Finding Your Resiliency

What would you say is the biggest issue for most people. I believe that issue is the ability to creating a personal resiliency. What do I mean by that? Usually most of us have no problem doing what we thoroughly enjoy, no matter what time of day or what ever time of year. Sometimes these things are good for us, but a good portion of the time they are not so good for us. the issue we run into is creating the resiliency with in us to do the things we know are good for us to do, but also are the more difficult thing to do. Typically what stops us is the unwillingness or the motivation to take the first step. Weather that is setting the alarm clock to get up early to hit the gym or hit the extra work that has piled up. Sometimes we set ourselves up with the greatest intentions and we are totally motivated until the first step comes upon us and then all the intentions and motivation goes out the door. Why? Lack of commitment? Lack of actual desire? I believe it is fear. Fear to take that first step. We all know the first step is the hardest step, but also all know that once we take the first step we look back and say "why did I think that was going to be so hard" or " that was a lot easier then I thought. Why did I wait so long". Fear of resiliency is why. Stop being afraid, we all have huge amounts of capabilities inside ourselves that are totally untapped. When we un-tap these capabilities we start the process of creating our own resiliency. When we do this our new found resiliency grows exponentially and causes a cascading effect into so many more important parts of our lives. This new found internal power helps us become such better person to all the people around us. Not just to most important people, but everyone. This is what helps create a positive and powerful community. Right now we as a community need this more then ever. So don't be fearful. Reach inside yourself and find your resiliency and create that better version of yourself. It truly is our duty and responsibility.     

Be Better

I hope you don't mind, but I would like to share a personal story. Yesterday my family and I had to break the news to a family member that they had cancer and only have a short time left here on the this earth with us. It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life. This news forced me to have a day of reflection on life and how precious and fleeting it is and can be. I had to think back and ask myself how well or how bad I have done in my own life. How well had I learned my lessons along the way. Had I taken those lessons and passed them onto my children properly. Have i become better at being a good person to my fellow man. How often can I let the stupid anger go of somebody not driving fast enough or somebody walking at a snails pace in front of me. Have I been able to see that maybe there is a good reason for the slow driver or maybe the slow pace is meant for me to see or experience something special because i was forced to slow down and be patient. Have I been a good father and how much better can I become and what do I need to do to make that happen. Have I always been there for my wife or have I taken advantage of her because I know she has and will always be there for me. These where just a few of the questions I was left to ponder yesterday while waiting to break the news. The issue is why does it take something like this to make you have that kind of deep reflection. In todays world we seem so out of touch. All you have to do is read the comments after a facebook posting or a news article and see the meanness and rudeness that has permeated into our daily lives. This attitude needs to go away before it is to late. We can do better then this. We can ask ourselves these questions and be honest with ourselves. Maybe then we will all start to realize how precious life is and learn to be more kind to ourselves and start being kinder to the people around us everyday no matter if there your closest person or someone you don't even know.

Change of Season

Unfortunately it is that time of the year and the seasons are definitely changing. Last Saturday we where running around in shorts and T shirts and this Saturday we will be trick or treating in the low 40s and rain. This time of year it is so important to work on our health and most importantly our immune system. How do we work on our health? Well working out at the gym is not enough, proper eating habits, vitamin's and minerals and proper sleep are the keys. Eating clean and healthy, not skipping meals is so important. This time of year loading up on good green leafy vegetables and a piece of fruit or two a day will go a long way in helping your body fight off all the different flu's and virus's going around these days. Including a proper dose of a daily group of vitamins will also help greatly. With the loss of extended day light and our weather patterns shifting into more of a cloudy and cold season, we will be losing the ability to get vitamin D into are system which believe it or not is best absorbed by being outside in the sun. This is one of the reasons why we have so much more energy in the summer vs the winter. Last, but just as important is proper rest and sleep. The body heals it's self and fights off unwanted virus's best when it is at rest at night. So getting a good nights sleep each night will also go a long way in helping you prevent getting that cold or flu your neighbor or co-worker may be struggling with. There is not much worse then being sick and feeling like garbage. We have all been there and sometimes no matter what you do the seasonal virus's come in bite you, but you can help yourself out a great deal by following these simple pieces of information.

