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Welcome to Episode 1 In which your fearless host asks “This is my life now: What’s next?”
[Music]
Hey, it’s Kriss, your Positivity Powerhouse.
I’m glad to SEE you back again – [Video]
HEAR that you’re back again – [Audio] or to
Watch you READ [Text] because you’re back again.
I’m doing all three formats [Video, Audio and Text] for this podcast just to make sure that everybody’s accessibility needs are covered.
First episode; first quote.
“This is my life now: what’s next?” — Jon Morrow
This one’s really, really, important to me. It holds a place of honor on my second monitor right over there. The quote is: “This is my life now: what’s next?”
Jon Morrow said that after being in a horrific car accident. Jon is one of my personal heroes. He has a severe form of muscular dystrophy that has him in a wheelchair and unable to move anything at all but his face. Can you even imagine not being able to move anything but your face?
Now, this guy who can’t move anything but his face is actually a multi-millionaire. because he figured out a way to beat the system. He got out from under disability, he got out from under Medicaid, and got out from under all of it by moving to Mexico so that he could get his health care and do his work there. He has sold more blogs than like I could even name off the top of my head …and I have a blog.
He’s just so amazing. You can find out more about Jon at https://unstoppable.me/
Amazing. The first blog post on there is: “Seven life lessons from a guy who can’t move anything but his face.” Kind of on the nose there.
Jon was in this car accident. He was driving his accessible van, I think it was a minivan, to somewhere. Jon was in this horrible car accident. Some kid late for work was doing 80 in a 25.
Which “nobody” around here ever does [head nodding] Never never never never!
Bad idea! Don’t do it! Because “nobody” here does it either [head nodding].
The kid T-boned him in his minivan. Jon spent nearly a year in the hospital trying to recover from this. His legs were just shattered. He spent a couple of hours laying in his wheelchair with his wheelchair pinned on top of him before paramedics could get him out. He was in severe pain. Basically, he realized that he had a choice to make. He could either choose to be miserable; or he could choose to accept that “it is what it is” and move on from that point. So he said to himself: This is my life now — what’s next?
Now, how does that impact the triple M’s of Mood, Mindset and Motivation?
MOOD
I’m always in a better mood when I look at this sticking
out on my monitor because it reminds me that things could be so much worse.
I’m disabled. For those of you who don’t know me, I use a wheelchair. When I have to leave my house I can’t walk more than five or six feet without clinging desperately to something – anything – I can get my hands on: people, animals, you know, small children, whatever.
Most of the time now I’m using walkers or a cane or a chair and it’s been like that for about five or six years now.
The best diagnosis I’ve got is: “Wow that’s really weird.” Which I’m sure you can imagine is a little frustrating! But, when I read this message from the monitor it reminds me that things could be so much worse.
I mean I might not be able to walk at all;
I might have to have help every time I go to the bathroom;
I might have to depend on home health care to come in and bathe me because I’m utterly incapable of even trying every once in a while to do it myself.
MINDSET
Mindset is the same as mood in this case. It reminds me that I need to accept things as they are because acceptance is the first step. To accept that I have to deal with it. That is, before I can move on to what’s next I’ve got to deal with the fact that I can’t walk more than five feet before I move on to running a 5k, which actually was a goal of mine at one point. Yes, before all this health insanity happened, I was actually training to run a 5k!
I don’t know why. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I mean, if you know me you know that I’m not a runner and I’ve never been a runner. Except for, you know, a brief stint in cross country in middle school, that we don’t like to talk about.
But when I first accept that some days I can’t get out of bed, then I can move on to “ok, so how can I work from bed?” And make that happen.
When I accept that I can’t go cook my own meals: all right how do we work around this one? How do we move on to getting my caregiver my exact cooking method so that she can make the black bean enchiladas that I love so much? Which she actually made! I was so happy – she… my enchiladas! It’s exciting, I’m ferklempt, … and pardon…!
MOTIVATION
Okay, motivation.
I’m reminded that I can move on to what’s next.
That it is possible.
Not that it’s not like what’s next doesn’t have a Giant Brick Wall (that nobody’s paying for) in between me and what’s next.
So I can move on to what’s next and because I can, then I want to move on to what’s next. Because I want to move on to what’s next: I move on to what’s next.
SHOULD IS A BAD WORD
I actually had in my notes on this show that “because I can move on that I should move on.”
However, should is a bad word.
Never, never, never should you (haha) should you use the word “should” in your vocabulary. It turns into this giant rampaging beast with big claws that catch and teeth that bite — and you don’t have a vorpal sword to go snicker-snack as you fight against it.
It’s just going to eat your head and that’s not good!
You don’t want this giant “should” monster to eat your head but that’s what it’ll do! It’ll get in there and become insidious! It’ll just throw all kinds of pressure on you because:
“You should be making six figures a year”
“You should be making dinner for your family — from scratch — every single day”
“You should have the baby potty-trained by the time they’re 18 months old.”
“You should be teaching your own teenager to drive your Mercedes” because that’s how you roll.
Just pick it up and it will add up, add up, and add up – until you’re crushed under this “should” mountain and it’s just bad under there.
So, eliminate that from your vocabulary.
Move on with: “what you want to do” or with “what is possible to do”
Move on with anything – anything – other than “should.”
You can use “could.” Could is a form of can.
So: you can remind yourself that you could move on,
which means that you can move on,
which means that you will move on.
You’re going to move on.
You’re getting around to moving on.
You’re moving on!
And that’s what’s important:
That you get out of that stuck place that you’re in.
That you’re that you’re in you get out of your dark place
That you get out of your scary place
That you get out of your sad place.
Because: “This is your life now. What’s next?”
Hit me up on PositivityPowerhouse.com for any comments or any questions.
You can submit a request about the TRIPLES M’s of Mood, Mindset, & Motivation that I’ll address on a future episode.
You can also join my facebook group: Positivity Power Club. https://www.facebook.com/groups/PositivityPowerClub/
I look forward to seeing you next time. Thanks!
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On the web: https://krissjudd.com/