Three Ways to Stay Positive

Hey team, we’re back! I wanted to give you guys a quote my friend sent me a few weeks back. He sends me little quotes every morning, Bible verses, stuff like that. This one stood out to me, so I wanted to read it to you. Three ways to stay positive.

Three ways to stay positive.

Number one: focus on opportunities, not challenges. Challenges come and go, but so do opportunities. Sometimes a challenge is an opportunity for you to grow and succeed. That’s really important to focus on.

Number two: focus on solutions, not complaints. When something opens up instead of complaining about it—we all get down for a minute or two—but you need to let it be a minute or two. Then, focus on: What are the solutions to this challenge, this problem, this situation? What’s going to get me to that next level? It reminds me of a story I’ll tell you quickly.

I was somewhere else in the world. We were deep in a mountainy jungle. One of the guys carrying the radio, a big 27-30 pound PRC 77 with big old lithium batteries and a radio antenna, fell. The base of the antenna snapped off. Without radio communication in this deep, dark jungle, in a foresty area, we were forced to figure out a solution.

Some of my team members—I was the team leader at the time—started losing it. They focused on complaining: “Oh my God, what are we going to do? We could get captured by drug dealers, eaten by lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” They were losing their cool.

I started focusing on a solution. I had taken a radio class and got some wire. Had each guy open up their MREs (meal ready to eat) and got their spoons. I created a triangularized antenna, had a guy climb up a tree, and got radio communication in and out. I didn’t get eaten by a bear or a lion or a tiger. It was awesome.

If you focus on complaints, you’ll never find a solution.

You’ve got to think about that.

Number three: feel blessed instead of stressed. You’re talking to, looking at, and listening to a guy who, in the last four or five years, found out he had cancer, had 17 treatments and two cancer surgeries, a torn meniscus (which is totally my fault), a hernia (again, totally my fault), got shingles twice. I didn’t get COVID, but I had all those other things take place.

I’ve got two small boys. I’ve had a lot of challenges, a lot of things I could complain about, “Oh woe is me,” but I am blessed. I am not stressed because I have a great team. A great wife, a great family, great friends I can rely on in times of stress. I am very thankful for the executive team, Codie, Greg, Sonja, Windee. Our other leaders giving so much of themselves every day.

I feel blessed. I want you to think the same way.

You have other team members, friends, people in your family, your wife, your children, your close buddies. If your close buddies aren’t there to help lift you up, get some new friends. Don’t hang around with turkeys, don’t hang around with chickens that just run around and peck all the time—the pecking order, right? Find true friends who have your back. Look for those things.

Alright, on this beautiful day guys, remember: you’re blessed, not stressed. Focus on solutions, not complaints. There’s an opportunity around every corner, and sometimes it presents itself first as a challenge. But you can get through it, and when you do, the opportunity blossoms and becomes that thing that helps you on to the next journey. Find those three ways to stay positive.

Alright, God bless you guys, have a wonderful week, and I’ll talk to you next week. Remember, be valuable, nothing less will do. See you guys later!