Dawn Damon 0:07

Hey beautiful women. This is Dawn Damon, the brave heart mentor and you're listening to the brave hearted woman. This is a podcast designed to help you find your brave so you can live out your beautiful vision. I have been working with women for years. And now I want to help you too. I'm here to awaken the brave heart inside of you so you can ignite the flame of your vision you can reach your goals and achieve your dreams. Come on lets get brave.

Hey you brave hearted women, how are you doing today? You know who this is? Dawn Damon, your brave heart mentor. Have you been living brave? Have you taken steps of courageous action? What have you done lately that strengthens your mental muscle that causes you to have some courageous tenacity, you I want to talk to you about that today. In fact, I just really want to encourage your heart. And I feel that there are some women out there today, some brave women, you might be wavering just a little bit. So I want you to say these affirmations with me as we get started today. I am strengthened with power. I am prepared to endure. I persevere with joy. I am diligent. I finished what I start.

I am strong in adversity. I persevere under trial. I persevere and I gain a successful life. And how about this, let's put the emphasis on a different word. Each time we say this, I persevere and do not quit. I persevere and do not quit. I persevere and do not quit. So I want you to declare I persevere with joy. You know circumstances. They're fearful, these fearful events, but they don't move you you're a brave hearted woman. The journey, it's arduous, it's long. But you persevere because you are a brave hearted woman. You don't get weary. You are patient in waiting. You don't get flipped out when something doesn't happen right away. Why? Because you are a brave hearted woman. And you persevere. You press on you do not quit. So we say crawling is acceptable. Falling is acceptable. puking is acceptable. Crying, go ahead. that's acceptable. Blood is even acceptable sweat totally acceptable. Pain. Yeah, of course that's acceptable. But quitting is not acceptable. Ending things that need to be ended. Now. Yes, that's acceptable. But quitting life, quitting your dream, quitting, showing up? Not acceptable. In fact, I don't remember who it was. But they would say I think it was one of our past presidents. Maybe it was even george bush. Life is 80% showing up. grit stick to itiveness tenacity, diligence, steady plotting, which brings prosperity. So I want to talk to you today about this thing called perseverance and endurance. It's defined as the continued effort to do or to achieve something despite difficulties. Okay, despite feeling like you failed, and Tony Robbins says there's no failure just results, I learned something that works or learn something that doesn't work. Perseverance is continued effort despite opposition. So by the very name of it, perseverance, it has the necessary understanding then that you are going to experience difficulties, not if when you are going to experience results, you are going to experience opposition, that perseverance. It's also consistency. I'm going to keep on doing what I know is right. Regardless of how I feel, I know that's not easy. Because feelings, man, those feelings they can get in your face, can't they? They can whisper in your ears. They can tell you some scary things. But I'm going to keep on doing the next thing. I was recently talking to a friend and we were talking about how an airline pilot will often encounter a storm. And sometimes when they're up there and they air those clouds, they fly through a cloud and they move in and if you've ever experienced flying in through a cloud or driving in the snow here in Michigan, I had this optical illusion that caused such disorientation for me, driving through the snow where all of a sudden I was Like being mesmerized by all these white snowflakes and and my brain just went into, almost like I don't know where we are what to do, I can't see. But through training that pilot knows that even though I feel disoriented, even though I feel disruption, I'm confused, I feel upside down, my orientation feels backwards. I don't listen to how I feel I don't pay attention to I look at my instruments. And I focus on what those instruments are telling me and I trust their validity over what I'm feeling over what I'm seeing over what I'm experiencing, I trust my instruments. And that's what consistency is. It's saying, I'm going to trust the next right thing, this strategy, this guideline that I have for me as a Christian, this Bible passage, I am going to trust the instruments regardless of how I feel, because I know if I keep doing this right thing, I will get results. If I keep exercising, I will get stronger. If I keep walking. I will strengthen my heart. I just will even though some days I wake up and say I don't think it's doing anything yet. Well, you know what, keep on keepin on passion. and perseverance is what you need for the long haul. So how many of you were able to catch the Olympics? recently? I just love the Olympics, don't you? And I love the stories of the people in the Olympics. What How about mckaela Skinner, the US gymnast who just went to the 2001 Olympics, and Michaela had been chasing that dream of being an Olympian since she was five years old. In her five year old little heart, there was nothing more that she wanted than to be a medal winning Olympian. And so every time the Olympics rolled around mckaela, Skinner was ready to compete for a winning place on the Olympic team. And she trained hard, she worked out hard, she kept physically fit, she prepared and when the time came, she was ready to compete for a winning spot. Every state and every national competition she could think of she would say this is my year, this is my time, I'm going to be called to be a part of the USA team. But every year even though she gave her absolute best, she never made the cut. And sometimes she would just come in fifth place when all they needed was for members of a team and she was always the runner up waiting in the wings, if you will always the bridesmaid, never the bride always the understudy, and chosen perhaps to be an alternative if someone should get hurt or injured, but she never made the team Olympics after Olympics after Olympics. And then she went to college and she was part of the gymnastic team, their college and she continued to practice and work out and have a very high elite rigorous schedule beyond all the other contenders in her league because she wanted to stay Olympic ready. Can you imagine the voices? Who do you think you are? And it's never gonna happen for you give it up. You know, if you're 20 or 23 going into the Olympics, you're considered old right when these girls are 1314 1516 that are in the Olympics. And so she was saying it's not just my body that I need to keep flexible. It's not just the routine that I need my muscles to remember, but I need my dream to stay alive. I've got to keep this dream alive. And then this year's Olympics rolled around and when the Coronavirus hit, there was an extra year for her to train. So she had she now had an extra year. And so she thought this is the year that I'll really polish off those and fine tune those hard moves those Signature moves. And wouldn't you know it that in the last few months of training, she contracted the Coronavirus herself, and missed several strategic weeks of training. And then she recovered and she went back to the gym and she just wasn't feeling good. And it wasn't long before she had to go to the doctor again and they found out she had pneumonia and missed another several weeks of training. So, Michaela, she just thought it wasn't going to happen for her and then the Olympic tryouts came. And once again, Michaela Skinner tried out for the Olympics. And one last time, she scored once again in fifth place. She became an alternative or an alternate. She didn't make the team events, but the coach did decide to choose her as an alternate for one of the single Person events, she became an understudy. And so Michaela was on her way to Tokyo. And she would be there and she would represent the USA as an understudy and just when she thought it was over, you know what happens, Simone, Biles decided decided to drop out of the team event. And there was Mikayla waiting in the wings, body ready, mind ready, heart ready. And her preparation and opportunity met. And this was her moment, she was now able to step up and compete on a team event. And when it was done, she was like, well, it was a one and done. I'm not a medalist, I'm gonna go home forever an Olympian, but never an medal winning Olympian. So she decided to board the plane and head on home because her time was done there. And then something just, you know, something in her heart.

