Podcasts about shift creating better tomorrows winning

Make no mistake. There's a lot you can't control about your retirement. The economy. The markets. That neighbor. But there is something you can control that will make a big difference in your quality of life. Your mindset. Michael O'Brien shares his compelling story and how he learned how to prevent bad moments from turning into bad days. Michael O'Brien joins us from the Garden State of New Jersey. _______________________ Bio Michael O'Brien is President and Founder of Peloton Coaching and Consulting. As a certified executive coach, he has advised, motivated, and inspired Fortune 500 executives, entrepreneurs, and other difference-makers at organizations like Brother International and Johnson and Johnson. He also serves as a mentor and volunteer with organizations that promote professional growth, such as the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association and James Madison University's College of Business. Before starting Peloton Coaching and Consulting, he was a healthcare sales and marketing executive and received his marketing degree from James Madison University. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and two daughters. Michael is the author of two books, his inspiring memoir: Shift: Creating Better Tomorrows: Winning at Work and in Life and the companion work, My Last Bad Day Shift: How to Prevent Bad Moments from Turning into Bad Days: a practical and powerful guide to lead a life free of bad days. ________________________ For More on Michael O'Brien Shift: Creating Better Tomorrows: Winning at Work and in Life My Last Bad Day Shift: How to Prevent Bad Moments from Turning into Bad Days Website ________________________ Podcast Episodes You May Like Self-Compassion – Dr. Kristin Neff The Mindful Body – Ellen Langer Living Like You Mean It – Jodi Wellman Taking Stock – Dr. Jordan Grumet _______________________ Wise Quotes On His Last Bad Day "But as I went through my recovery, I tried to put up this good front, like, Okay, we're going to make it. But I wasn't believing any of my hype. A mentor came to me and said, Hey, listen, everything in your life is neutral until you label it. You get to look at this any way you want to. And so then I started to realize, Okay, well, we're all living moments. Every day is filled with a whole bunch of moments. And if I have people in my life who I love and love me back, then I can't call a full day a bad one. That's why I came back to call my, that accident day, my last bad day. I've had definitely bad moments since then, but I still have a lot of love in my life. So I can't call a full day a bad one. But I also knew this, that I had to find a way to ground myself because my recovery felt so overwhelming. I had to figure out, much like in sports, how to slow the game down. Everything was just coming at me, much like life today. And I just knew I had to slow things down a bit to create some space so I could be thoughtful and intentional about how I wanted to go forward." On Who You Surround Yourself With "I think it's very important to surround yourself with people who bring out the best in you. And I think this is a big thing because for a lot of us men, especially as we think about retirement, a lot of our relationships are work relationships that we think those guys are our friends, but they're really our colleagues. And some of them are friends, and they'll stay friends for a while. And I think it's very important to surround yourself with people who bring out the best in you. But it's a minority of the relationships we have, maybe on one hand or both hands. So as we go into this next phase of our lives, into retirement, men or women, it's good to have people around you who can bring out the best in you, to help maybe clarify things when you get stuck or challenge you so you can be the best you can be - or to be there in celebration or to be there for a crisis or some type of comfort.

