Growth Mindset Tip #26: The Power of Reflection for Mindfulness and Resilience

<p> Hey there, it's Michael. Welcome to Whole Again, the show that's here in support of the person you're becoming in your quest to live a meaningful life. And you did it. It's Friday. Congratulations for getting through the week. And each Friday this year, I've been sharing lessons I've learned over the last 25 years.</p>
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<p>This year is a big year. Well, in fact, aren't they all big years? So let's call this year a special year. I celebrate my 25th anniversary of my last bad day, my near-death cycling accident that sparked Whole Again, and a different approach to living a meaningful life. And we've reached the midway point in the year in tip number 26.</p>
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<p>But before I serve it up, I wanna share a bit more about these tips. I believe we all have our own Toll House cookie recipe. Every great-tasting batch of cookies, well, they need basic ingredients, but we all add our own flair, our own pizzazz to each recipe. So these tips are not invitations to should all over yourself, like you should be doing this or you should be doing that.</p>
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<p>They're simply ingredients that you may wish to add to your Toll House cookie recipe. Some will be right on target, and some will be, eh, Michael, not so much. So take the ones that make sense to you and then leave the rest on the countertop. Maybe you pick them up someday in the future or never. Either way, make the recipe work for you as you step into the person you're becoming and a meaningful life.</p>
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<p>So here's tip 26. Pause. Breathe. Reflect. Allow me to share a story with you, and this will be a bit of a US focus, so my apologies to all of our community members who live outside the United States, but the structure of this tip you can use wherever you happen to be listening Before major holidays here in the US, like Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Hanukkah, and the 4th of July, I would leave a voicemail to my full team back in my corporate days.</p>
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<p>And my team was around 1,000 people. I sent a voicemail, which I don't think people do anymore, but I sent a voicemail instead of, say, an email because I wanted people to hear the tone of my voice. The message had three parts. The first part was a genuine thank you for all their efforts, all their hard work that they were putting forth, all in an effort to provide health to those who needed it.</p>
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<p>Because I believe, going through what I've gone through, when you don't have your health, you would trade almost anything for it. So we were in the business of helping people find their health again, regain their health, and that is not easy work, so I wanted to thank them. I wanted them to hear that in my voice.</p>
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<p>The second part was about connection with others. I encouraged them to enjoy the holiday weekend, connect with their family and friends, connect with Mother Earth, have all those good times that people have on these holidays. The third part was an invitation to hit pause and step away from all the festivities and find a way to connect with themselves.</p>
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<p>Take a few deep breaths and then have a moment of reflection to reflect on where they were in life, where they were in their career. This moment I was inviting them into could be over a cup of coffee or maybe a walk on the beach. Any moment of solitude. Could be a moment of journaling just to take stock on where they were, what values or first principles were important to them, how were they showing up in alignment to those values You could reflect on what you're grateful for because so often in life we focus in on what we don't have and can't do anymore.</p>
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<p>Gratitude allows us to remember what we still have and can do. The reflection exercise could be around who's in their peloton? Who are the people around them? Are they bringing out the best in them? What pelotons are they in, and are they bringing out the best in others? Fast-forward to current day, it could be who are we following online or via social media?</p>
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<p>Is their content bringing out the best qualities of us, or are they stirring the pot and bringing up maybe some emotions that don't really serve us well? My hope is that they would use this moment to connect with themselves, connect with that story they keep telling themselves about themselves and to determine if it was healthy.</p>
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<p>Was it helping them step into the person they're becoming? Was it helping them create a meaningful life? Because ultimately, it all comes down to that conversation we tell ourselves, and there's a way to shift it Shift it into something that creates a more positive ripple effect, not only for ourselves, but everyone else that we ripple into.</p>
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<p>So tip number 26 comes at a good time because we head into the Fourth of July holiday here in the States. So my encouragement is to hit pause this weekend, take a few deep breaths. That's something we don't necessarily pay attention to throughout any given day or throughout the week. We actually take over 20,000 breaths a day, but we don't notice many of them.</p>
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<p>So take a moment to notice your breath, and then step into a moment of reflection. Take stock on where you are, what's working, and what might be working better The thing with this exercise, when I would send out this voicemail to my team, I had people who came back from the weekend and resigned. In a very nice and kind way, they said, "I no longer wanna be here."</p>
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<p>And you might be thinking, "Oh my God, if it wasn't for your prompt, they would still be at your company. You lost an employee." And yes, I did. But the reality is, is that companies grow and change at sometimes different rates than how the employee or employees grow and change. We as individuals, we might grow and change in a way that no longer fits with a company that we've called home for six months, six years, or 20 years, and that's okay.</p>
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<p>No one said, no one promised that we all change in the same way or at the same rate. The moment to pause, breathe, reflect for them helped them see that what they wanted out of their career was something they no longer can get at our current company, so they decided to go somewhere else to find greater meaning for them for that moment in their career.</p>
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<p>And I loved it because I only wanted people who wanted to be there, where the job was in alignment to their first principles and values to be there. And the people that had this awakening, well, I'm still friends with all of them. It wasn't a ton of people, maybe a handful, but still I'm connected with these people So my encouragement to you this weekend is to find a moment.</p>
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<p>Find a moment to pause, breathe, and reflect on where you are to help you step into the person you're becoming and create that meaningful life that you wish to create. So that, my friend, is tip number 26.</p>
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<p>And as always, thanks for being here. Thanks for listening. And if you'd like to receive my Better Life workbook that contains many of the exercises I mentioned in this episode, simply reach out and I'll send it along to you. And I hope you're checking out my new series, A Perfectly Imperfect Union: Reflections About America at 250, as I try to speak to 102 everyday people across our 50 states here in the US and the District of Columbia.</p>
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<p>We have a new episode being released tomorrow, and I hope you'll listen to it. Until then, let's remember to celebrate our scars as golden symbols of our strength and resilience. And don't forget to have fun storming the castle.</p>
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<p>And if you wish to learn more about creating beautiful ripples and how to prevent a bad moment from turning into a bad day, please visit my website, michaelobrienshift.com, and sign up for my newsletter called The Ripple Effect. And join us each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday here at Whole Again, and discover how you can heal, grow, and become more resilient, and celebrate our scars as golden symbols of strength and resilience.</p>
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<p>Until then, remember, you can always come back to your breath. You've got this, and we've got you.</p>