When my friend Jack posted on Facebook that his wife Kate was going out for her run when the wind chill was -4 degrees, he asked his followers “foolish or impressive?” Responses were mixed but mine was clear. “She is building hardiness…Go Kate.”

I suspect that Kate had to get herself up for her run with some kind of mantra like “I got this,” or “I love my runs” or “hey’ I’ve been doing this every day for three years, today is no different.”

Mentally preparing ourselves for a challenging event or responding to a difficulty with a readily accessible phrase not only gets our head into the proper frame but also allows us a moment to respond to a difficulty before jumping in with our first response, such as “go ahead and take a breath.”

Consider some phrases that you already use in the face of your everyday challenges and make sure that they are positive and direct you to getting job done. These kinds of phrases are a great skill to add to your 2018 actions that you want to take to make this a great year.

If you can’t come up with one of your own, feel free to borrow others like the one which is actually Kate’s favorite and is time tested….”Just Do It.”

© Richard Citrin, All rights reserved, 2018

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