Small steps. Great distances.

Eleven years ago I missed landing a dream gig. It was devastating. More than a decade later and it's not as an emcee for Michigan State basketball but as the public address announcer for MSU baseball and that's pretty cool. Run it back. That's the tweet I posted. Here's the story: In 2014 a friend said, "This is going to be your best year". I was ready. That spring, I blew out my knee out for a third time. A month later I ambitiously moved on from being the Lansing Lugnuts' emcee. It was a well intentioned decision that didn't work (don't leave one job until you've secured another). Subsequently, that choice contributed to not being hired as the emcee for Michigan State women's basketball that fall. A decade later, after many failed attempts to reenter the media, I became a substitute teacher. Eventually one of the schools I subbed at hired me as support staff, and I got involved with announcing and DJ'ing some of their sporting events....

Ten Hut: One of my favorite Bob Ross fun-facts (actually, the only Bob Ross fun-fact that I know) is that he used to be a drill sergeant.  That's right, before he was a soft spoken painter he did a job synonymous with yelling. From drill sergeant to calming, nature painter... that's a process. In general, Small steps. Great distances. represents the process.  With regard to mental heath, Small steps. Great distances. represents the process of taking care. Question: How do we take care? If you know Resect Your Gift's messaging you know that we take care with wellness. Wellness is the active pursuit of good health, and wellness is how we build a foundation of strong mental health. From enhancing lives to saving them... When I'm relaxed I'll start massaging my head and tracing an outline around my eyes and ears. It's soothing.   I'll often do it in response to certain sounds: voices, mannerisms, etc.  I always thought it was random, but it's not. It's A...

The Vision: I founded Respect Your Gift in January of 2017. That was the beginning of my advocacy. At the time mental health was a  me too  culture: "I'm diagnosed with this... I suffer from that..." My response was what I call Optimistic Mental Health. The Message: Respect Your Gift is built on three principles: Optimistic Perspective Foundational Value Celebratory Tone Drawing positive associations to the topic of mental health communicates value, value is motivating and the value of our mental health can motivate us to take care. How do we take care? We take care with the active pursuit of good health - also known as wellness.  Wellness is how we respect our gifts. It's how we celebrate our mental heath. And, most important, it's how we build a foundation of strong mental health...  From enhancing lives to saving them. The Outcome: The associations we draw to the topic of mental health are critical because they shape our thinking and guide our actions. It may n...

The Last Lecture: "When you do the right thing good stuff has a way of happening." -  Randy Pausch A feedback loop is a process of getting feedback and responding to it. The first time I heard about this concept was during  The Last Lecture . Constructive Criticism: Do you know why constructive criticism is a thing? It's because optimism supports effective communication.  Criticism is negative. It  breaks people down, and it's not well received.  But constructive criticism communicates with optimism. It helps people build, grow and develop.  That's why it's a thing. Loop de Loop:  The idea of a mental health feedback loop is to feed ourselves constructively. It's the process of using content to help us build, grow and develop. It could be content that we've created or  it could be content that we've engaged. For example, music, movie clips, motivational / inspirational sound bites... The intention is that we're building a "loop" of ma...

Mr. McCarver: As a player and color commentator, Tim McCarver was a baseball legend. In the movie Moneyball his voice is used during a scene that talks about the career of the main character, Billy Beane: "... he's got to be successful to be confident."  In order to be confident we have to succeed, and often times we have a better chance of succeeding if we're confident.   Baseball has metrics that determine success. For example, wins and losses and batting and earned run average. B ut what about in life: What are the metrics we use to determine success? The better question is what metrics do YOU use to determine success? Some parts of life determine success by certain criteria, but not all of them. Some parts of life allow us to decide what success looks like.  One of those areas is how we take care of ourselves. The things that we do to take care can be accomplishments, and those accomplishments can be successes that build confidence.  Framing: Baseball has a strat...

I began building the Respect Your Gift message in 2017. Three years later I created Volume '23: a summary of the year's best content. Since then I've created a "volume" video at the end of every year. Introducing, Volume '23: Five things I've learned about the topic of mental health and my message as an advocate. 1. Foundational: The foundation of mental health can support everything from enhancing our lives to saving them. That's why it's important that we build our foundation with constructive thinking, traits and behaviors. 2. Respect Your Gift: We respect the gifts we've been blessed with by taking care of our mental health and we take care of our mental health with wellness.  3. Wellness: Wellness is the active pursuit of good health: mind, body, spirit. And wellness is how we build a foundation of strong mental health. 4. S.S.G.D. The small steps are how we practice wellness and build a strong foundation. The great distances are what that...