Listen now | How feeling sorry for yourself takes us away from living our lives fully, with a poem from DH Lawrence

Hello and good morning. Happy Thursday friends! Coach Kate here with another episode of Minute Explorations. I have this space daily to dive into an idea, a concept, almost always a quote or a quick passage and together we explore the possibilities of words and how they impact us so we can grow. If that sounds like a space you'd like to be a part of, give me a follow so we can explore these things together. 

Today's exploration is on Self Pity and feeling sorry for ourselves. So often in life things can hit us in big ways-- from hardships to change, to loss to grief, to also never having that feeling of getting a win. Oftentimes when we are hit with all of these, some of these, or sometimes just one challenge -- it's enough to derail our thinking, invert in towards ourselves and shut down in the form of self-pity. Self Pity is an interesting emotion because it takes that outward sense of value we want for ourselves, and forces it inside, where we protect, nurture, and heal it. The truth is, we are valuable just by existing. Being alive is our superpower in this world-- and when we self pity, we rob ourselves of our own light and life force. 

Self Pity then can often be an indulgent life experience where we don't take responsibility for ourselves and our future. It leans on the idea that we are not a part of this life, that life instead happens to us. Much of this life is what we put into it,and there are so many things we cannot control that are unfair, that do hurt, and that do need time to heal and process. Feeling sorry for ourselves is a way to indulge in the negativities that surround us, instead of taking action to love ourselves instead. There are ways we can take hardships on empathetically without adopting this idea of self pity. Self Pity is just a way for you to validate the pain and hurt you feel, which is a necessary step towards healing-- so once you validate it, how do you grow from it?  Today's quote is from none other than the exquisite English Poet and Author, DH Lawrence. D.H. Lawrence was well known and even infamous in some circles for talking about isolation, hurt, love, unconventional people and relationships and he really pushed the boundaries of written text at the time-- and that carries over even into today. He spent much of his life actually in something he called "savage isolation" writing all around the world, immersing himself in cultures and people, and much of his work mirrors this lifelong longing to connect and see the world and people for who they are. His sidestepping of the provincial life he had for what was waiting for him instead out in the world is a great reminder that we can choose ourselves on this great journey of life too. Here is his Poem Titled " Self Pity" that can be found in the book The Complete Poems of D.H.Lawrence: 

“I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.”

― D.H. Lawrence

The idea of a wild thing, thriving, and pushing striving towards it's life is a great visual in what it means to be alive. A wild thing has no choice but to press on and its goal is to live. As simple as it sounds, when we ask ourselves what we're doing to live, really live, we leave no room for self pity. When we indulge in the feeling of self-pity we rob ourselves in putting action in place instead. Our thoughts are not facts, our feelings are not facts, us being alive is a fact. Sometimes just acknowledging our feelings as visitors or messengers, is a great way to also acknowledge that these feelings aren't here to stay, feelings are here to tell us something about ourselves, then pass. Sometimes the hardship is the gift, when we learn to confront hardships with curiosity and lean into a growth mindset from them, we can actually be better off because of the how much we can grow through adversity. Self pity robs us of the growth, and instead indulges in the stagnation of hurt. When we look at what is driving us towards self pity and acknowledge it as a temporary obstacle that helps us grow, we then assign action to the feeling instead of embracing it like a part of ourselves that will never go away. 

Next time you start to get that familiar self-pity feeling creeping in, I want you to envision yourself as a beautiful, wild, thriving version of you, and know that version has no room for feeling sorry for itself because it's so busy living for itself instead. 

I'm Coach Kate. Thanks for listening today. If you liked what you heard and want to follow along our daily minute Explorations in the mornings here, give me a follow. Tomorrow I'll be back for a longer version of our show where I open it up to you on to chime in with explorations of your own. 

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebomb.substack.com

Listen now | Finding internal validation with a quote from Confucius on why it matters most

Hello and happy Mid-Week my friends. Coach Kate here with another episode of Minute Explorations. This daily morning space is for exploring ideas, quotes and more together to help get your day started. If that sounds like something you'd love-- feel free to follow me and join in on these explorations together with me. 