Challenge Yourself Through Technique

One of the most important ways to improve your workout and the results you are trying to achieve is through your technique. Too often we short change our technique because we are tired or trying to make something easier to do. Poor technique will always lead to poor results and quite often injury. Mastering technique in the gym is more important then the quantity of weights or reps. It is the old adage "Quality before Quantity" Some of the poor techniques that I see on a regular basis are depth of your squats. Now I know sometimes when you have a heavy load on the bar, getting to the correct depth can be difficult at first, but to often I see people short changing a air squat or a single KB squat. These are the movements that we should be mastering technique with. They ultimately translate into greater success with a heavy bar bell squat. another one is the KB rack carry or funny carry. Often I see people with there elbows flared way out wide instead of having them resting on the chest where they belong. We are looking for the heaviness of the KB's to make our shoulders, chest, back and lungs work hard. This why you see them in the conditioning portion of the workout, to help with the muscle endurance we are trying to build in each of us. So next time you find yourself not performing proper technique, stop and refocus and evaluate your situation and ask yourself, "am I being lazy or do I need to drop in weight next time so I can perform better, but still challenge myself to keep working towards my goals" You will need to be very honest with yourself when thinking about this. Remember
"quality, quality, quality" and you will achieve your goals faster and safer.

Challenges

So yesterday I heard a great quote on the "Spartan Up Podcast". The quote read, "Sometimes you pick the challenge and sometimes the challenge pick you". I absolutely love this quote because it is so true. We are always being challenged on a daily basis and some days we really get a huge challenge thrown at us. Sometimes these challenges are life changing. The real dilemma is how do we choose the handle these huge challenges. Do we shy away or hide from them. Do we get angry at them. Do we become afraid of them. Or do we except them and take them on with all are might. I would bet that we have all done all of the above at some point in our lives. What is important though is did you finally make it to the last choice and except the challenge. We all face different forms of adversity in our lives, but do we take these adversities and turn them into opportunities. Do we see the chance for a fresh canvas. Do we see the opportunity to become a better version of ourselves. Do we see the great opportunity to help someone else. Most importantly do we see the opportunity to learn and evolve. So remember we don't always get to pick our challenges, sometimes they are thrusted upon us. what we do get to pick though is how we choose to except them.

Todays the Day

"Todays the Day". How often have we said that. I bet you everyone of us have said more times then we could even imagine to remember. I would be surprised if some of us said it yesterday or will say it today. The issue is quite often today ends up not being the day and usually it is because we did not set ourselves up to succeed. What I mean by that is sometimes we put this big hairy ass audacious goal in front of us and we end up have no means to accomplish it. We never spent the time to break it down into pieces and so we end up with "Todays the Day" way to often. We all would be much better served if we took our main goals in life and broke them down into small goals that can become habit forming. the sum of all the small goals will end up getting each of us to achieve are much larger goal. This practice can be repeated each time we set out to accomplish a new and audacious goal. We all hate to fail at reaching our goals. It tears us down physically and emotionally. We start to second guess ourselves and our abilities and all the while we could have had much greater success if we would have just broken the goal down into manageable pieces. Remember though, not all goals are meant to be, but they are meant to try to achieve even if it takes a life time.

Recovery Work

One of the most important aspects about strength and conditioning training is committing to proper Recovery Work. I should know because recently I failed miserably at this commitment and it cost me big time. You see I had been training very hard for the past three months, running the gym and also doing my day job. Basically going a thousand miles per hour non stop. My body started to revolt against me terribly. I was beyond sore. My joints where inflamed. My muscle tissue felt horrible. So started to blame it on over training and possibly a new supplement I was trying out. I told myself all I needed to do was do a total de-load week and every thing would be fine. I was lying to myself. What I really needed to do was get back into doing a proper pre stretching routine and then after my workouts spend the proper amount of time doing solid recovery stretching and rolling out. Something I did all the time until I started making the excuse I was to busy and it would have to wait. Well that ended quickly and I made myself make the time to do proper recovery work. The results where as expected amazing. My body feels good and my de-load week became 4 days. You see for the majority of us, over training is a myth. We are not professional athletes who on occasion really need to do de-load weeks. Our biggest issue is not performing proper recovery work each and every day. This is why we feel the soreness and the muscle fatigue and also the lack of motivation to get back into the gym each time. Think about it when your body feels like crap, your mind and motivation are going to feel like crap as well. It all goes hand and hand. I encourage all of you to find at least 15 min twice a day to get some good active recovery work into your daily routine. Your mind and body will be really happy with you. For more recovery info check out Mobility WOD you tube and Smashwerx on you tube.

