Staying In The Game During Hard Times
To be resilient means to stay in the game when things get tough.
In this episode of Coach Yay-dan, I will break down a mindset you can take to increase your resiliency.
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For the past few months, I have been working with the Special Olympics of Southern California to create a mindfulness workshop for their athletes. This very important project has been occupying my brain! I wanted to create a seminar that was encouraging, funny, interesting, easy to follow, interactive and clean humor. Luckily I had my publicist Lauren and my Brand Manager Lisa offering up their veto power. Literally, I would say, “They are athletes. How about if I make ONE joke about how I am horrible with balls.” Lauren said and I quote, “Aidan, I'll kill you.” How about a joke about long javelin?! I came up with so many great characters for funny skits for the athletes. Pat-Yay Jack. Vanna-Yay White, Rich-Yay Simmons, Eckart Toll-Yay!
After weeks and weeks of planning. It was finally showtime! The eight week series is a virtual presentation. The course begins, and I’m meeting the athletes for the first time. My computer starts to freeze up. My computer has never froze up in the oh...SEVEN DRESS REHEARSALS PRIOR. Of course, my computer had to freeze up in front of everyone. Funny enough, when my computer froze, we were discussing resilience. When I froze, I overheard one of the athletes say, "Aidan needs to be resilient against the internet.” In retrospect I guess they really did understand what resilience meant.
I came back on. Then we talked about how we were feeling and why. This charming girl said, “I’m happy because my internet works.”
These quotes were said with 100% good intentions, but I was SO UPSET. OMG how could everything go wrong at the last minute?
It was then I realized, the entire eight week mindfulness workshop is all about CHOOSING your desired emotion and then CHOOSING your thoughts based on that.
So I stopped and thought:
I could CHOOSE to think: WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY
Or I could CHOOSE to think: Hey, that was out of my control, and I can’t change the past. So what can I do better next time?"
I CHOSE to entertain my second thought which encouraged me to come up with a strategy. In the case my computer froze up and my screen share stopped, my manager Lisa would remain on as a back up. The Special Olympics would stay on as a back up. This way, the presentation could nevertheless go on. I also got a brand-new computer to make sure I would have solid internet. I even decided to crack some jokes about myself; about my terrible internet. I did this to bond with the athletes at the second course.
The second session could not have gone any better. My internet was flying. The athletes appreciated my humor and it helped us establish a bond. Most of all I got an opportunity to walk the walk and not just talk the talk, as it relates to resilience.
In life these types of things are gonna happen: break ups. break ins. break outs. break downs.
It’s during these trying times that it becomes extremely important to remind ourselves of the end goal. Take the position of being proud and not abandon ship, stay on and build up stronger. When you are experiencing a set back or a let down and you have not abandoned ship, that choice is something to be proud of.
Encourage yourself and pat yourself on the back. Congratulate yourself. You are one tough muddah, with a whole lot of grit. You never know what is right around the corner :-)