Today we are going to talk about validation-- not the external kind that comes from others, but that kind that comes from within that we can rely on for ourselves. So much of validation is centered around others and their thoughts, perceptions, and even ideas of us-- and you know what? We can't control ANY of that-- so if we rely on only others for validation, we'll feel an endless loop of powerlessness too. Today's Quote is from Confucius-- also known as Kong Chi -- or Master Kong, who was a Chinese philosopher and advocate for knowledge and education in ancient China. One of the cornerstones of Confucius's teachings was the ideas around study and self-education. He was well known throughout China through the 550-400's BCE for his writings, and philosophies around life and family too. Here is his quote on validation:

“What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is in others.”― Confucius

What Confucius reveals to us, is that our biggest and greatest potential comes not from others, but that internal self-work. It can feel sooo easy-- too easy-- to put the work (and the reward) of feeling and being validated on others. So how do you validate yourself?

To create a system of self-validation, you must first know what things make you proud. So do a proud invetory-- what do you admire and respect in others? And then internalize it: what do you admire and respect about yourself. The answers, at least the meaningful ones, are always goign to be found from within, and the finest work you can do, is always going to be the work you can do for yourself. If you're having trouble finding what you admire and respect in yourself, that's just a clue that you need to tap into some of those big questions to find what things you can start doing for you, to build up those answers over time. 

Self-work isn't the easiest work, oftentimes it's takes a lifetime to know, understand, and even love ourselves-- but it is the most important relationship you'll ever carry, so carry it well and with love.

I'm Coach Kate. Thank you for listening today. If you liked what you heard and want to follow along our morning explorations, give me a follow. I host this space every weekday morning and dive into all sorts of ideas and thoughts with you all. 

Thanks again for listening, and I hope you all enjoy the journey within today. 

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebomb.substack.com

Listen now | How being open to change can help us flow into paths meant for us, with a famous Quote from Bruce Lee

Hello Hello Happy Tuesday listeners! Welcome to another episode of Minute Explorations. Today we are going to be diving into the idea of Adaptability and being open to changing directions. And this came about because I had a whole talk I was writing up for today and I couldn't stop writing down my ideas for it, and it kept on getting longer and longer and more in depth, and I felt super passionate about it, and engaged aaaaaand it definitely wasn't a Minute Exploration at all, so I decided to put that talk on our Friday agenda for our longer show where I open it up for a larger discussion with you all. It's gonna be a good one, so stay tuned for Friday.

So that leads me into today! Today's Minute Exploration is on Adaptability because this morning we did just that. Sometimes changing directions is important. And a lot of times it wasn't what we planned or intended, but it was exactly what we needed at the time. And to help illustrate the fact even further, and in honor of Asian American Heritage month, I found a wonderful quote from Bruce Lee, who was one of the most famous and respected martial artists out there. Bruce Lee is still widely respected for his dedication to his work and endless training and was taken from us all too soon. Here is the most famous quote he is attributed to, and his memori written after his passing by his wife, Shannon Lee, bears the title of his message here too: Be Water, My friend, here is the quote: 

"Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

- Bruce Lee

When we allow ourselves to be adaptable to the world around us, we allow ourselves to take part in that experience and fill that experience with ourselves too. We become one with the flow of the universe. Sometimes the way we survive, is being open to being adaptable to what the world is telling us. If we are rigid, or unchanging, the world around us wears us down like water does because the world knows that the only constant thing is change.

To today, this wonderful Tuesday ask yourself:

What ways can you lean into change?

How can you flow through the day ahead and accept what is rather than fight, what isn’t? 

I'm Coach Kate. Thank you for listening to today's adaptation of Minute Explorations. If you liked what you heard today, give me a follow as we explore new explorations weekdays together. If you liked today's quote, here’s Bruce Lee saying this exact quote in an interview:

Thanks again. 

Be Water, My Friends

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebomb.substack.com

Hello Hello listeners. Happy Monday! It's a brand new week again and here we are bright and early to kick it all off together! I'm Coach Kate and I host this space weekday mornings where we dive in and explore a quote, a perspective, maybe some motivations or some dive into some gratitude together. If that sounds like a space you want to be a part of, go ahead and give me a follow and we can dive into all these things together weekday mornings. 

