Daily Gratitude: I may have talked about this before but I think this is so important to absorb and believe. Whenever things aren’t going great, remember to look deep at the “adversity” and see if it really is a problem. Look to see if there isn’t something there you can turn around into something positive. I might have bemoaned my hip pain that plagued me all during training for Vol State. But by having it i learned to think of Voltaren cream AND I practiced more with my trekking poles. Thus, when I fell on my knee on the steps in the first mile and 12 hours later I had lots of pain with every step. So what did I do? I didn’t have any Voltaren then but I made sure I got some at the earliest possible moment. And I immediately pulled out my poles and they helped. When I had the after effects following the race the benefit was that I made myself get extra rest and as a result I not only recovered more quickly but also felt good enough to consider going to the race over Labor Day. These are not really deep ideas but they are what I could think of quickly. The benefit when I got rejected at medical school was that there was time for my epilepsy to be diagnosed without possibly interfering with any schooling. If you look closely, you’ll find that benefit or something that can be developed into a bigger benefit. Don’t sit back and have a pity party. Examine the situation and you may be surprised.

Daily Gratitude: A much better way to say “don’t quit” because it explains one reason why. Watching the Olympics gave a good example of this. In one of the races they were all going all out. Suddenly, one of the guys pulled up lame – he had pulled a muscle (probably a hamstring). He wasn’t in contention for a medal but what if he were. That would mean someone else would have medaled in place of the one who got injured. Another race had a contender forced out (at least temporarily) because he missed a hurdle. He was a favorite and then was totally out of the race. Turns out he was forced out so they allowed him to stay in but the point was that the other runners continued to run their hearts out. No one gave up. Many people who keep trying end up with something special happening to help them get to where they want. I kept applying to medical school and guess what? The school I was applying to got a grant to take x number of women. So luck went my way. If I had stopped applying, I would never have become a doctor – my lifelong goal. Even if you have to take a rest, regroup and keep on going. Something good will happen. Remember to practice “everything always works out for me”!

Daily Gratitude: We talked some about persistence yesterday a bit it’s such an important subject. Napoleon Hill devotes entire chapters to it in all his works. For most of my life it was something I just “did” (being persistent) but without even realizing it or understanding what I was doing. However, this past spring I really found out what it meant. As I was training for Vol State, I was having a lot of trouble. There was no improvement. My pace stayed the same and it was horrible. No matter what I did, I didn’t seem to get past a certain point where my legs would just feel empty too. And hills-oh my, there was no change there either. What was I going to do? What i wanted to do was quit and just go back to easy walks of only a couple hours. But my desire to finish the entire 314 miles of Vol State drove me to keep going out. I added 4 days in a row of 8-9 hours per day for 3 weeks in a row. I will tell you that it was the hardest thing I had to do after the second one. That third series was full of self talk. And it wasn’t good self talk. My head was a cacophony of negative words and phrases. It was like plowing my way past an iron curtain of those thoughts. Swatting flies was easier. But fear of not finishing kept me going out even without evidence of results. Well, turns out there was improvement but it took being in the race and covering the miles to find that out. That resistance (all the bad talk and thoughts) was just being resistance- that’s just what it does. I had to be persistent without even seeing that it was doing any good. Same thing when I kept applying to medical school. Resistance kept pushing me back and I kept coming on submitting another application. You have to just keep pushing against it. And you’ll win eventually!