Covid-19 Anxiety, Find Your One Thing…

Covid-19 and social distancing for the last couple of weeks has been stressing me to my limit as it probably has for you too.  Being off my routine, in lockdown mode (I know, safe at home) worrying about business stuff and family stuff and with a lot fewer warm hugs has really knocked me off my game.  Can’t sleep, stress eating, not getting out to run (worsens everything) and a low level anxiety from everywhere have been the new norm…the negativity creeps on you and before you know it, it’s hitting you hard.  Thankfully, my friend Tim Cole sent me a link to an insightful article by Mitch Albom in the Detroit Free Press which I really needed today.  Mitch writes about Knox who has an incredible story…a blessed ray of sunshine all the way from Haiti that helped Mitch find his one thing.BikeRideJoy

My one thing…this weekend, my 9 year old son finally learned to ride his bike overcoming a ton of anxiety.  He’s been putting it off for years.  There was a super stress moment and some tears but he pushed through and of course, once he got the hang of it he didn’t want to stop.  He rode about 8 miles before the day was done and he didn’t let me help in any of it except to cheer him from a distance and adjust the seat and the brakes a few times.  This win was all him!  I got a long warm hug for the assist and then he let go but came back and gave me a second long warm hug, bonus!  :)

In writing this I also realize for the umpteenth time, that we have rays of sunshine all around us all day every day.  We just have to get out of our funk and look for them.  Life’s best things are the littlest things right under our noses.

As these next days and weeks come and go, find your one thing(s), your rays of sunshine, and count your blessings.  And if you can, help someone else find theirs because we are all of us everywhere on quite the rollercoaster.  Thank you Mitch and thank you Tim!

What is your one thing?

 

The Fundamentals Translate…

OilCreek2012achieveIt’s the fundamentals that make the difference in business, in running, and in life…and they are pretty much the same!

1. Don’t Take it Too Seriously:  It may be important but if it stresses you out, your performance will suffer…laugh often!
Runners: Leave your Garmin at home on occassion.  :-)

2. Ask:  Ask for the sale, ask for help…from the heart, for the right reasons!  No one really wants to do it alone.
Runners:  Run with buddies…to speed you up or slow you down.

3. Stay in the Moment:  What you DO right now is all that matters…not yesterday, not tomorrow.  Right now.
Runners:  Run the mile you are in!

4. Be Generous:  If you want something, give something first.  Trust that it will come back to you.  Givers gain.
Runners:  High five fellow runners, congratulate the winner, volunteer.

5. Use Your Time:  We all have the same amount of time available to us.  You can choose to use it or not.  The keyword is “USE.”
Runners:  Go run!

6. Reflect:  Take some time to slow down, look around, breathe.  Find some quiet time.  You may see something new in that mirror.
Runners:  On occasion, stop and enjoy the view, the quiet, the moment.

7. Feed the Fire Within: …to live with joy and passion but make choices with your head.
Runners:  Do what you love whether fast or slow, short or long, but listen to your body.

8. Find Balance: Work, family, faith, health…the tree that leans too far will fall.
Runners:  Mix it up, cross train, rest!

9. Find the Positive:  In winning and in losing. In Everything.
Runners:  It hurts but it’s a good hurt!

10. Face your fear:  That which we are most afraid of is exactly the thing we need to go after.
Runners:  Sign up for that race already!

11. Choose…to be successful, to be happy, to be you…then ACT on it.
Runners:  Run Steady, Run Strong!

Do the work. Do the analysis. But feel your run…

kara_goucherDo the work. Do the analysis. But feel your run. Feel your race. Feel the joy that is running.” – Kara Goucher, 2008 Olympian, Runner’s World Quote of the Day

This is how we ran as kids…less analysis but with joy
This is how we should run every day
Anything else is restricted, restrained, self-limiting

Joy is the key
Find your passion…persevere…to live your greatest journey
– Look deep
– Own it
– Live it
– Use it to look deeper
– Unleash it

In running, business, family, faith…in life
Feel the joy!

Success Starts with Getting Out-of-the-way!

Success starts with getting out-of-the-way!

Most of us walk around working hard at being busy, doing more, getting better.  We want to win, take it to the next level, go for the gold.  But all too often, we get into our head and let the doubts set in, do the old woulda-shoulda-coulda routine on ourselves, beat ourselves up.  We spin a whole lot of negative energy around in our head.

That spinning is us getting in our own way.  Where does it come from?  Much of it from our past…getting picked last for the neighborhood ball game, told by a grown-up we wouldn’t amount to anything, maybe a supervisor gave us an unflattering employee review…but in reality, where it came from doesn’t really matter.

What matters is what are we going to do about it right now!  Step left, step right, get out of our head and we can do the things we need to do to succeed.

Instead of saying, “I can’t,”  “I’m stuck,” “They did this to me,” we can say, “I can,” “I have options,” “I can do this!”  We get ourselves off the negative spiral and on to a positive spiral.

Positive speak generates more positive energy and that gets us positive behavior getting positive results…because in reality, we have everything we need to do all that we want to do.  It’s about choices in this moment right here right now.  We can choose to wallow, fall behind or give up.

Or, we can choose to step-up!

So, if there is something not working for you, something you are not happy with…ask yourself one of the most powerful questions you can ever ask yourself, “What am I going to do about it?”

Then do it!

Rock on!

 

Stop Spinning, Start Doing!

Business is tough.  Sometimes, we make it tougher by getting down on ourselves and saying “shoulda, woulda, coulda” and dwelling on the past, or saying “what if” and worrying about the future.  If we do this on a regular basis, we’re doing what is called spinning…telling ourselves negative stories that continually brings us down and into a negative spiral.  Then every time something doesn’t go our way, we spin even more…we’re already in a bad mood…then we step in something yucky and we tell ourselves we deserved it…then we make a costly mistake and tell ourselves we’ll never make it!…and on and on.

If you find yourself spinning, a simple method to get back into a positive frame of mind is simply to get busy.  When we are idle and have nothing to do, we tend to spin…and spin negative!  If we get our hands and feet doing something, we have to think about the task and stay focused which means less opportunity to think about the past or the future, i.e. less spinning.  Completing our task also leads to a sense of accomplishment and positivity…staying busy gets us on a positive spiral…a much better place to be…and typically, when we’re in a good place, better results follow!

What we get busy with can be work related or something else.  It might be going for a walk, tackling that big project we’ve been putting off forever, mowing the lawn (yes, ice cream would be better!)…whatever works for you.  :)

Stop spinning, start doing!

Tell me, how do you catch yourself spinning…and what do you do to get back on a positive spiral?  Thanks for sharing!

And, don’t forget to subscribe…if you have a blog, be sure to send me a link!  Rock on!

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