If you’re anything like me, you’re going to hear a lot of yourself in Michael O'Brien's story. I was taught to value the grind of hard work, and it took huge life events for each of us - which we talk about during our conversation - to shake things up in our lives for the better.    Not only does he share an inspiring story - which he gets in to detail about in our conversation and even more so in his book "Shift: Creating Better Tomorrows: Winning at Work and in Life” - but he shares some practical tools that each of us can implement right now to make our lives better.    We talk about the mindset shifts that he had to make to re-design his life, and how you can use these same tools in your life to change your identity and create the life you're meant for.     I’ll link to his book in the show notes at https://www.dinacataldo.com/56 - All proceeds go to World Bicycle Relief mobilizing people through the power of bicycles. They help people all over the globe bridge the distance in rural areas to get to more educational, economic and healthcare opportunities.    Michael and I would both love it if you could tag us on instagram in your stories - maybe take a pic of you listening to the podcast. You can tag us @michaelobrienshift and @dina.cataldo  

Michael O’Brien is a Sales and Marketing Executive Coach, Resilience Builder, Motivational Speaker, and the bestselling author of Shift: Creating Better Tomorrows: Winning at Work and in Life. Marc and Michael share their common experience of near-fatal bike accidents and Michael talks about his life and career since his accident.   Key Takeaways: [1:24] Marc welcomes you to Episode 102 of the Repurpose Your Career podcast. [1:38] If you’re enjoying this podcast, Marc invites you to share this podcast with like-minded souls. Please subscribe on CareerPivot.com, iTunes, Google Play and the Google Podcasts app, Podbean, Overcast app, TuneIn, Spotify app, or Stitcher. Share it on social media, or tell your neighbors and colleagues so Marc can help more people. [2:01] Marc is launching the 2018 Repurpose Your Career Podcast Survey. To improve the show, Marc would like to know more about you — how you listen to the show; if you read the show notes; what kinds of episodes are your favorite; and so forth. [2:22] Marc asks if you would kindly go to CareerPivot.com/podcast-survey (where you will be redirected to SurveyMonkey) to take the survey. Marc will publish the results in a couple of months. Marc thanks you in advance for doing this for the podcast. [2:48] Next week, Marc will likely have a Q&A episode but he may decide to do something different. Listen in to hear! [2:58] This week, Marc interviews Michael O’Brien, who, like Marc, suffered from a near-fatal bicycle accident. Hear how this changed his life. Michael is the author of Shift: Creating Better Tomorrows: Winning at Work and in Life. [3:21] Marc and Michael have discussed how similar their accidents were, and how the paths they have taken are very parallel. [3:33] Marc welcomes Michael to the Repurpose Your Career podcast. Marc and Michael met two or three years ago. It has been 6,298 days since Michael’s last bad day. [4:32] Michael tells how the first of his life involved school, family, and the corporate ladder. He felt sales was his calling, since his paper route. He started selling copiers on commission but wanted to be in pharmaceutical sales. When he finally got into pharmaceutical sales, it was a 22-year long career. [6:37] Eventually Michael came to his first downsizing, which was unexpected. It taught him to diversify his resume. At his next job, he had the opportunity to get into sales management but he went into pharmaceutical marketing management, instead, in New Jersey, where he and his family have stayed. [7:33] Now, Michael helps leaders avoid getting hit by their SUV. He does that as an author and through speaking, but mainly as an executive coach. Michael loves helping leaders and shaping corporate culture. He has been doing so full-time since 2014. [8:28] Michael tries to help people put their last bad day behind them and create better tomorrows. He tries to help people live a life that is purposeful, so they can be ‘the wealthiest person they know.’” Michael means by that, the wealth that comes from within, not just the wealth of ‘money and stuff,’ but happiness, joy, and fulfillment. [9:02] Michael has a story about his own last bad day. He had brought his bike to a sales and marketing summit in New Mexico. Michael describes the experience of cycling and being hit head-on by a white SUV. The EMTs were scared for his survival. [12:17] All he could do was look up at the sky and will himself not to fall asleep — to ‘stay in control.’ He remembers making a commitment that his life would change if he lived. He remembers every minute of the 19-minute helicopter flight to the hospital. [13:59] Michael’s commitment was to stop chasing happiness. He relates this to something he had read from Zig Ziglar, who had talked about the ‘do, have, be’ way of living that many follow — work hard, buy things, and that will finally lead to happiness. Michael used to tell himself he would be happy when he got to the next thing. [15:14] At each life milestone, Michael was happy for a moment and then found it was fleeting and he went back to chasing happiness. He knew it wasn’t a healthy way of living. He didn’t know the path forward but he knew it was a different path. [16:10] In that moment of clarity on the helicopter, he knew he just wanted to live. Bound and braced, he could only move his eyes. He kept them on his flight nurse. He still has a picture of that flight crew. He sees it every morning with gratitude.