I will never forget the day.  My freshmen year of college, one of my required classes was English Literature.  Honestly, I was less than thrilled.  English Lit was not on my bucket list.

It was a cold afternoon in Ohio and I hustled from my dorm to beat the train going through the campus.  I arrived early enough to find a good seat at the "back" of the room.  (Yes, that's right, in those days I was a back seater student. The last thing I wanted was to get stuck in the front :-) 

The professor walked in a few minutes late, cooly strolling in wearing a tweed jacket  looking a lot like Jack Black would today. 

In a passionate voice he introduced himself glancing at his new students in the room.  "Welcome everyone! I am your Professor, Dr. Davis. But rather than thinking of me as yet another teacher, think of me as a GUIDE on your journey." 

I looked around the room to see...

According to my math, our country is only 8 generations old.  We're still pretty young. As such, we should never forget the importance of the 4th. It was a significant moment, a bold step of our past that will continually shape our future.  We are still the land of the free, and the home of the brave.

But July 4th isn't just a day of independence -- it is also a day of declared dependence too.   

• We need each other.
• We need family. 
• We need connections.
• We need a sense of belonging.
• We need God and country.

Let today be a day of declared dependence.  Let's come together connected by our common values: 

• Diversity
• Duty
• Encouragement
• Honesty
• Life / Liberty
• Pursuit of Happiness
• Trust

These values  bring us together. They unite us and shape our vision. 

Diversity

It's often a misunderstood word today. But "diversity" is something that has always been us. It's why the USA is called...

Let's face it.  Life comes at has hard.  How we handle those challenges reflects our character.  None of us are perfect though.  They are times in our life where we feel the  pressure.  We struggle. It's inevitable.

The good news is that there's a way around it.  There are some tricks of the trade that we can leverage to overcome the emotional hit -- at least minimize it.  I call it Emotional Retelligence.  It's about retelling - essentially hacking -- your emotional state realtime.  It's powerful! Here it is in a nutshell. 

#1 - Acknowledge the Emotion.   Admit what you're feeling.  Don't deny it.  Let's say you are planning a big event, and that sense of overwhelm just hits you hard.  In that moment, admit to yourself what you are feeling. It might be something like,

• "man, I'm feeling little anxious about this"
• "no lie, I'm worried about this won't go well"
• "I have no idea how I'm ever going...

I am super excited to re-share a guest blog from my best friend in the world -- my wife Barbara, who published her first book this past year.  I know you'll enjoy this piece as much as I did.  It's especially appropriate for this time of year as you set plans for 2021.

A few years ago I traded my mile-long list of resolutions for one word. And from that one word, I created goals aligned with it. The key was that "word" had to inspire me and make me come alive by just thinking about it.

I went from feeling guilty for not keeping my resolutions to following through my goals while encouraging myself, even when I occasionally got off track.

I found by sharing and putting it 'out there', it created intention and almost instant movement. I lived into the feeling of it. I put it on my vision board, phone, mirror and in my car. I also found a local artist/potter that put my word on a coffee cup. (see pic below =)

Personalized mugs made by Amy Kovats...