This morning I wanted to dive in and talk about the importance of boredom. So much of our daily lives is filled up to the brim of something taking our attention. We rarely allow ourselves to be bored-- merely satiated in content, news, podcasts, and more. So many little things that we don't even remember take up our time and our mental space so that we don't have to sit with the discomfort of being bored. When I was a kid, if I dared to let it slip to my grandma that I was bored, she would tell me that it was only because I was boring. I used to get soooo offended by this statement, and it took years of diving into what it meant to be bored and also discovering the gift of working your way out of it. The truth is, there are endless possibilities for our time, attention, work, and more in this life. When we say to ourselves that we are bored, we automatically limit ourselves because of our mindset-- not because of the lack of possibility. Sometimes we simply aren't being creative enough, or found the right things to ignite us. Nowadays too, we placate these uncomfortable bored feelings with being consumers of media instead of creators of our own lives. It is a gift to sit with the boredom and really try to dive into what ignites us as human beings in a universe full of possibilities. Boredom is merely a displacement of energy, and we can tap into that energy to create something for ourselves that has meaning. 

So there were a lot of wonderful quotes on boredom out there, and it was hard to choose just one, but I finally settled on a great one from none other than the brilliant German philosopher Friedrich Neitzsche. Here it is:

“Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves?”― Friedrich Nietzsche

Nietzsche has so many layers to this simple quote here and I really wanted to dive into this and explore with you all those layers. Boredom is interesting because it is an indicator that time is passing and that there's unused energy. Sometimes we don't want to acknowledge that our time here is finite, and we reason with ourselves that if we distract ourselves with meaningless tasks and activities we could trick time into pausing or not marching forwards as it does. On another perspective of this quote, the world is full of endless things to dive into and discover for ourselves, externally, internally, and even spiritually. The problem is two things: One: we rarely allow ourselves to get bored enough to really figure out how we want to spend our limited time on this little blue rock floating through the universe. and Two: when we are bored we sit with only the emotion of not being satisfied instead of really asking ourselves how we want to spend our time meaningfully. And that is exactly how we get around both sides to this conundrum on boredom. When we ask ourselves how we want to spend our time, we hold ourselves accountable not only in the moment, but we put that accountability in action with this thought. When we sit with that discomfort that is boredom, and allow it to tell us about what we want to do instead, we then open that door for creating meaningful steps ahead. 

Now this isn't about rest, or spending time mindlessly, those are important too. This is about recognizing that uneasy desire to create or do, and being not sure about where to put that energy. This is about recognizing the energy and figuring out where to direct it ahead. When we direct that energy in small, mindless ways, we break it into a million tiny pieces that don't add up to meaningful progress along the way, and we often don't have much to show for it. However, if we acknowledge the feeling: I am bored. We then can also ask ourselves, how do I want to spend my time meaningfully? This is about taking that restless energy and turning it into something magical.

So today, this wonderful start to the week. Next time you feel bored, recognize it as unused energy telling you something about what you want int your life and especially your CAPACITY to do it.

Boredom is just your unused potential energy in the vast magic that is our life in this infinite universe.

If you use it like a tool, or recognize it as a messenger about your unused capabilities--  you'll never be bored again in your life. 

I'm Coach Kate. This has been another episode of Minute Explorations. If you liked what you heard today, give me a follow, and if you want more, feel free to listen to my other talks underneath the talk tab in my profile, or even follow along and subscribe to my daily newsletter linked in my bio. Thanks again for listening and I hope next time you feel that familiar pang of boredom, you seize it as an opportunity to create your life. Thanks again.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebomb.substack.com

Hello and Happy Friday Listeners! Welcome to the Friday Edition of our daily show: Minute Explorations. On Fridays I like to open up this space for a longer show, invite guests in if you'd like, and explore things together! If that sounds like a space you like to be a part of, give me a follow and let's dive in! 

Today we are going to talk about the comfort zone-- that zone where we feel safe and comfortable and cozy and that nothing ever happens because we're just surviving. So the real question is, what if we were THRIVING instead?The comfort zone is usually a place where we feel safe, but it's rarely a place where we feel like we're thriving and proud. Thriving is such an alive word, it feels like you're growing, and full of momentum. You know what doesn't have momentum? The comfort zone. That's because the Comfort Zone is stagnant. Unmoving. Uninteresting. We often exchange so much to stay safe and comfortable. The comfort zone is merely a rest stop, you aren't meant to stay comfortable, you are built to live your life. When we're not growing, we are not alive in the same way. Often people feel something is missing from their lives, or they feel trapped, or even stuck-- and these are all clues that you are just merely existing in this comfort zone, and that it may be time to break out and embrace the unlimited opportunities the world and this life can offer you. 

