This is from “Just Mercy”, a great book.
I love this paragraph.
Times are crazy and everyone is going through some “schtuff” right now.
But we need to recover.
We need to grow.
In order for that to happen, we need to hold each other to a higher standard and then help each other achieve those standards.
Share compassion, love and understanding.
And at the same time, attempt to better yourself so that your levels of all the above are that much higher.
-Happy Thursday!
-Dr Lindeman
I’m gonna drop 2 quotes on you this morning:
“The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.”-L.P. Hartley
“But plant your hope with good seeds, don’t cover yourself with thistle and weeds,”-Mumford and Sons, (Thistle and weeds song title)
In the book: Grit by Angela Duckworth, she discusses one of the main differences between people who have a growth mindset vs people with a fixed mindset is that those with a fixed mindset (feeling that achievements have a lower ceiling than others) carry around a feeling of hopelessness for change.
Most of the time this hopelessness comes from a negative past.
As L.P. Hartley eloquently put it, when we travel to the future, we leave the past behind. We cannot let the anchors of our past weigh us down from taking flight toward our future.
By all means, consider your current situation.
But also realize, that with hope, the future will look vastly brighter.
Dream big, plant seeds and sprout forth to a more meaningful and positive future.
Happy Tuesday!
-Dr Lindeman
Check out the song HERE
The picture above was taken from the book: Grit by Angela Duckworth.
It is a really good book.
In one chapter she discusses the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. She discusses the that key to cultivating a growth mindset (which has been connected to higher learning, more successful careers, larger more positive impacts, etc) is realizing that there is hope in your situation. When you can attach hope to any time of adversity, you realize you can decide to improve your current life. If you believe that you are hopeless than growth cannot occur.
The great news is that there is always hope.
So today, when faced with adversity, grab on to a hopeful future, realize you have options for a better tomorrow and GROW 🙂
Happy Monday!
-Dr Lindeman
So…it’s (its?) July, 2020 and the world is definitely on the wackadoodle side of normal. I guess a pandemic can do that. The thing that is most concerning to me, isn’t the virus. It is the fear, and how when left unchecked, it becomes a guillotine, sharp and divisive. Left vs right. Black vs white. Mask vs no mask. Vaxxers vs anti-vaxxers. The world has gone bi-polar and the middle ground (which is where I prefer to live on many things) is becoming a deeper and deeper canyon. Fear is a powerful and useful emotion. It is a great tool to spur action, to incite change. Fear should urge us to consider our options and steer our trajectory toward a brighter future. The key is it should help us use our other emotions and logic to make a decision. Fear should never drive the decision alone. Many times fear is irrational, and making decisions based on fear usually results in less-than-ideal situations. Fear is meant to propel us in short, fight vs flight moments. “Should I run from the grizzly bear, or fashion a bow and arrow out of that pine tree sapling and go toe-to-claw with the big fella?” Fear is definitively useful in those types of situations. But when fear gets to drive us on a day-to-day basis, the road we take will not be a straight, calm, collected or enjoyable one. When fear is behind the wheel, we are all over the damn road, erratic, swerving and taking a heck of a lot longer to get from point A to point B, because we aren’t really concerned with getting to point B at all, we just want to get as far away from point A as humanly possible in the shortest amount of time allowed. We aren’t concerned with a brighter future, we just want to run as far away from the here and now as we can.
Fear is regulated by a part of our brain called the amygdala, a primitive portion that when activated, shuts down our parasympathetic (resting) nervous system. Our heart rate increases, blood pressure elevates, energy is pushed away from our reproductive system and digestive system. The amygdala also puts the brakes on our prefrontal cortex a bit. As Marwa Azab, Ph.D. states in PsychologyToday.com (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/neuroscience-in-everyday-life/202003/10-things-the-brain-does-in-response-pandemic) “In situations that may compromise your survival, the brain would rather be overcautious and wrong. Rumors, fake news, and anomalous stories gain credibility.” Our emotional systems override our logic-based ones and we begin actively searching for threats, rather than working toward a more calm and collected state.
In scrolling through the “news feed” of the day, I can’t help but stop at some comments that I know incite even more divisiveness. And when I read the comments, I am saddened by the loss of connection that is propagating. No matter what side people fall on any of the topics, I can’t help but feel disheartened by the anger and estranging comments. There is so much “if you don’t feel this way you are actively trying to hurt others.” Or “If you don’t feel this way, you are a sheep, blindly following those in charge.” As I said before, I wholeheartedly believe neither of these positions ring true one bit. For the past few years I actually have been telling my wife that I was concerned how separated our world was becoming. It seems there are two sides to so many things, and too often only two sides (I know that’s a lot of twos and toos). Recent events are increasing the gap and that worries me.
Human beings thrive on connection. We don’t always need to agree on everything, in fact having some discourse and disagreements can help us learn, grow and understand. But when we are sitting in a place of fear, anxiety or worry, the disagreements can escalate to firm, immovable stances, and “immovable” definitely implies, “not-growing.” It has been said numerous times before, but it bears repeating: we are only going to get through this crazy time together. I don’t mean that in a cliche sense. There have been numerous scientific studies that show the power of connection. In one such study, strong social connection was correlated with a 50% increase in longevity (https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316) and other studies have shown that social connection boosts immunity, lowers stress and increases empathy (which is something we all could use right now).
So, during this time, it is O.K. to put your stake in the ground so that others know where you stand. Just also realize that others have a different stake in a different ground and the best thing we can do as Stephen Covey has said is to “Seek first to understand.”