Positive Message

So this morning I woke up to a email that had one simple word to it "Sucks". This wasn't meant to be funny. It was meant to upset people. It wasn't meant to actually solve a problem. It was meant to upset people. It wasn't meant to create a situation that people could learn from. It was meant to upset people. In today’s climate of discourse among everyone it seems the art of a positive message has gone away. Trust me I am not bone for all the participation trophies and saying you are perfect the way you are, but some where the idea of setting a positive message around something that may not look to positive from the out set has been lost. there is the saying that a obstacle or a mistake is the chance to create a better opportunity or a failure is the opportunity to succeed. Well in order for that to actually happen a positive message needs to be sent, but to often we take that opportunity and use it to tear something or someone down. Why? I personally think because it is easier and also it make certain people feel better about them selves. Well you know what? That sucks. Let's try to be better people and send a positive message and coach somebody up instead of tearing them down even when you are mad beyond all belief. You know and I know the end result is always ten times better.

Living Life to the Fullest

"Live Life To The Fullest", how often do we hear those words, but more importantly how often do we act on them. Quite often we will let our quote-un-quote busy lives get in thew way of these words. Recently I was fortunate enough  to receive a reminder from life of how important this phrase is. Because of this reminder my 9 year old son and I are going to experience something that we will both remember for the rest of our lives coming up later this month. You see I have been behaving with the attitude that my young gym is the biggest thing going on in my life and everything revolves around it. well this past Sunday when I was walking out the door to go see a bucket list concert with one of my best friend. Quinn reminded me that I promised that I would take him to go see a punk rock concert. Now even though my bucket list concert was everything and more that I hoped it would be, I could not shake what my son had said to me. It made me think am I "Living Life To The Fullest" or am I really living it to the partial. The answer was the partial. We all need to take a look and seriously ask ourselves are we living life to the fullest as much as we can or can we do better. We only have one life on this earth and no guarantees with this one life. Remember that the next time you have the chance to do something memorable. don't just let it go. Try to figure out what needs to be done and go after it. So that being said my 9 year old son and I will be dancing our butts off on the lawn listen and watching Green Day later this month. Can't wait to have that one in the memory bank.

Fear

This past weekend my family and I where on a extended weekend vacation with other family. We had the awesome opportunity to go to the USA Olympic White Water Kayaking and Rafting Training Center outside of Charlotte North Carolina. I highly recommend this place, it was awesome. Many different types of adventure outdoor activities to the extreme. Because of this I got to witness members of my family including myself concur some big fears. My son had to deal with the fear of class 4 and 5 rapids. The fear exuding from his body and facial expressions was very really and very visible. The fear of being strapped in a harness 120 in the air on a pulley and cable was very real for myself. You see I don't like those kinds of heights. The strange thing was that the fear was really only a perceived notion that something bad was going to happen to both of us. Even though I had seen at least 100 people go on the zip line successfully and for my son the perceived notion that he would fall out and drown, even though we watched numerous kayakers and rafters go through the rapids successfully. obviously none of the horrendous events never happened and we had the time of our lives day and totally look forward to going back again. The point I am making is that we can let fear dominate our lives. It stops us from trying new things. It stops us from getting started on something for fear of failure. It stops us from getting started at a gym or some form of physical fitness due to fear of being judged, fear of the work and how hard it may be. Fear of coming out of our comfortable rut, even though we hate that rut and how it makes us feel mentally, emotionally and physically. The crazy thing fear is an emotion based on something that has yet to even happen. It is a thought about what could happen. How do we really know what is going to happen. I know that I can not see into the future to predict this feeling, but yet we do it all the time. We forget so easily the last time we faced our fears and realized that there was no need for this fear and all it came down to was just doing the hard part and that was, taking the first step.

The Serious

The serious. What do I mean by that?