[16:41] Michael tells of his surgeries and how many units of blood product he needed. Many of his major bones were broken. His left femur had shattered and lacerated his femoral artery. Only his youth and good shape had kept him alive to get to the hospital. [18:00] Michael spent 72 hours in the ICU, ‘jacked up on a whole bunch of meds.’ He doesn’t remember any of it, but he ‘was babbling like a fool.’ At one point he spent 45 minutes interviewing his wife for a sales rep position on his team and didn’t hire her. He said he had to call her back because he had other candidates to interview. [18:48] Marc’s near-fatal bike accident was a year to the day later than Michael’s, on July 11, 2002. Marc has his own morphine-related trauma center story. He tried to go home and started pulling off his restraints. He had to insist on no more drugs. [19:44] Michael, still loaded on drugs, tried to convince his wife they should buy Amazon stock. It was worth $15.00. She ignored that, and he forgives her since she forgave him for not hiring her. [20:09] When Michael came out of the ICU, a few days later, the doctor talked to him about the accident and the extent of his injuries. The SUV driver had a revoked license and should not have been driving. Michael learned he would have a lifetime of limitations, dependencies, and future surgeries including total knee replacements soon. [20:36] Michael’s quality of life was going to suffer. At that moment, he recalled his commitment that if he lived, his life would be different. It got different, but not in the way that he wanted. Michael became angry, frustrated, bitter, and even revengeful. [20:54] Michael focused at first on the unfairness of the events and facts he had to face. He played up the victim story pretty well and everyone validated it. He was a mess. His wife was left taking care of him in the hospital and their two young daughters. [21:52] When Michael flew home to New Jersey he had another aha moment. He realized he was dissatisfied with the toxic stew he was lying in. During his daily physical therapy one day, he saw some patients were progressing and some were stuck and moping. He knew he wasn’t showing up with the right attitude and mindset to get better. [23:23] At that moment, Michael made another commitment that he was going to show up differently, going forward so he could be the best husband and father and person that he could be. [23:34] He let go of comparing himself to others and showed up with a different lens — one of abundance instead of scarcity. He didn’t use that vocabulary, but he had that attitude. He decided to find some level of gratitude in his situation. Viktor Frankl said it’s not the events in our life that define us, but it’s our response to them (paraphrased). [24:51] Michael determined to be known by his response to the accident, and not be known by what happened. Michael got busy that day trying to make his recovery something he was known for. [25:07] Marc says so many of us get defined by what happens to us. We also like to compare ourselves to other people and those comparisons just aren’t fair to ourselves. Marc is a fan of ProBlogger’s Darren Rowse, who says to new bloggers, don’t compare yourself to someone who’s been doing this for 10 years. You’re brand new. [26:05] The next day, Michael had a real test. He had an orthopedic appointment to see if he was ready to start learning to walk. The doctor told him he needed more time in the wheelchair; more time in the hospital. His new attitude didn’t give him new strength, but it gave him determination not to go back to his victim way of thinking. [27:27] Eventually, day by day, or pedal stroke by pedal stroke, Michael kept working on his self-narrative, losing the victim story, and becoming resilient. Day by day, Michael was getting better. He decided he was never going to have another bad day. With his wife and his daughters in his life, there was no way he could have another bad day. [28:21] Michael focused in on the things he could still do and the things he still had. He strung a few days of improvement together and then a few weeks and eventually, he got out of that wheelchair and out of the hospital. He still had about 10 surgeries ahead of him, setbacks, and hospital stays before he could get back on the bike as he wished. [29:20] Someone told Michael, “Hey, listen! Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle.” Michael was at the beginning of a journey to get better and healthier. From the time of the accident to the start of his rehabilitation took three to four months. [30:12] Michael’s wife and daughters had been coming to visit him at the hospital twice a day, 45 minutes each way. He was exhausted after a 15-minute visit, but he was anxious to get back home. He wanted life to be normal again. Nothing about being in the hospital was normal. [31:25] Michael credits his employer with being really kind and very patient, to a degree that is rare. They worked out a system where Michael could go back to work part-time at first, through the rest of the year, working half a day and doing rehabilitation half a day. In January 2002, they gave him a pivot to run operations and get out of traveling. [33:53] Michael was reluctant to give up his head of marketing position but he took the job and it turned out to be the best shift in his corporate career. He is so grateful they gave him the pivot opportunity. [35:10] That pivot eventually landed Michael in executive leadership. All the time he was in recovery, he knew he was eventually going to go into executive coaching. This concept first came from David, a recent hire of Michael’s before the accident. David was the first executive coach Michael had met — before he even knew what that meant. [36:07] When Michael got into executive leadership, he stayed in that role for six years, from 2008 to 2014. He had a team of close to 1,000 reps, with a P&L of around $4 billion. That was beyond any expectations he had ever had. In 2014 he got the last ‘puzzle piece.’ There was another realignment in the company [36:38] The president of the company, Michael’s friend of 18 years, got pushed out and a new president came in. Michael knew right away they were not a good match. This was the puzzle piece that helped Michael make his last pivot. Michael told his boss in May, he would stay for the summer and September 1, he would start his own business. [37:30] People questioned why he was making the decision. Michael told them he’d been working on the decision for 13 years and this corporate change made it clear that it was time for him to move forward. [38:00] Marc notes how this pattern is very similar to the career paths of a lot of people he has interviewed. They start in a role that is not their favorite, an event tells them they need to do something different, they do nothing, then, a second event gives them the kick to go do what they want to do. [38:27] Marc invites you to listen to Episode 7 with Mike O’Krent, or Episode 3 with Dr. Joel Dobbs for similar path career pivoters. We know what we’re supposed to do but usually, it takes some outside interference to get us to do what we want to do. [38:49] If someone’s life has been touched, and they are inspired by Michael’s book or work, or a keynote, to lead a purposeful life, that’s the type of work Michael really loves to do. [41:39] Marc shares his own bicycle accident details with Michael. Marc’s Toyota Corolla experience didn’t cause nearly as much damage as Michael’s Ford SUV experience. Michael regrets that he didn’t want to hear how lucky he was in the accident situation, with EMTs coming immediately. He knows it now. [44:35] All the proceeds from Michael’s book Shift: Creating Better Tomorrows go to the charity World Bicycle Relief, giving mobility to girls in poor countries. Bicycles change the world for someone. You can reach out to Michael at MichaelOBrienShift.com. [45:49] Marc hopes you enjoyed this episode. He got choked up when editing this episode. Marc hopes you will be inspired by Michael’s story. [47:06] Marc is soliciting members for the next cohort of the CareerPivot.com Online Community. For information, please go to CareerPivot.com/Community. [47:48] Check back next week when Marc will likely be doing a Q&A session with listener’s questions.

For Michael O’Brien, July 11th, 2001 was his last bad day. It was on that fateful day that he had a head-on bicycle collision with an SUV in middle of nowhere out in New Mexico. Michael is an executive coach, professional speaker, and author of the book Shift - Creating Better Tomorrows: Winning at Work […]

For Michael O’Brien, July 11th, 2001 was his last bad day. It was on that fateful day that he had a head-on bicycle collision with an SUV in middle of nowhere out in New Mexico. Michael is an executive coach, professional speaker, and author of the book Shift – Creating Better Tomorrows: Winning at Work and in Life. He says reaching this level of success was borne out of his lowest time. After his life-changing accident, Michael realized that in order create a better tomorrow for himself, he has to shift his mind from feeling sorry for himself and seeing only his limitations to focusing on getting his life back together and living in gratitude. Michael shares his inspiring story and the lessons he learned along the way. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!Here’s How »Join Expect Miracles community today:drkevinpecca.comMontclair Upper Cervical Chiropractic FacebookDr. Kevin Pecca InstagramEmail Dr. Kevin Pecca

Bob McIntosh is a career trainer who leads more than 15 job search workshops at an urban career center. He also critiques LinkedIn profiles and conducts mock interviews. Bob started the first LinkedIn program at MassHire Lowell Career Center and created workshops to support the program. Jobseekers from across the state attend his LinkedIn workshops. Bob has gained the reputation as an authority on LinkedIn. Marc has known of Bob for many years, but they had never met. Marc heard Bob on an episode of Mark Anthony Dyson’s The Voice of Jobseekers Podcast and knew he had to have Bob on as a guest.   