Letters To My Son

The more things he wrote down, the more confident he became that he was truly becoming a finisher. After all, he had a notebook to prove it.

Don’t let fear be your map. Do not let comfort determine where you stay. Let curiosity guide you. Let your eagerness for adventure, for diversity, for aliveness, lead you.

A folded up map, hidden away in your desk. It’s just millions of possibilities and proposes an endless journey but until you grab it, open your door and step outside, you will never truly take YOU there.

I was running away from rejection my entire life. Then I started embracing it. I turned that into a beautiful gift in my life. Don’t run. Embrace them.

Epictetus reminds us that “it’s impossible to learn that which you think you already know.”

Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results. - James Clear, Atomic Habits

“I will strive to be courageous; to take one step forward as I confront my fears.” - Admiral William McRaven (US Navy Retired)

Someday we’ll look back on this moment with the lessons we’ve learned, the hardships we’ve faced, and we will be reminded of the miracle that is the human spirit unwavering in it’s resolve, unbreakable at its foundation. Stronger than we could ever comprehend.

If someone wanted to continually hand Michael Jordan his salary and endorsement money they would have to do it at a rate of $2 per second.

In challenges and hardship, the struggle of adapting on the fly is paramount, and the ability to do so is characteristic of all champions. As Darwin said “it is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”

Refuse to let the events that happen to you, around you and inside you, displace your body language, focus, self talk and subsequently your mindset and how you feel. Let your actions be the determining factor that drives your feelings.

We often fail to act out of fear. We worry about our legacy. We worry about what others think. We worry that it will be hard. We worry that there will be a better time down the road. None of that matters. You only have right now.

Every step, every trial, every disappointment, I’ve come out stronger, battle hardened, no nonsense, fully aware of the fact that happiness was a choice.

1 million little wins, ups, downs, failures, successes, all jumbled into what will eventually be the mountain you stand on but how you visualize that mountain is crucial.

Why not build a new habit around the news? Every time the news comes on use it as a trigger to go take care of yourself. Go for a brisk 30 minute walk come back with zero stress. You’ll like yourself more and even sleep better at night.

“Let’s stop eagerly anticipating some future event. And passionately imagining something that we desire looking forward to some “when I”happiness scenario. - Brian Cain

We choose to focus on what’s inside our control, and what we can control is exactly what defines success. It’s what we can focus on this day, this hour, this minute. Now is everything you have to work with. When you live it fully, it is more than enough. - Ben Bergeron, Chasing Excellence.

Let’s stop making success harder than it needs to be but you’ve got to look in the mirror. That’s the biggest competition we’re ever going to have is the one you see every day in the mirror.

I encourage you to be on the lookout for adversity, ready to push back against an emotional response by pausing, quickly evaluating what you can control, and responding in the way that sets you up for success moving forward. E + R = O.

“If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“For this generation and the next, I have to remind ourselves and teach our children - that human beings can turn hardship into wisdom because we are born with a capacity for resilience, and we can make ourselves more resilient through practice. It’s not easy. But it’s not complicated.” - Eric Greitens, Resilience.

“If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back. No matter how you feel, get up, get dressed, dress up and show up.”

“We all know that every plane has a black box. In the event of a tragic accident, investigators go through all the data they can find and try to figure out precisely what went wrong so they can prevent another accident like it from ever happening again.” - Matthew Syed, Black Box Thinking

“Imagine your ideal self facing the challenges you have in your life. Do this consistently and you’ll find your self-image shifting and your actions more and more effortlessly aligning with this higher vision of your self.” - Maxwell Malz

It’s done and gone forever, and there’s no way to get it back. And the key in your life is to understand that that’s fine, that you’re going to learn from what happened, that you’re going to grow and get better and that living your life in the past is stopping you from having a future.