• The serious always find the time

• The serious sacrifice

• The serious rarely make excuses

• The serious don't look at obstacles as avenues of defeat, but instead look at obstacles as new opportunities 

• The serious look at set backs as new beginnings 

• The serious make it become apart of their life

• The serious do, not talk about doing

• The serious are committed 

• The serious will rub the sleep from their eyes

• The serious except a little pain in their life

• The serious refuse to be confined 

• The serious will break the rules of the norm

• The serious will just shake their head and laugh when confronted by someone who questions your attitude

• The serious always wants to learn and listen

• The serious are having fun even when others question if you ever do have fun

If you want to make progress or gains you have to become serious with what you want to make progress or gains with. Otherwise you are just talking with little to no action. This can't be a part time gig or even seasonal gig. This has to become part of your life DNA. It's not easy, but it is the most rewarding way on all levels of your life.

Self Perception vs Reality

Self perception vs reality can be a very powerful tool and also a very humbling experience to put yourself through. But like a lot of things in life it is necessary for each of us to go through this exercise once and a while. Recently I did just this. It requires real true honesty with yourself. If you can truly be honest in your assessment of your self perception vs reality you will find that they are very different in some areas most of the time. We perceive that we just have enough time in each day to get all the things that we have on our plates done. Sometimes this is true, but in reality that is only true sometimes. Most of the time we have more then enough time. What usually we find ways to waste time or come up with excuses or procrastinate. We will cherry pick the things we like to do and put off the mundane or difficult needs. Yes life does sometimes get in the way and some days we just don't have our "A Game" going on. These are the days that we need to dig deeper and get the most out of ourselves. It is this kind of day and effort that reinforces and strengthens the foundation of the reality we want to perform on a daily basis. We all need to work hard at creating an honest reality. Stop the excuses, the procrastinating and build on each days accomplishments. Learn to be self aware and honest with yourself and check ion on your self perception vs reality every so often. If you are truly being honest with yourself you will know when it's time to check in.  

A Little Pain

As some of you may or may not know, I have a chalk board in the gym that I will write quotes on it for everyone to read. Some stay up for a long period of time, while others may have a short life span on the board. Well yesterday I was listening to one of my favorite bands (Social Distortion). One of the lines Mike Ness wrote was "What's Life Without A Little Pain". It got me fired up and thinking. What is life without a little pain. Boring, unadventurous, doesn't teach us anything, shallow, easy, fake etc. you get the picture. There is a quote that goes "I Am Stronger Then My Excuses" well another piece should be added onto that and that is "I Am Also Stronger Then My Pain". To often I see people giving up when a little pain or adversity gets in the way. What are we going to learn or teach those that surround us if we quit at the first sign of some pain in our lives, weather it be physical, emotional, mental or plain old fatigue pain. Pain is where we become stronger, where we learn the most about ourselves and what we our made of as individuals. We should run from a little pain. We should confront it, embrace it, walk over top of and look back and smile at it with the look "You Aint Going To Beat Me Today".  So remember you have the capability in you to be "Stronger Then Your Excuses and Your Pain".

Support vs Demand

This weekend I was fortunate to participate in a motorcycle poker that was a memorial ride for a fallen marine and meant to support our veterans. It reminded me of the need to support those around us and the numerous causes that surround us. Lately it feels as if we as a society have become very demanding and callus towards each other. We lack tolerance for other peoples beliefs and values. We disparage each other on social media if someone doesn't prescribe to our ideology's. Read any story on the internet and then go to the comment section and read some of them. It is insane the amount negativity and hatred that is posted. We all act is if we are doing the right things in life. We teaching our children to be respectful and listen and care about each other, but to often I see or hear someone doing the exact opposite, including myself. This weekend reminded me of how petty this pervasive attitude is and how much we all need to try to change it. We need to support on another. We need to support causes that we know are good. We need to get out of our comfort zones and really open our minds to the idea that other people and organizations have great ideas no matter where they may fall on your ideology spectrum. If we don't we are all going to end up in a dark and lonely space. We are supposed to lead by example for our children and the children that we are surrounded by in our lives. Remember this children don't know any differences about what we are talking about here. They are taught by us adults every day. Lets start thinking about what we and society are teaching them.