Key Takeaways: [1:22] Marc welcomes you to Episode 101 of the Repurpose Your Career podcast. [1:34] If you’re enjoying this podcast, Marc invites you to share this podcast with like-minded souls. Please subscribe on CareerPivot.com, iTunes, Google Play and the Google Podcasts app, Podbean, Overcast, TuneIn, Spotify, or Stitcher. Share it on social media, or tell your neighbors and colleagues so Marc can help more people. [1:55] Next week, Marc will interview Michael O’Brien, who, like Marc, suffered from a near-fatal bicycle accident. Hear how this changed his life. Michael is the author of Shift: Creating Better Tomorrows: Winning at Work and in Life. [2:14] This week, Marc interviews Bob McIntosh. Marc starts with Bob’s bio. [3:29] Bob leads workshops at an urban career center and counsels individuals one-on-one. The workshops range from resume writing to LinkedIn to salary negotiations. Bob is more of a job coach than simply a workshop facilitator. [3:57] Bob developed the first LinkedIn workshop at the [then] Career Center of Lowell and since then, he has been updating workshops to meet the needs better of their clients. He finds great pleasure out of helping people find work. [4:16] The average client age at the career center is about 55. What older workers need to realize is that between 87% and 94% of recruiters use LinkedIn to find talent. Employers want to know that candidates are tech savvy and use platforms like LinkedIn. Finally, LinkedIn is a great platform for landing a job through professional networking. [5:29] To use LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook effectively says you are up-to-date. If you don’t use them, you are invisible. Bob has read that 40% of employers will disqualify you just for not being on LinkedIn. [6:00] Bob says there are three components to a successful LinkedIn campaign, profile, networking with the right people, and being engaged on LinkedIn. [6:27] It’s very important that LinkedIn users have a full profile with all of its sections completed. Bob lists the parts. It must include keywords relating to their occupation and areas of expertise that will make the profile searchable. Bob explains how to use them. [7:24] Bob sees the profile as more of a personal resume than the resume itself. Bob says your resume can be in the first-person or third-person point of view. It’s a networking document, like sitting down and talking with an employer. [7:57] Bob considers the uses of first-person vs. third-person point of view resumes. Most people use the first-person point of view. [8:58] Try to have a tone on your profile that speaks personally, in first-person POV. [9:04] Structure your LinkedIn networking with the right people. First, the people you work (or worked) with — supervisor and colleagues. Second, people who do the same type of work you do. Third, people in the same industry, with something in common with you. Then add people who do your kind of work in different industries. [9:42] Try to connect with recruiters, in the same industry in which you are looking. Networking is a two-way street. [10:18] For younger folks, focus on alumni and professors. LinkedIn’s See Alumni feature lets you see people who went to your alma mater. [10:53] Bob recommends 500+ connections. 10K is not too many. The more connections you have, the more opportunities you’re going to have in terms of people reaching out to you and finding you. [11:17] Once you have connected with people, every once in a while, ping them and let them know that you’re there. [11:32] Marc suggests going through your connections once a week, picking two or three that you haven’t heard from in a while, and send them a “checking in” email. A significant number will respond. [12:08] Bob suggests considering removing from your network people who don’t respond. It’s about communication.[12:26] For your headshot: In 2003 it needed to be really professional. Things have gotten a little more informal. Aim for a headshot that reflects the sort of work you do. A banker would stay with a suit and tie. A job coach might wear a nice button shirt with a little bit “going on” in the background. No selfies. [13:49] The background image needs to brand you. Does it reflect the kind of work that you do? [14:14] Without a headshot your site is much less likely to be visited or seen. Know what message you are sending with your headshot and background image. Marc shares a couple of case studies from his jobs club. Your background image needs to explain who you are, what you do, and what you are trying to accomplish. [17:43] Take that message into your summary and your experience section. What you are doing is showing value and branding yourself. [17:54] Marc talks about the case of an obscure profession. He recommends finding people with their same degree and same graduating eras, and look at what they are doing. [19:10] To find recruiters, type in the search area: recruiter, your industry, your location. That will give you a list of local recruiters in your industry. Vet them by their profiles. What is more difficult is to grab their attention. The invite you send them should show what your value is in your industry.