Today, I wanted to recite a poem from one of my favorite poets: Mary Oliver. She has so many beautiful, haunting, and connected works out there, and this one, on breaking out of the comfort zone and living your life to the fullest really paints a picture of what all is out there and waiting for you while you merely exist where you are. The truth is, we are all dreamers, and we can all make believe in our heads of all the worlds that await for us, so let's be dreamers but  let's also be doers and go live our live to the fullest. Here is and excerpt from Mary Oliver's Poem: Have You Ever Tried to Enter the Long Black Branches

Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?

While the soul, after all, is only a window,

and the opening of the window no more difficult than the wakening from a little sleep

You can listen to this poem in it’s entirety on the podcast version of this newsletter. You can also read this poem and others from her book: West Wind: Poems and Prose Poems available at various books sellers through these (unaffiliated) links:

Barnes and Nobles

Amazon

Flying Pigs Books

This Poem. This poem. I love this poem because it's so connected. Not only to that inner fire within all of us that helps us to dream, but also because it connects us to the wild of the earth and the creatures in it. There is a quiet desperation in life all around us. You can imagine that there is no wild thing out there that is merely existing. The purpose of life is to thrive and push towards every future sunset before us. WE are not built for a comfort zone. No living thing is. There is no life within stagnation.So how do we escape? How do we push towards a life of thriving instead? 

I would love to hear from you all out there listening right now. If there are ways you get yourself out of your own comfort zones, please feel free to come up a share your experience, your thoughts, or even your ideas. We all learn and grow in this space together, and you will have no idea what lives you can impact or change just by sharing your experiences, dreams, and ideas. 

If you are just now tuning in, we are talking about the comfort zone, we had also shared a poem from Mary Oliver, and if you're not subscribed to my newsletter yet linked in my bio, do it because that poem will be available later today through there in case you missed it or want to read it over and over and over again like myself. So the Floor is open, if anyone wants to join in.

Guest: Laura

Guest: Dr. Rao

Guest: Ronald

So what is it going to take to get you to take a step beyond dreaming? To take a step towards believing? And take those next steps towards doing and becoming and realizing that dream for yourself? 

Reiterating Mary Oliver's quote:

Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?

Don't just breathe listeners. Be brave, and live your life. Start that today. There's a lifetime of absolutes out there, the sun will rise, there will be new beginnings, and new wonderful things to embrace along the way. Don't let that comfort zone be your absolute. The world is beckoning you to live, to thrive to make your mark. Let today lead you into the wild potential of your life and your soul.

I'm Coach Kate. Thank you for tuning into today's Friday's Edition of our Exploration series. If you liked what you heard today, feel free to give me and the other contributors a follow. If you'd like a copy of our talk and Mary Oliver's poem in your inbox, be sure to sign up for the newsletter linked in my bio. I look forward to connecting with you all again and exploring new ways to thrive ahead next week. Thanks again.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebomb.substack.com

Good morning good morning and happy Thursday listeners! Coach Kate here with another edition of Minute Explorations today. I host this space weekday mornings where we have the opportunity to dive into some motivations, quotes, inspirations, and more together in just a few minutes. It's a few minutes to start your day, get you thinking, and hopefully leave you inspired for the day to come. 

Today I wanted to dive into this idea around opportunity and seizing the moment. Recently I heard a beautiful quote about how opportunity is not permanent, and so action is the most important thing we can do when opportunity presents itself. Now I tried very hard to find the original author of this quote, but it seems to be more of a unknown origined proverb, and it doesn't even get the designation as proverb as it's often quoted by itself with no known origin. I did find two attributed Authors to this quote, and I'll include them here, but both seem to be published after it was first seen and used. What I am saying is, the original author somehow missed their opportunity to be known and recognized for this saying, which is definitely on brand for a quote of this nature. So here it is:

“Opportunities come to pass, not to pause”

― Peter Hartman / James Wallace / Unknown

What this quote tells us, is that opportunities are momentum. Opportunities are a moment. Opportunities are a visitor. A blessing. A gift-- all with a time constraint attached to it. We are given so many opportunities in our life, some we're ready and prepared for, some we're anticipating, some we are not prepared for at all, and some that greet us completely by surprise. The interesting thing here, is that we could miss any of these, despite our preparedness, forethought, or desire around the opportunity-- if we don't take action. We could be the most prepared, the most put together, and know the opportunity is coming, and still miss it -- all because we let it pass. Also, we could not know it's coming, have nothing prepared, and no idea how the opportunity will play out in our life, and take it by the handlebars and embrace it with action. Opportunity is nothing without action. Preparation brings us closer to the outcome of opportunities, but it doesn't guarantee an outcome-- action does. 