She just decided, you know what, I think I'm just gonna stay a couple days later, even though she was packed and even on our way to the airport. She said, I'm just gonna stay a couple days later and cure my team on I'm, you know, so yeah, I'm going to stay so she decided to do and that's when you know what happens Simone Biles now started dropping out of individual events. And suddenly the phone rings and they said Michaela, we need you. Step up. suit up. You're going on? Oh, my goodness. Well, Michaela, she performed in the vaults. And not only did she perform a near flawless, flawless performance, but she was one of the first ones to gal it might even been the first and then she had to watch as person after person after person competed, would they outdo her with one after another after another after another scored less than her? One more? One more opponent went and she did end up getting the gold medal. But mckaela Skinner stood on the platform receiving the silver medal. She said I anticipated going home and the Olympian, but not a medal winning Olympian and now I will forever have the fulfillment of my dream. I am a silver medalist. Well, one comment from Florida and one of the coaches said this is not a woman who backs down on big goals. And this has been her ambition since she was little and she's never shied away from it. And so what about you? Do you know how to keep the dream alive? Yes, you're going to hit obstacles. Yes, you're going to hit setbacks and bumps along the way. It's part of it. But if you can remove yourself from the shameless voices that the not the shameless voices, the shame filled voices that tell you, you're never going to do this, you're a failure. Why believe anyway, see, look at you, you're an idiot. It never turns out for you and instead say, I am going to have a growth mindset that says, I can change I can morph, I can modify. I can grow, I can learn and I am not going to quit. So crawling is acceptable. Falling is acceptable, sweat and blood and puking. All acceptable. But quitting? No. Webster says that courage and resolve are strength of character. And grit is passion and perseverance for very long term goals. That's what the writer and author Angela Duckworth, who wrote the New York best selling book called grit. She said that in important studies in seeing how the role of grit plays in success, she said grit is having stamina and it's one of the number one characteristics of success. Stick to itiveness. Sticking with your future, day in and day out, not just for a week, not just for a month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality.

