Todays guest is Mike Shaw. Mike and I met at a backcountry ski lodge and when he shared his story, it struck a deep deep chord. As soon as I heard it, I knew I had to have him on the podcast. If there's ANYBODY who knows anything about using mindset as a tool, as something to use when you need it most, it's somebody who has re-learned to walk after a catastrophic spinal cord injury. Mike shares stories from the dark depths of his journey, and what he's learned that he thinks everybody can do to improve their day to day lives, regardless of their situation.

Find Mike Shaw: Website / Instagram / Facebook / LinkedIn / Twitter

Timing:

1:27 Mike's Story
11:18 Using Gratitude as a Tool
22:24 Gratitude Triggers
32:02 Gratitude Exercise
39:51 Books and Quotes That Helped Mike Through Recovery
47:20 Downside To Recovery
50:42 Big Physical Challenges on Mike's List
51:48 Definition of Success
59:06 Identity
1:06:49 Identity Audit
1:11:04 The Golden Nugget of Wisdom

Golden Nugget of Wisdom:

Mike speaks a lot about how gratitude helped him get through the toughest of times during his recovery, and it's now a part of his life's mission to introduce the power of gratitude into as many other lives as possible, BEFORE they have a catastrophic accident like he did. How crazy is it that our default is to NOT feel grateful for something we have, until it's GONE. We need to learn to be pro-active and SEARCH for what we should be grateful for BEFORE it's gone, in order to truly harness it's power.

If you're anything like me, you heard Mike's story and felt temporarily inspired, and felt a deep desire to implement gratitude into your daily life. But it's all too easy to get caught up in our everyday habits and routines, and slowly slip away from the intention required to feel grateful every day. So it's not as easy as just hearing mike's words and "feeling grateful from now on." We must find a time, a place or an action that we'll inevitably repeat and use it as a reminder for us to SEARCH for gratitude. We must find what mike calls "gratitude triggers."

As Mike mentions, it can be the first hot slurp of coffee in the morning, or it can be the sound and feeling of the ratchet strap on your snowboard, but ultimately it has to work for you. What I think might work for me is attaching it to something difficult that I do intentionally everyday. A sacrifice of NOW for the sake of LATER. Every time I step foot into a cold shower from now on, I aim to search for gratitude while at peak discomfort. Hopefully this will stick and I can tap into the power of gratitude that Mike speaks so highly about.