So this wonderful Thursday morning-- ask yourself:

What ways can I take action the next time an opportunity comes up?

Use this as a guide to identify opportunities as they arise, and create that life of yours with action and intention. 

I'm Coach Kate. Thank you for listening today. If you liked what you heard, give me a follow. I host this space weekday mornings where I share quick quotes, ideas, motivations, and big thoughts too and I would love to have you be a part of it all. Tomorrow is the conversational part of this show-- where I open a conversation up to you all, and you can jump in and talk about it too. We can dive into a new subject together, or even go through any of my past talks-- so if you didn't get the chance to jump into one of my quick morning explorations, and want to talk about it on Fridays, that's where I'll host that interactive space for all of us to explore things together. 

Thanks for listening today and see you all again tomorrow. 

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebomb.substack.com

Hello Listeners, and Happy Wednesday! Coach Kate here for another day of our Minute Explorations! This is a space I host week day mornings to go over explorations, motivations, places of gratitude, wise words and even some science behind it all. If that sounds like a space you'd also like to join, feel free to follow me so we can explore these morning revelations together. 

Today, for our mid week check in, I thought I'd touch on the concept of Not Yet. I asked myself this morning if it was Friday, and instead of say No, I said, no not yet. So I started thinking of how that can also apply in this space and how gorgeous the mind-shift around just adding a Yet at the end of that statement is. The statement of "No." is harsh, short lived, and discontinues the story entirely. YET when we add that not yet, it inspires hope and gives us a pause to consider what the future possibility of that could encompass instead. Now this can apply to a lot of areas in our lives. The phrase no, is an ending. The phrase, not yet, can be a beginning. When we allow ourselves to sit with a "no" and not a "not yet" we also allow ourselves to fail. Sometimes not failing something is as simple as going, okay, this pathway didn't work, I wonder what will work.

Now there are so many quotes out there on failures, and even more on beginning again. Because it's a common thing with success to push through multiple attempts to understand the why something wasn't working and what we can do instead. Today I chose a quote from Henry Ford to share with you all. Henry Ford was the inventor of the automobile and he was set with so much criticism and roadblocks along the way. Sometimes the not yet, is just a reimagining of the future instead, and Henry Ford did just that with transportation. Instead of looking at the impossible: faster and faster horses, he looked at what he could control instead: a motor vehicle. Here is his quote on failure:

"Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently."

-Henry Ford

This was what Henry Ford's Not Yet was: a possibility that things could look different - and better - in the future. Sometimes success is just finding which door is opening for ourselves along the way. Telling ourselves not yet, is understanding that the possibilities are endless with a no sometimes-- but only if we're open to is. 

So the next time, you're hit with a No at a question you're given. I hope you're brave enough to tack on the Not yet to that as well. It could like this, are you getting a raise this year? Not yet. Have you lost those ten pounds? Not yet. Have you called your mom or connected with someone you love? Not yet. There is action and promise of better future things for ourselves when we are brave enough to give ourselves the call to action that is Not Yet. We often cannot control the setbacks or the Nos we interact with along the way, but we can control our outlooks and be open to the possibilities that No opens for us when we tell ourselves Not Yet. 

I'm Coach Kate, thanks for listening today. If you liked what you heard today, feel free to subscribe. I host this space weekday mornings and I would love to connect with you all in this space together. If you'd like to listen to any of my older Minute Explorations or talks, you can do so on my profile underneath the talk tab. 

I hope you all continue to answer that Not Yet and that it brings you closer to your dreams. 

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebomb.substack.com

Listen now | how consistency plays a powerful role into shaping excellence, accompanied by a deep dive and interpretation into a famous Aristotle quoteGood Morning listeners! Happy Tuesday. It's a beautiful rainy day where I am and I am enjoying this busy morning on my end with a cup of coffee and some words as we start to dive in here to connect over some explorations of thought and mind. I'm Coach Kate and I host this space for explorations of all kinds weekday mornings. Here we focus on mindfulness, motivation, gratitude, and more, so if that's your jam-- feel free to give me a follow and even listen in to some of my other talks too! 