[20:53] Be nice to recruiters. Marc refers to the episode with Gary O’Neal. Gary is a recruiter for Austin HR (Now Asure Software). Recruiters are busy and may not always have time to respond back but you want to be a polite persistent pest with them. [21:47] What job seekers need to understand is that recruiters are working for the clients which would be the companies. Endear yourself to them. The right type of recruiter can be of great help. [22:08] Marc recommends sending a recruiter that has been very helpful to you a $5.00 Starbucks card, even if you didn’t get the job. Marc gives a client example. [23:24] Engagement may be the most important step. It keeps you on your network’s radar. Bob gives some examples of how to engage. Don’t just ‘like’ what people share. Leave pertinent comments. Start conversations and keep them going. [24:52] Marc gets a lot of spam comments on his website and he always hits the spam button. People who are just trying to get SEO off a post are not worth the connection. When people send Marc a blank LinkedIn invite, he accepts it and immediately sends back I accepted your connection. How did you find me? [26:06] Marc gets 30 to 50 connection requests a week. He responds to them, 10 at a time. Bob’s thought is if you’re not even putting in the effort to send a personalized invite, why should we connect? [26:56] Marc doesn’t connect from the mobile app because it is too easy to send a generic invite to “people you may know.” You can send a personalized invite, but it is easy to forget. Bob just did that yesterday, in error. [28:01] Marc talks about folks in the CareerPivot online community doing remote job searches. He recommends them to curate material, share it, and tag specific individuals saying “You might be interested in this.” Share articles of value to your connections and be helpful. [28:48] Bob notes that Mark Anthony Dyson is a great curator of information that he shares with his connections. [29:05] Marc has four or five places where he looks for material. One of these is NextAvenue.org. There are many things there that are useful to his audience. [29:47] Bob’s final advice: If you want to be on LinkedIn and you want to use it in your job search, then it’s going to take work. It’s not just simply setting up a profile, connecting with people, and then simply being active on LinkedIn. It’s going to entail all of what was talked about in this episode. [30:35] Bob re-emphasizes, LinkedIn takes work. Put in the time to use LinkedIn successfully. [31:06] Marc’s number one problem with his clients is getting them to put themselves out there. They want to write their LinkedIn profile and put it on auto-pilot. However, they must compete with people all over the world for jobs. Show what makes you different. This is especially important if you are a little older. [31:41] It’s not bragging. Don’t promote yourself obnoxiously. Be factual. Be proud of what you’ve done but don’t brag. On the other hand, don’t just remain silent. You have to make a bold statement because you want people to go on and read the rest. [32:53] Marc thanks Bob for being on the Repurpose Your Career podcast. People can get in touch with Bob at LinkedIn.com/in/BobMcIntosh. If you send an invite to Bob, please personalize it! When people don’t personalize an invite to Bob, it’s a very easy decision — it’s click “Ignore.” [34:08] Marc hopes you enjoyed this episode, especially about activity vs. engagement. This takes work but it will pay off in spades in the future. You just need to work at it. [35:39] Check back next week when Marc will interview Michael O’Brien, author of Shift: Creating Better Tomorrows: Winning at Work and in Life.

On July 11th, 2001 Michael O'Brien was in New Mexico on a business trip. Michael considers this day his "last bad day."  As an avid cyclist, Michael brought his travel bike with him to exercise in lieu of using the hotel gym.  Michael remembers the hotel being in the middle of nowhere, but he scoped out a riding loop on a nearby service road that he could do some laps on before meetings began for the day.  After completing a few laps, Michael was struck head-on by a white Ford Explorer.  The individual who hit him worked at the hotel and had a revoked driver's license for a DUI.  Michael's injuries included a broken right shoulder, broken right femur and right tibia, a shattered left femur, which left bones popping out of his skin and lacerated the femoral artery.  The latter on the list of injuries made the situation life and death for Michael.  Pictures from the accident scene are below. Michael was wearing a helmet on that ride and he still has the helmet to this day.  Now the helmet serves as a reminder for why it is important to wear a helmet, because Michael believes it saved his life.  During this part of our conversation we got on a riding safety tangent where Michael talked about how it is important for Moms and Dads to set the example for their kids by also wearing helmets when they ride.  In general, most people are distracted in life these days, so do all you can to be visible.  This could mean wearing bright clothing, attaching lights to your bike and riding smart and defensively.  Michael urges bicyclists to model the way on the streets because sometimes they are part of the problem.  Although Micheal felt that he did everything right that day in terms of riding safely, he stressed the importance of riders having Road ID's, which he didn't have on the day of his accident. Road ID's are engraved bracelets where you list your identity information along with emergency contact information.  Because Michael didn't have a Road ID, he was known as "Trauma Patient Mango" after being airlifted from the scene of the accident. When Michael arrived at the hospital, doctors were unsure if he was going to survive, and if he did, they could't guarantee he'd be able to keep his leg.  The lacerated femoral artery caused his left leg to lack sufficient blood flow, but was told later that being in shape saved his life.   Back at home, Michael had a 3.5-year-old daughter and a 7-month-old daughter. When Michael's wife got word on the extent of his injuries she flew out to Albuquerque and actually beat him out of his first surgery, which took 12 hours. The prognosis after his surgery was that he was going to have a life of compromise and dependency.  