I think I've told you guys this before, but I wrote my first book at 50 years old. I thought since I was 30 years old, I was going to write a book and people would even speak that over my life with this inspiration to say to me, Don, I really sense that you're going to write a book someday. So at 31 I'm no book 32 no book 3334 35. Oh, it's never going to happen. And guess what I discovered about writing a book. You actually have to sit down and write Hmm, who wanted to do that? I want to have the book but I don't want to do the work. I've, by the way, writing a book was like birthing a rake sideways. It it. This is what another author told me and I believe that it is so painful. And yet, that's because I was looking at this big, massive, overwhelming goal. But what if you just have to write a sentence, and I can write a sentence and so that I can write a paragraph. And then what if you just write a paragraph, and then just I can write two paragraphs and two paragraphs, I can write five, and that makes a chapter or half a chapter. And I can write a chapter. And if I can write a chapter, I can write two chapters, and I can write a book. But it's steady plotting, that brings prosperity. It's those baby steps along the way. And so resilience and grit is the ability to continue on and recover from or adjust easily to misfortune and change. how resilient are you? When somebody could take my writing at first, I'll be honest with you it about about made me close up shop and say, I will never, I was so hurt, I will never write again. But that's when I figured that I didn't have resilience yet in this arena. And I learned that it was something that you can cultivate and foster and grow into this resilience, right? I mean, when you first learn to do something, you wobble you, you're weak, you're not good at it, and you're fragile. You don't have the resilience. But now, I put it out there, and I don't care if you don't like it, somebody will. I've learned I've written enough to know that. That's going to change somebody's life. I'm not called to change everybody's life. But I was called to change that person's life. Perseverance.

Don't let someone else's opinion define you. You want transformation. You want to reach your goals. You want to see your dream come to pass, then keep your mind and your heart focused, determined perseverance. Because you've got this. This is an emotion that you can create. Yeah, it's an emotion. It's a quality. It's a state of mind that you can create. You can become determined and persistent and steadfast. When you decide to turn obstacles into opportunities, stepping stones, the work of perseverance starts, when any trial starts. Any testing any situation that requires emotional muscle, you know, oh, yep, I'm developing perseverance right now I have to stand firm. So in other words, like when when adversity strikes, and again, when How long can you endure before you cry on goal, perseverance or in different says, I will stand? Now I might call for help. But I will stand. And I will, my my people, my support system, the help that I get, will help me stand up under trial. And I know that my faith is being perfected. And here's the good news. When you choose perseverance, you not only grow in depth of character, but you also get the results that you desire. You get that thing. Resilience carves away weakness, and the weakness in our soul that makes us quitters. It teaches us how to redirect our focus on the reward and not the problem. Visualize the reward, and not the problem, visualize the answer, and see yourself making your way towards it, and modify and adjust and reframe your challenge is to stick to it and recognize that this has the potential for making me better, stronger and more mature. I'm not negating that it hurts like crazy. I'm not saying that it doesn't. But resilience doesn't let us give up. So let me give you a quick few pointers on how to cultivate and develop this resilience. And then I think you know what, let's make this a two parter. We'll go into it even in more depth in more depth in our next podcast, but you're going to have to respond to adversity and I want you to consider the next five steps and we'll go into them next week. Listen to your inner dialogue. Analyze your situation. Recognize that you are not powerless. Set your mind unfocus Set your mind and focus on the win. And then endure and be grateful. Remember to be joyful in your trial. So strength will will come grit will come your mind will feel fortified. Don't become weary in well doing. grit gives you drive to reach your God given potential. Don't you want to offer your full potential to the world? I do. I think you do too. Capanna Sharla American astronaut who say that again? I didn't even pronounce it right. Let me say it again. Kalpana Sharla, an American astronaut said this, the path from dreams to success does exist. May you have the vision to find it, the courage to get on to it, and the perseverance to follow it. Good words. That's what I have for you today. I hope it's helpful. Hey, if it has been helpful, make sure you like this, share it subscribe. And it would be so helpful if you download this podcast and then write a review for me It helps my algorithms go up. And that helps me reach more listeners and help more people. Ultimately, that's my goal and vision to help strengthen the hearts of anyone that God puts in my pathway. So I look forward to seeing you again. visit me at dawn damond.com or the brave hearted woman. And until then, don't forget, find you're brave and live your vision.

Thanks for hanging out with me today and becoming brave. If this has helped you, be sure to share it with someone and subscribe so you never have to miss another episode. For more about me my books, my coaching or online courses, visit Dawndamon.com. And as always be brave and live your vision.