Today we are going to talk about achieving excellence-- now excellence is when we excel at a particular thing, task, movement even, consistently. It's the consistency aspect of excellence that often gets left out. It's not poetic or romantic, or interesting even to be consistent, but that's the secret sauce to a level of excellency that we admire in others. Most people sum up excellence as a talent without work or merit, because our minds like to make things appear easier in our heads. Someone once told me, that it takes years to be an overnight success, and I think about that nearly every day. We chalk up other's success and even their excellence as luck, or because they are particularly gifted or blessed in a certain way-- and they might be blessed, they might be talented, or they might have access to places, people, or even finances that make that connection to excellence appear easy. But none of those are anything without the vision and the work. Excellence often happens after an extended period of time or hard work, all behind closed doors and most of the time consisting with rote, even boring practices put in place. We are often seeing the culmination of hard work, dedication, and passion to reach that point of showcasing excellence. So I came across a wonderful quote attributed to Aristotle, who was an ancient Greek philosopher known for excellence and braving those big why questions. I think this quote got interpreted, very generously so I did a deep dive into this quote and I wanted to include both the quote that is often attributed to him, and what he probably said instead. Here it is:

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not a choice but a habit.”

- Aristotle

This quote was interpreted by the famed Historian Will Durant who wrote many books on origins of thoughts, ideas, and translating these to the public throughout the earlier part of the 20th century, and the actual interpretation of this quote probably is closer to this:

"Virtues are formed in man by his doing the actions"

- Aristotle

So we could probably do a deep dive into this whole interpretation, but since this is Minute Explorations today, I wanted to highlight the commonality of these quotes instead. Both of these Aristotle quotes point toward the intrinsic value of consistency. Virtues are a form of excellence: repeated patterns of our moral obligations to ourselves and our spirit. Excellence does not need to be an outward portrayal of mastery, it can be a lifelong internal dedication to ourselves as well. And how else to beautifully know ourselves, by none other than dedicating consistent habits to repeat and empower ourselves upon? 

With that, this wonderful Tuesday morning, ask yourselves: 

* What consistent patterns are defining you and your life right now? 

* What does excellence look like to you? 

* What consistent habits are you building upon for your own excellence ahead? 

We are what we do in the quiet, repetitions of our daily habits, so today, I hope you align yourself with building towards your own excellence. Excellence lives in all of us, and it can also start today. Don't be afraid of those small movements, or the time it takes to get there. 

I'm Coach Kate, Thanks for listening today. If you liked what you heard, feel free to give me a follow and subscribe. I have this space weekday mornings where we dive into thought, ideas, and words that are often bigger than ourselves and can bring us all together too. See you all again tomorrow. 

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebomb.substack.com

Hello hello and Good Morning and Happy Monday listeners! Coach Kate here starting a fresh new week of Minute Explorations together with you all! I host this space weekday mornings where we dive into motivations, quotes, literature and more to get your day started with some wisdom in just a few minutes. If that is your vibe, then feel free to give me a follow for alerts and updates in this space, and to be a part of our conversation here weekday mornings with me. 

Today, I have a beautiful short quote from a philosopher, writer, poet activist of the French Enlightenment era: François-Marie Arouet, or most commonly known under his pen name, Voltaire. He was known for his wit, his writings, and for challenging some wide held beliefs of the time. He put out numerous works from poetry to plays to political commentary, so many of his quotes live on to this day. Including this one that I thought I'd share with you all to get these last few days of April started. So here it is:

"The most important decision you will ever make is to be in a good mood" - Voltaire

Emotions are very powerful things, so powerful in fact we often forget we get to choose to empower them... or not. It can feel almost impossible to have a strong emotion and not attach an action or even reaction from it-- but the emotion does not make the choice, we do. We have the choice every day to decide how we are going to face the world, interpret it, and interact. So if we choose to be in a good mood, and work that out like a muscle every day, we'll see that the world also chooses the good for us too. 

So this fine, wonderful Monday at the end of April, don't be afraid to tell yourself that this is a good day, and it's up to you to embrace it as such. You get to decide that it's a good mood day, that it is a happy day, that is is a wonderful day to share your light and your talents and your energy to the rest of the world.

So go make it yours, and make it good.

I'm Coach Kate, thank you so much for listening today. If you liked what you heard, feel free to give me a follow. You can also listen to any of my past talks underneath the talk tab in my profile. See you all again tomorrow. 