Have a wonderful Tuesday
-Dr Lindeman
Jon Gordon has discussed this topic quite a few times on stage and in his books.
How many times do you think (especially on Monday’s) about what you “have to” do today?
“I have to go to work.”
“I have to take out the trash.”
“I have to pay that bill.”
“I have to unsubscribe from the free paper towels Monday email service. I still have no idea how they got my email…”
If you took the time and wrote out all the times you think about what you “have to” do, the list would be staggering.
If we could reframe those thoughts into “get to”, just replace one word, our world seems brighter.
You see, there are thousands of people who would love to GET TO do what you HAVE TI DO.
You have to go to work? Tons of people are out of jobs right now.
You have to take out the trash? A lot of people are homeless and don’t have a trash can to take out.
You have to unsubscribe from stupid junk emails? The world is full of people who don’t even own a computer.
And from another angle, everything we think we have to do, actually helps us somehow in our own lives.
So today, each time you think of something you have to do, spend twice the time thinking of how blessed you are to get to do it, and how whatever it is will actually help you in the long run.
Get to it this Monday 🙂
-Dr Lindeman
Vishen Lakhiani (creator of Mindvalley.com) discussed a phenomenon known as “the paradox of intention” in a great talk you can find here.
He discusses 4 states of being. Think of a square with four boxes.
People can be happy now, unhappy now, have small dreams of the future or have big dreams of the future.
Too often people are not hitting the sweet spot (upper right if you are playing along at home). People tend to be content now and not thinking of future growth, or sadly more-often-than-not, unhappy now but big dreams of the future.
The caveat is this: in order for true growth to occur, we need to be happy now but with big dreams of the future as well.
So dream big, but also be extremely grateful for how far you’ve already come in life.
Start with gratitude, smile big and keep on dreaming-all are factors to make those dreams come true!
Happy Monday!
-Dr Lindeman
There is a misconception that multitasking is a good thing.
Research shows when we attempt to multi task we do all of those tasks at about 33% efficiency.
This doesn’t just apply to work.
When we are with our family, talking with a friend or etc, our minds are prone to wander and we lose our focus.
We don’t listen whole-heartedly, and we don’t connect fully.
People may never remember what you tell them but they will always remember how you made them feel.
When you are focused and connected, rather than wandering and “multi tasking” you will ensure they fee listened to and appreciated.
So focus people! And focus ON the person in front of you 🙂
Happy Thursday!
-Dr Lindeman
In my book, one chapter is dedicated to the fact that life’s small inconveniences (spilled coffee, stepping in a mud puddle, etc) can exponentially create an entire “bad day.”
We tend to overreact to small problems when compared to large ones.
In the book, “Stumbling on Happiness” by Daniel Gilbert, he discusses WHY these little triggers (as he titles them) can cause more havoc than big, devastating events.
We have a psychological immune systems, like many systems in our bodies, work with thresholds. When something is large enough to go over that threshold a defense mechanism is triggered and set into motion. We can rationalize a breakup with someone we love. We can overcome fractures, dislocations, and the links easier than we can overcome a slice to the pinky toe. We can move on stronger when we don’t get the job we sorely wanted more easily than we can overcome ruining our favorite shirt with a bbq stain.
When the attack is under our threshold, we don’t deploy our defensive “troops” to overcome the insult.
So what does this mean?
It means we are amazing, first of all.
We were created with extreme resiliency to overcome huge challenges.
It also means we need to be more vigilant in working through the little things in order to circumvent their effects.
Be conscious of life’s little cuts, and actively work to overcome them. The big stuff, most likely, we are already prepared for.
Happy Wednesday!
-Dr Lindeman
“Don’t be the center of attention at your office.”-Dr Greg Howard
This was said at the wonderful zoomcast conference this past weekend. Dr. Howard was bringing the point home that even though we run our chiropractic offices, we should not be the center of attention.
This can be applied to any job/position.
True leaders earn their position as a leader by focusing on the people they serve.
You can be given a title of “leader” by virtue of a job description, but people will not truly follow you unless you first put them in the forefront of your interests.
The world is full of powerful people.
They are not necessarily considered leaders.
In large corporations, there are CEOs, CFOs, Vice Presidents, etc. There are also an innumerable amount of leaders on every floor, in every group and in al situations.
Strive to lead others, by putting yourself second.
If we all focused on helping others, focused the groups we get to help (lead), I promise we all would be better off.
Lead strong (by loving others) today!
Happy Wednesday!
-Dr Lindeman
I attended (via Zoom) an amazing conference this past weekend.
There were a LOT of great speakers, but one of my favorites had these two gems:
“You need to be willing to give up what you want now, for what you truly want forever” and “discipline is the bridge between our goals and achievements.” – Dr Jennifer Knobbe
It was a great reminder and impetus for me to start re-building bridges to where I truly want to go.
It’s easy to get comfortable in the moment. It’s easy to do things that make us a tiny bit happier than putting in a tiny bit more work would.
It is imperative to refresh and to re-energize in order to succeed, but there are times and places for that.
I realized I was taking breaks when I should have been working on my dreams, AND taking breaks when I was supposed to be taking breaks.
Coasting never creates momentum (unless it is downhill).
We don’t need to push ourselves so hard that we give up. But, we all know when we could use a bit more push in order to succeed, and I am truly grateful for those reminders.
Thank you Dr Knobbe (and all the other amazing speakers, many of which I will probably quote in the coming weeks 🙂
Get building those bridges!
Happy Tuesday!
-Dr Lindeman
Dissemination of Inspiration 