The Summer Slow Down

Ahh, it is finally Summer. All the kids are done with school. There are vacations to plan, summer sports to play or take he kids to. Swimming pools or beaches to visit. There are a number of things that we all want to be able to do now that Summer is here. You know, i'm starting to feel a little sluggish and that bathing suit that I got for this summer is not fitting me quite right and those cook outs we have been going to are so much fun and the food taste so good, but those cheeseburgers are starting to show up in places I don't want. What the heck is happening here. I worked so hard in the gym this Winter and Spring to look good and feel strong. Where did it all go? Well where it all went is with the list of excuses listed above. You abandoned the work and looked at it as a temporary investment in yourself instead of a lifestyle. Summer activities become the easiest excuse to stop going to the gym. We don't make the adjustments to our schedules during this time of the year and before you know you are back to starting over. Living a healthy and fit lifestyle requires commitment and sone discipline on each of our parts. With out this attitude we yoyo all over the place. I always look at this commitment as a responsibility. My job requires that I stay fit and healthy or nobody will take me seriously. My kids are involved in gymnastics and youth rugby. I push them to do as best as they can in all the sports and school. What does it say to them if I find excuses not to do the same for myself. It says that I am full of crap and why should they listen to me. I know Summer is busy, but this is when you double down on your commitment to show yourself and all those around you what your capable of doing and you lead by example and show those who mean the most to you the proper way of living.

Finding Happy

This week I was fortunate enough to listen to a podcast by Commander Mark Divine on his Unbeatable Mind show. The podcast feature Mo Gawdat and his new book "Solve For Happy". Mo is the Chief Business Officer for Google X. These guys are the governments version of the Skunk Works from the 1950's and 60's. They think huge, massive ideas that change the way we live and interact with each other, the world and beyond. At one point in time in Mo's life he became completely and totally unhappy  with life and the world he created around him. It didn't matter how much wealth, fame, and material things he accumulated. The more of these thing the less happier he became until one day he decided he could know longer stand looking at himself in the mirror. It was at this time he decided to revert back to his engineering and math skill to see if he could solve the equation for happy. Mo's did only what he knew he could do and that was to rely on books, so he dedicated himself to read as much as possible to see if this Idea was possible. 

Happiness is equal to or greater then your perception of the events of your life, minus your expectations of how life should behave.  

Which means that if you perceive the events as equal to or greater then your expectations you are happy or at least not unhappy. The trick though is not the event that makes us either happy or unhappy. It is how we think about it that determines whether we are happy or unhappy.  So the question is why do we allow ourselves to be consumed so often with unhappy thoughts throughout the day. Why do we take a situation that we are unclear about the results or even motives and we turn it on it's ear and blow it so out of proportion when 9 times out of 10 the event is no where near near the levels we put it at in our brains and thoughts. I have spent a lot of time thinking about this idea for the past week and spent time putting it to the test..... It amazed me how often I let myself take off with negative thoughts about a situation, a person or a place in time. At times I had to laugh at myself about how utterly ridiculous i was being. I challenge you to do the same. Put this equation to the test in your own life and if you come to the same results I have.... It's time to change the way we think about happy. Read the book.

"THE GRAVITY OF THE BATTLE MEANS NOTHING TO THOSE AT PEACE"

The Not To Do List

I learned about a great new tool when it comes to thinking about yourself and those around you. " The Not To Do List". I bet the majority of you out there has a to do list, weather it be a daily, weekly or even a life list. You probably have set plans into motion to concur these list or quite a few items on these list. But how many of us have the not to do list. You see when you think about it, this is actually a hard list to put together for a number of reasons. First how many of you find it hard to say the word "NO" when someone has asked you to do something at work. Your first thought is not wanting to disappoint this person even though you really have no time or desire to take part in the request, so you begrudgingly say yes and now your stuck. Or how hard is it for you to say "No" to something you have wanted to stop or give up doing, but you have gotten so used to it that you find it impossible to draw that line in the sand for yourself or someone else not to cross over. When you think about it now this is not a hard list to come up with, but what is hard is how are you going to enforce this list onto your life and those around you. Weather we like it or not we all really need to come up with this list for ourselves. Its not meant to hurt others. It is meant to set boundaries for physical, mental and emotional self. We all want to live a fuller and more giving life, but we can not do this if we don't set a standards for a personal "Not to do list". Seriously think about how this kind of list would help you create more time and positive energy to help you do the things you want to do for your family, yourself and the causes you believe in.