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebomb.substack.com

Good afternoon Listeners! Happy Friday! Coach Kate here with a Friday version of our Minute Motivations to share with you all today. So today I thought we could go over a change to this programming first, mostly around the name. I started this space a few weeks ago not really knowing how or what it would develop into and I have loved diving into motivation with you lal in the mornings together. This definitely helped me step outside of my comfort zone and try to things to explore with you. So this now leads me into a new arena with new thoughts. Many of you have reached out with wonderful quotes, ideas, and even comments and I realized that this space isn't just about motivations, but explorations that dive into many different areas of our lives. WE don't just motivate in this space together, we explore together. We explore the profound impact words have on our day to day, and what words we can carry with us through the day as well. So from this moment forward, we we do Minute Explorations weekday mornings. This will have the same style and cadence as the minute motivations, but it will also allow us space to explore thoughts and ideas that might not only motivate, but encourage us to ask our own big questions, connect, and learn more aobut ourselves along the way as well. If you have ideas or thoughts or would like ot contribute some explorations of your own, feel free to message me, or even chime in in a bit when I open this space up for our Friday Let's Talk discussion!

Today, I really wanted to dive into one of my all-time favorite speeches known as the "Address at Rice University on the Nations Space Efforts" or more commonly known as the "We choose to go to the Moon" speech by none other than president John F Kennedy in the middle, and arguably quite behind the Space Race with the Russians, and also before we attempted a moon mission. Now this is an abridged quote from the entire speech, and the entire speech is absolutely brilliant, so if you are a follower of my newsletter, the full speech and video will be linked in the post from www.jfklibrary.org, so be on the lookout in your inbox for that a little later today. 

When I first heard this speech, I was struck in awe. So much of our day to day lives we hear pitches and prompts about how to make things easy for ourselves, and not a lot about embracing the hard things we confront or what to do when things get difficult. So much of our day to day is avoiding the challenges, and the tricky thing is, that's where we grow. How many times have you heard, learn these three easy steps to build your wealth, or take this pill and those pounds will melt off without effort, or even buy our online course to find out the one thing you need to get love, attention, respect, power, whatever it is you feel that you are lacking and needing in your life. We so often lean into those easy fixes, and those who say they know or have it all that we don't learn how to trust ourselves and the work that we can and are able to do. And how do we empower ourselves? Not with a pill, an online, course, or some guru-- we empower ourselves by putting in the work. And today's talk, we are going to put in the work ya'll. And that starts here, with this quote that lives on my wall and is a daily reminder of the power of work and where it can bring us-- even to the moon. Here it is from wikipedia:

"But why, some say, the Moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon... We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too."

We don't choose great things because they are easy. We don't walk away from easy knowing that we tapped into an incredible potential of ourselves. We often don't grow and learn and pass down the easy. Most often the things that define the most human and beautiful aspects of ourselves are the hard things. You can sit back and live a passive life, but it's a much more bold, beautiful endeavor and story to know what your limits are and to share them. It's even more gorgeous if we surpass our known limits. How do we know what's possible unless we put in the work, and try it? 

Sometimes we stay through things for years because they're easy, and we exchange those years for easy. How different would our lives look if we exchanged those years with intention, challenge, and growth instead? How different would our future years look? 

If you are just now tuning in, we are talking about the beauty of challenge and the sheer potential of hard things. If you are out there and listening, and want to jump up here and share what ways you embrace the hard things in your life, or what ways difficult challenges set you up for success, this space is open for you. 

In another part of John F Kennedy's speech  he says:

William Bradford, speaking in 1630 of the founding of the Plymouth Bay Colony, said that all great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and both must be enterprise and overcome with answerable courage. 

This frame of thought really brings front and center the idea that with courage, determination, and hard work great things along with respect is obtained. We rarely respect the easy things that are either given to us or passively accomplished in our lives. 

So today, the beautiful, full-of-weekend-potential Friday afternoon, ask yourself

what can you choose for you, because it is hard? Because accomplishing it would be a beautiful challenge? Because it is there, and needs conquering?

I hope you choose the challenge well above the easy.

I'm Coach Kate, this has been a Let's Talk Friday episode of our newly minted Minute Explorations. If you like what you heard today, give me a follow. A transcript of this and my other talks are available through the link in my bio. If you want to listen to any of my older talks, you can find them underneath the talk tab in my profile. Looking forward to connecting and exploring forwards together.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katebomb.substack.com