YOUR Perspective!

Welcome back to New Man, New Woman, New Week. I’m Ben Newman, and I am fired up to be with you today. I’m fired up to be with you all the time now. We have so many people who are sharing our videos with friends to make a difference in their lives, people following us on Twitter @ContinuedFight, coming to the website bennewman.net for resources. We’re having so much fun. I get so excited every Monday to be with you on your journey in life.

So today, let’s talk about perspective. I was down in Atlanta for a meeting, and I was flying home, and I got on to the plane. I had Row 30, and I get on to the plane, I’ve got my ticket in my hand, and I’m walking all the way to the back of the plane to Row 30. And I look down to my left to sit down at my seat right there on the aisle, and I recognize there are a bunch of high-school-age kids sitting next to me. I sit down, and I recognize what is on one of the guys’ T-shirts, and then the little guy sitting next to him had the same thing. I was literally surrounded by the Atlanta Hawks Junior Wheelchair Basketball team.

And I sit down, and I start seeing the energy and fire for life these guys have. All of them were paralyzed. They’ve never walked a day in their lives. They were incredibly energetic. They were fired up. They were wanting to tell me stories. We’re talking. There were two of them right next to me, three of them to the left of me, one of the coaches is in front of me, a couple players behind me, another player just kind of off and up to the left. They were so excited for life. They started telling me, “We get to go to Omaha this weekend and play in six basketball games in one weekend.”

Talk about perspective. How often in our lives, as a result of the fact that life is tough — I’ve been through tremendous challenges in my life. I’ve shared so many of them with you on our videos, the personal and professional challenges I’ve been through, the times I’ve been knocked down in my life. When you’ve been knocked down in your life, what’s your perspective? What do you focus on? Are there things you can focus on that would be more solution oriented rather than just focusing on the things that are tough?

These kids were another amazing example of putting things into perspective, focusing on the opportunity that they have rather than an obstacle that may hold them back from accomplishing things in their lives. So, by the end of the flight, it was incredible talking to these kids. Once again, they said, “Can you believe this? We get to play in six games!” And then, all of a sudden — they hadn’t recognized it yet — they saw that my briefcase says Leduc Basketball on it. It’s the team where I played in high school that I go back and coach. I go back and volunteer and give my time to just pour in to the kids at the old high school. And they recognized Leduc Basketball, and they said, “Are you a coach? Are you a basketball coach?” And I went on to explain to them, “I actually do go back and coach basketball, but I’m a performance coach to business professionals as well as professional athletes,” and they said, “That’s unbelievable,” and I said, “I love it.” I said, “I go, I fire people up, I do locker room talks,” and they look at me, and they say, “You need to come talk to our high school team. They’re terrible!” And all of a sudden, I just started laughing. I’m standing up to exit the plane. I had this big smile of saying, “What a blessing it was to meet the Atlanta Junior Hawks Wheelchair Basketball team.” A few of the players gave me a little fist pound, and I looked at all of them, and I said, “Have so much fun this weekend. Go do great things and just get after it,” and they smiled, and they said, “We will.” How about that for perspective?

What’s your perspective in your life when you face obstacles? We’ve talked about reframing before. Reframing is when you face an obstacle and you face a challenge. Choose to reframe and focus on a solution that keeps you on a path of success, that keeps you on a path of understanding that mental toughness can be the difference for you to achieve peak performance in your life.

I cannot wait to be with you next week for New Man, New Woman, New Week. Until then, go do great things.
YOUR Perspective!!! Episode 38 Volume 1