Help is the best

"Do what you love to do". How many times have each of you heard this statement? How many of you actually really did it. Most of us had aspirations to do just that and then all of a sudden life started getting in the way and we settled for something that was a steady pay check and some possible opportunities for growth. We told ourselves this is the right thing to do because this type of a job will afford us the opportunity later in life to do what we want to do. Well did it and how much later on in life did this thought come true. For me it took 30 years of working in the landscape industry to finally make it come true. That an awful long time to wait to make that idea a reality. Don't wait that long, try your hardest to do it from the start. Push yourself to take that chance and make it happen. The awesome thing that I am finding out is that when you do decide to go for it and you start to see how much happier you are and the things you have the ability to accomplish you will fight like hell and work harder then you ever have to make sure you can keep doing what it is you love to do. My favorite part of what I am doing now is not owning my gym and training people. It is the idea of helping people and the coaching, everything else is secondary. For me getting to this place in your personal ethos makes none of what I do feel like work anymore, just amazing happiness and personal satisfaction. Is that not where we all want to be in life. I encourage you to make this happen for yourself if have not already done so. The feeling of "Doing what you love to do" is truly amazing. 

For those of you that do not know, we are doing a cereal drive for the Summit County Educational Service Center. We are trying to do our part in raising 20,000 breakfast serving for the special needs kids that will be attending the SECS summer classes. The services that SECS are invaluable to these kids and they could use all of our help. If you would like to donate a box of cereal to help these kids start the day off with a good breakfast at school, please drop a box off at Big Tree Fitness during our business hours. All donations are very much welcomed and appreciated.

Rest and Recovery

How many of you have woken up and said whoa, man am I sore. My muscles are stiff and sore and it is going to take me a while to get moving? This feeling sucks to be quite honest with you. I know, I have experienced it on more then one occasion. The sad part is it was my own fault. This feeling was caused by my lack of commitment to my rest and recovery. Now rest and recovery doesn't mean just lying around and doing nothing. Although at the time it might feel good, but once you get up and move all that stiffness and soreness comes right back. Yesterday was a particularly tough workout and I knew that Saturday morning coming and that meant Simple Saturday workout was ahead of me and these workouts are always tough. So last night I made myself stay committed to my rest and recovery and really took the recovery part very seriously and did about 30 min of awesome floor stretches. I did some child"s pose, some pigeons, some static hamstring stretches and some upper body shoulder recovery work. The benefit from this recovery work was not only for how I would feel this super early Saturday morning, but most importantly it would set me up for an awesome nights sleep, which it did quite successfully. I think we tend to forget that leading a life of healthy living requires us to think of it as a full circle. This circle consists of your workout, your nutrition intake and your rest & recovery. All of them have to work together. Your workouts need to be tough in order for you to get the results you desire. You need to eat right in order to fuel the body and help the body to recover and you need to help your body to repair its self so you can give that 100% effort during your workout. If any of the pieces are not being done the result is you will constantly feel beat up and sore. It may seem like a lot of work, but actually its not. How many of you spend at least and hour watching TV at night. That time could be use killing two birds with one stone. Get down on the floor and stretch while you watch some TV. You will be setting yourself up for a great nights sleep. some of you read at night. Do an audible book and stretch. There is always a way to get anything done, it just goes back to how committed you want to make yourself be towards it. Try it for a week and I guarantee you will be amazed at the results.

Keep Happiness Simple

With everything going on around us in this world, especially lately. I feel we are losing touch with simple happiness. Every day we wake up to the weight of the world and to our individual life weighing down upon us and we end up losing sight simple happiness. If some thing does not go right or plans get altered or circumstances delay our daily activities we end up letting it dominate our day and lives in a negative fashion. Guess what everyone, sh-t is going to happen and there is nothing we can do to stop it. The only power we have over it is how we will react and handle it. Are we going to adapt and move on with a strong positive attitude or will we let the bad feelings dominate are day and cause us to give off a negative attitude to everyone around us and make them miserable as well. I was listening to a pod cast this week and part of the story was about a airport delay and how this person was more concerned about the people expressing their anger towards the airline and possibly causing the technicians to fix the issue with the jet faster then they should and a little less thoroughly then the should in order to quell the anger of the passengers. His attitude was, please take your time and fix this right because I have to go 36,000 feet up into the air in this thing and I would like to get to my destination safely to see my family. Most of us do not react this way, including myself.  We forget that Sh-t is going to happen and all logical reason goes out the door. Life and the world our tough enough on there own, why add more to it with a negative response. Instead trying to figure out what positive can come out of a situation and what you can do productively and learn from it and make it a teachable moment for ourselves and those around us. Just some food for thought as we end our work week and head into what is hopefully a restful and fun weekend.