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Sometimes it helps to get a little dose of encouragement—along with a good cup of coffee!—to start the day. Today we discuss adversity.

Hopefully, the message below will help you get off to a good start for the week. Please feel free to forward the newsletter along to others who you think would benefit from the content.

Adversity

While I was never a fan, I’d be less than honest if I didn’t admit to watching more than a few episodes of Hee Haw growing up. This was not exactly the most intellectually rigorous programming that has found its way into our living rooms!

One of the most memorable episodes (scary to say I remember any of it), was the old dudes with moonshine jugs singing:

• “If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all. Gloom, despair, and agony on me.”

Geez, when I write those words, it’s no wonder we have a generation of folks who grew up with this who are a mess psychologically! Kidding aside, the producers on the show knew they would strike a chord by playing to the “bad luck” angle.

While it would be great to win the lottery, the reality is that, much more often, we feel like we have rolled snake eyes at the craps table when we face the challenging situations in life.

Adversity is part of life. But it’s how we relate to and respond to that adversity that defines who we are. That defines the life we will live. Troubles are going to be with us. We choose how we will deal with adversity as it arises.

And we can choose to act like the Hee Haw performers, grab the bottle, and sing about our bad luck, or, we can embrace the situation at hand, make the best plan possible, and execute that plan relentlessly. The choice is each of ours.

That brings us to this week’s question:

• Are your facing adversity head-on?

Thanks for sharing a bit of your time with me this Monday morning.  

Have a great week!

Blog post from this past week:

Monday Morning Motivation - Sharpening