Son – Page 10 – Disney Leadership Keynote Speaker

Pushing every single day to move an inch

Florida Sand Hill Cranes — Yesterday: Nature is a great teacher in understanding how life is taken one day at a time.

How do we push every single day to move an inch? Can our mental attitude continue to grow through midlife and beyond?

In our youth, growth was literally unstoppable. We physically developed one day at a time for the first 18-21 years. Then things began to slow dramatically. This is the nature of living things. Birth. Growth. Reproduction. Decline. Death.

The physical manifestation of this metaphor is easy to visualize.

But what about growing a teen’s attitude about self-confidence, risk-taking, and personal responsibility?

The ninth-grader’s Math teacher shared last night that for the past two days, the 15-year old has chosen a different seat, and, has spoken up, publicly, twice in one class.

The milestone was on the first day he sat differently. We talked about it for weeks. Finally found a way to make it compelling. This seemingly insignificant act could be the catalyst for his transformation.

This story makes me wonder what this means to any of us, as 30, 40, and 50 year olds.

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This website is about our mental attitude. To leave this site to read today’s post on my physical health website, click here.

Dear Son, this is your biggest ally

Orlando Airport middle school flight arrival — Middle School class returning from California school trip.

Dear Son, it has been a privilege and an honor to be your teacher (along with your Mother) for nearly 15 years. Thank you for being receptive to the teachings.

A positive attitude is your biggest ally.

It is yours to nurture and grow.

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48 hours later

(photo: The sun going down as the two-hour conversation reaches a good place to stop, for now.)

The walk yesterday afternoon was the last thing anyone could have seen coming.

Maybe two miles and two hours later they had finished the most important part.

Getting to, “Where do we go from here?”.

What looked like a simple father and son walk was actually a monumental conversation.

And so it goes.

They decided to give the next conversation a four-day deadline to happen – by New Year’s Eve.

The conversation yesterday had no deadline. But it did rely on a 14-year old’s courage to start an adult conversation. He didn’t initiate it, circumstances did.

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Attitude is everything, blah, blah, blah…

(photo: Last night during the Cartoon Network premier revealing of the Aunt Grandma character… a big deal to a 14-year old)

Conversations are endless. And everywhere. Short ones. Long ones. Happy ones. Not-so-happy ones.

Dad: Son, it’s not what happens to you, it’s how you respond to what happens to you. Bad things happen to everyone, and for their entire life.

Son: Silent, but obviously his mind is working overtime.

Dad: We are in control of our attitude and we create the habits that either favor us or don’t.

Bottom line, another in a long list of deposits into the mind of a future adult.

Today’s mental thought continues with a physical thought for the day at the Next Blog

The opportunity for unbelievable days is limitless

(photo: Is 7:30am the right time, on a Tuesday?)

When is the time right for an unbelievable day?

The opportunity for unbelievable days is limitless. What if we began the day praying, reading, thinking, writing. What if we ~~acted as if we had~~ actually made time for this?

Sharpening the saw as the saying goes. Could an ordinary day be given new life?

Instead of simply driving directly to the hotel parking lot and making a bee line for the classroom we did this…

We rethink the start of the day.

We drive first to the city shuttle, park there instead of the hotel and ride the shuttle to the north end of town. Then we could walk beneath the city and come up on the south end, down by Main Street. Take a brief stroll down Main Street before traffic gets busy, then cut over to the local Hotel to get to the classroom where we’d be a student for a week learning from one of the world’s most admired companies.

Simple pleasures taken for granted.

Dreams?

No, not really.

This is a common privilege, rarely taken.

But not yesterday.

And so it goes, one day and then another.

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