. Trust in the process.
That’s where this story starts. In the dirt. With a seed that didn’t know it could grow… until a little rain dropped and gave it a tickle.
Six years into this Chunk journey. Hitting Season 7 with full force.
I’m the best version of myself I’ve ever been. Nothing else matters but now.
Not the old me. Not some distant future. Just this moment. Grounded in Tickled’s truth.
It all kicked off with a wild twist. I sent a random message to Duff McDonald while wrestling with a children’s book.
I was hitting walls. Feeling like a failure before I’d even started.
Then I got the honor of being a guest on Duff’s podcast… How to Tickle Yourself… hosted with his wife, Joey.
During our chat, I don’t know if Duff even realized it, but he dropped a line about how someday I’d have to write his autobiography.
The next day, hindsight hit me. Hey, maybe I should reach out to him.
So I shot him a note. Hey man, I’m stuck. Any advice?
Wait… let’s back up. Why would I even ask him in the first place?
Because I always do my research. I dig in like a groundhog.
Found out Duff was a New York Times best selling author. Blew my mind.
When I reached out, he was delighted to help. Why would he care about me? But he did.
Duff spotted a spark I was blind to. He’s my ace. My Canadian brother.
Throwing edits my way. He keeps me from overthinking every comma.
Teaching me that the best stuff flows when you let it.
Chill, dude. Don’t force it, he’d say.
That’s Tickled.
Riding the infinite wave of choices. Living like a seed that doesn’t try to control the rain or the temperature.
Just letting it ride. Kick… kick… coast.
Through Duff, I met Tara Bach… Chunk’s illustrator. Her art is unreal.
Like stepping into a magical fairy tale land. Our children’s book will reflect that.
Her mystical illustrations alongside the story of Gardener Jeff and Chunk’s coexisting relationship.
Then there’s Rockledge. I’ll never forget getting the invite.
Drove four hours through the mountains. As I pulled up, I saw Duff working on the woodpile.
We made eye contact for the first time, and he laughed… You’re just like I thought you’d be.
That place changed me.
Duff looked me dead in the eye and said… You know you have to write this book, right?
Not a question. A fact.
He saw the story I had to tell when I was still drowning in doubt.
Can I do this? Am I cut out for it? None of that matters now.
That was just stinking thinking.
He was the Jedi Master. I was the Padawan. The book, you will write.
That’s when I knew the Force was in me.
I stopped thinking. Started writing. Pen to paper. Fingers to keys.
The seed cracked open. Roots spread.
I was finally living in the now.
The Chunks are about to bust into Season 7. And it’s fire.
Team Chunk is alive. Tara’s mystical art. Duff’s wisdom. Joey’s warmth.
My brother Gardener John. He bailed me out when I almost quit at Season 4.
That’s a story for later. The Intern Katie. Master Gardener Bob Snee.
And me… Gardener Jeff… doing the same old stuff… but with a twist.
I’m reading letters from classrooms around the world to Chunk.
Six years. Every day. Never missing a beat. That’s what got me here.
Not instant. Not easy. But worth it.
Tickled taught me to live like a seed.
Rain germinates. Roots spread. Sunlight pulls you up.
Now I’m the best me. Creating what matters.
Quality over quantity. Purpose over pressure.
I don’t miss the important stuff anymore.
Family. Friends. The moment.
Duff’s closing in now.
Tickled says it all. Pay attention to possibility.
Ride the wave of choice. Fully focus on what’s happening to you.
Because once you do… things should start getting interesting right about now.
That’s how I roll.
Right now, I’m telling you… this is it.
The hot mess is dead.
I’m back in the mix.
Stay tickled, fam.
Gardener Jeff