Since the office has been closed due to the COVID19 crisis, the team has been staying connected and sharing with each other daily. Practice Administrator, Sharon Marotta, has made it her goal to continue our doGOOD initiative with daily motivational stories and challenges for the team. Instead of keeping them all to ourselves, we felt that they could be beneficial to YOU TOO! We are so thankful to Sharon Dr. Marotta for infusing doGOOD into all we do. It has made all the difference.
We welcome you to follow along and take away what you need from these positive affirmations and motivation.
Sharon’s DoGood message – Tuesday, April 14, 2020
CULTIVATING OPTIMISM:
As some of you may already know, I love and follow former Navy SEAL David Goggins. If you want to “read” to an incredible book, get his audible book “Can’t Hurt Me.” The audible book is so much better than the written book because it was recorded in a podcast format with David’s ghost writer reading each chapter followed by a dialogue between the 2 of them about the content. It is super engaging and motivating and is cornerstone behind what has empowered me to make recent changes in my life. But I digress…
2 kinds of wolves – fear wolves and courage wolves
Today I’d like to focus on words from on another former Navy Seal, Mark Divine, author of the New York Times bestselling book “Staring Down the Wolf.” In Mark’s book, he talks about on harnessing the principles of purpose and discipline in life to achieve success. Mark defines 2 kinds of wolves – fear wolves and courage wolves. He says:
“If you constantly feed fear by thinking about the could-haves, the should-haves, the would-haves, and the cant’s in life—if you allow negative beliefs, attitudes, and conditioned behavior from whatever drama you experienced or stories you adopted—then the fear wolf gets stronger. Eventually he gets so strong that the courage wolf is left cowering, unable to fight back.”
My point – at a time in life when we are struggling with so many fears and worrying about the future, it is easy for our fear wolf to take over. Now is when we need to harness and lead with our courage wolf!!! We need to lead with Optimism! But how do we do that when we feel so uncertain?
Don’t take any of it for granted! List it!
A simple way to start is by making a list. List all of the things that you are grateful for. List all of the things that you get to do today and the things that you look forward to doing. Don’t leave anything out! Even the silly little things. Don’t take any of it for granted! List it! You do NOT have to share this list with anyone. It is personal to you and you alone. It is meant to help you see all of the good in your life. Even if there is something that is hurting or bothering you, ask yourself “is there some part of this situation that I am grateful for?” The other day, many of us listed the things that we are actually enjoying about containment. That’s a great example of what I mean – focusing on the positive in a negative situation.
I had a really tough day last week where I felt very down and fearful. It kind of stopped me in my tracks.
I started questioning everything. In response, I took time to do this exercise – to harness my fear wolf and lead with my courage wolf – and I made my list. It was really empowering to see how much I have to be grateful for. I listed everything – obvious things like my family, friends, having shelter and food – to things that are less obvious like being able to see the sun shine, being able to breathe in deep breaths and smell the fresh air, being able to move, being able to listen to music and sing along with a favorite song at the top of my lungs. Hahaha!
I encourage you to make your list. Fight back and harness your fear wolf! Lead with courage and optimism. Start today.
I’ll close by saying that I am grateful for all of you. You are one of the major reasons I try so hard to Do Good in life. You are my extended family and I wish you all a truly beautiful day! Xoxox
Sharon