Doctors doubted that Michael could play sports again or ever get back on a bike.  Like any athlete who received this type of news,  Michael remembers ending up in a dark place with is thoughts and attitudes, because he only focused on his limitations up to that point. Michael talks about a mantra he ultimately adopted throughout his recovery process, which is "we go where our eyes go." When the doctors planted the seed of what they thought his future would look like,  Michael could only see his limitations and was blind to his opportunities.  Check out his TEDx talk on this topic below: "I forgave them not because they deserved forgiveness, but because I did" While in the dark place, Michael felt revengeful towards the man in the white SUV, who injured him. Although it took time, Michael was eventually able to give the situation perspective after he learned that the driver was hurting in his own way as well.  Forgiveness took awhile, but came after going on a trip with his family to Europe. Michael and his family visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.  While on a guided tour led by a woman who was a holocaust survivor, someone from the tour group asked her if she still hated the Nazi's.  The guide replied no, "I forgave them not because they deserved forgiveness, but because I did."  If she continued to hold on to all of that hate, she wouldn't be able to live the life she wanted to live. Michael then used the analogy of the negative feelings or emotions as the added weight you carry around in your backpack.  This made me think of episode 54 with Bill Anthes.    The next topic of discussion during our conversation was about Michael's rehab process.  Michael's injury occurred in July and in August he took an air ambulance back home to NJ to do his in-patient occupational and physical therapy at Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation. At one point during his time at Kessler, Michael remembers panning the room, and taking note of his fellow patients and how they carried themselves. Michael realized that their attitudes made a big difference in their recovery outcome.  In that moment, he made the decision to start showing up better and putting in more effort.  Like we preach constantly on this podcast, Michael realized that he can be defined as a victim or by how he responded to the setback.  Fortunately, he also had a great physical therapist named Laura Fucci to help put his ass in gear. While working with Laura, one of Michael's goals was to get back on his bicycle.  After his last PT session going into one particular weekend, Laura told Michael that if he didn't ride his bike, he wasn't allowed to come back in to see her, because he was getting too cool with the comfort zone he was in.  I personally know Laura and I agree with Michael's description of her in that she has the perfect balance of cheerleader, button pusher and challenger.  Every athlete deserves to have an individual like this in their recovery's.  If you currently don't have that support, find it!  That weekend Michael did get back on his bike by starting with a few laps in an industrial park.  The first time he got out on the road, the first car that passed him was a big white SUV.  Although scary at the time, Michael thinks this was a pretty cool message from the universe.   Michael hasn't had a bad day since his accident because the injury and recovery gave him perspective.  He now has an attitude of abundance where he places focus on all the positive things he has going for him, rather than the things he lacks.  One of the many positives that came from Michael's accident was the idea for his company called Peloton Coaching & Consulting.  In order to move as fast as possible, a peloton needs leadership, trust, communication and teamwork. Some of the same qualities that today's business leaders and teams need to drive better results tomorrow.   We finished the episode with a discussion about the recent Toms Skujins crash in the Tour of California.  The crash occurred a day before we recorded.  Michael describes the crash and talks about some of the safety challenges that exist in the sport.  The biggest obstacle being that the playing field stretches for miles.  Check out the video below to form your own opinion on the management of the concussion.  I find the video pretty disturbing to watch.  Michael and I talked about the possibility of having the neutral support trained to pull riders for potential brain injuries.  Please comment with your thoughts on the crash.  Michael also goes into the culture of toughness in the sport and the finish at all costs mentality that exists. Lastly, we have another supporter for toughness being the long-game mentality.  It doesn't matter how "tough" you are if you can't play tomorrow. WHERE CAN YOU learn more about peloton coaching and consulting? WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | youtube | Speaking If you want to receive Michael’s Leadership Tips to help you become your best text SHIFTTIP to 44222.  Plus, you will get VIP access to Michael’s upcoming book release. WHERE CAN YOU FIND Michael o'brien? INSTAGRAM | Linkedin | Twitter Where can you get your copy of shift? Shift: Creating Better Tomorrows: Winning at Work and in Life By Michael O'Brien Download Episode 78 : iTunes | Stitcher | SoundCloud Permalink