In Awe 21-Day Challenge – Day 1

Greatest struggle: divorce and co-parenting. 1) Finding myself again and learning to take care of the things that were taken away from my whole self. 2) My son gets to enjoy a deep relationship with both parents. 3) My 1:1 time with my son means the world to me. I am healthy, happy, and give him undivided attention. 4) Having personal space, freedom, the ability to do something at all is freeing. 5) I am healing and growing so much closer to the Lord day by day.

A more recent one is finishing my PhD – actually beginning, going through it and finishing it almost four years ago. It was a struggle at times and it was a big mountain to climb and at times I was unsure why I was completing this feat. Ironically, I was listening to the Seth Godin conversation this week and it got me thinking about yes what I am grateful for because of this adversity which also aligns with “what I learned/what was I seeking in accomplishing a PhD” during this process. I was seeking additional career opportunities and continued job security in the higher education sector.
I am grateful for learning about the below during this process which was not the same as what I was seeking to learn:
• How to collaborate with fellow students and professionals to reach ST and LT goals.
• Meaningful, impactful work is a process, it doesn’t happen overnight
• I can explain and teach about a topic that can move others into action
• I was resilient during this time, I kept getting back up despite the barriers and challenges in my way, while working at a FT job, being a mom and spouse and doing consultant work – I can stay focused and determined when there is a goal in mind – the goal was completing all requirements for the program in order to graduate with this terminal degree
• However, with the above…the greatest lesson I learned was when I don’t know what the goal is it is hard to stay focused and clear on what the next step is on a given day. In thinking about this, it is ok to stay focused on one thing at a time not many things at time, which was always my default.

My biggest challenge is faith that my marriage will survive. I have been separated for 10 months but we have not filed the paperwork. I have worked on myself to improve my attitude and overall awareness of my behavior and done a lot of prayers. The hardest thing is being away from the kids every week. I feel that I have so much love to give but it is just not open for me to give it. I am still praying for reconcilliation and rekindling the relationship.

I am grateful for: the support of my family; the deepening of my faith in God’s provision; the ability to be in a state of humility; the opportunity to love unconditionally; the strength that comes from community.

My greatest challenge today is trying to support my husband who is in a ‘learning/growing’ phase right now. God needs him to grow in an area before moving on to the next and he is a little frustrated and it hurts me to see him that way and I have to avoid my tendency to ‘fix’ things. So the positives that I will focus on today are:
1) I just need to be still and let God fight the battles
2) God is in control of this crazy world and time
3) I have the power of pray to pray over/for my husband
4) Support of Godly family and friends
5) Peaceful home to return to at night

Greatest Challenge is worrying about things I cannot control and getting caught up in “What If” scenarios. As a means of trying to ease that challenge, I focus on how thankful I am for my job and not struggling financially, for the health of my family, for the fact that I am able to work from home and be safe, that my parents are home and safe, and that given all that my kids need to deal with, they are happy and resilient.

Greatest struggle – to become super healthy and fit, and to minimize/cure my asthma and sinus issues. I am a 10-year vegan but want to become fitter and healthier.
– Grateful for this time to become what I aspire to – the best I’ve ever been
– Grateful for this time to participate in programs from Inspire Nation which helps my body/mind/spirit; my entire being (and to have watched the show with John and join this challenge)
– Grateful to have found “The Healthy Life” YouTube channel and website which is guiding me to become healthier
– Grateful for this time to take care of myself and have the time to reflect and relax more
– Grateful for this time to become more connected to my body and the world around me

Started Day 1 today… Having to be nice to my ex so that he doesn’t stop paying back the money he owes me.
1) Made me realise all the reasons we shouldn’t be together
2) Brought me closer to my best friend
3) Made me realise I’m stronger than I think I am
4) I am resourceful and put a smile on even when I’m screaming inside
5) I am a decent, kind person.

My struggle today is Depression. But everyday this is my struggle and I want to let it go. Today is my first day of this 21-Day Challenge but I’m not going to let this struggle affect me from participating.

On the flipside of my struggle, I am GRATEFUL for…

…My family and friends.
…I got a commission check today!
…God waking me up and encouraging me to keep going.
…For Jesus Christ who saved me and took my place in death so I wouldn’t go through it.
…I am not sick, I am healthy in my body so I shouldn’t make my struggle to stop but to continue on for what God has in store for me.

I am struggling with how best to support my husband through adversity – both from a violent assault he suffered several months ago and the impact on his business from the pandemic. Five things I am grateful for in all of this:
1. I am grateful he was not hurt worse than he was.
2. I am grateful that he reached out to a friend in law enforcement who helped him – logistically and emotionally – with bringing charges against his assailant.
3. I am grateful that my employer has mental health services available to us and that I found a kind therapist to talk to.
4. I am grateful that I have a secure job where I can work from home and not be exposed, which gives me more time at home with my husband.
5. I am grateful that we have the financial resources to help us through both health issues and loss of income.

Separation from my husband

1. Grateful for the emotional advise/concern from others, to gain perspective.
2. Grateful for the logical advise from others, to gain other perspectives.
3. Grateful for the opportunity to face up to and own my flaws and have the courage to work on them.
4. Grateful for the opportunity to practice my strengths and discover that I am good enough.
5. Grateful for all the support and resources I have to get me through this journey

Challenged by a return to my heaviest weight after having lost 4 stone in 2017. 5 things learnt and benefits, which will equip me for succeeding, again:

1. Meal plan discipline
2. Decent, dapper Medium/slim clothes
3. The knowledge that Sugar is the Enemy
4. 800 calories a day for 8 weeks works
5. Daily exercise routine is achievable

21 Day Challenge
Greatest struggle – What is on my side during this pandemic?
1. My faith and prayers
2. Extremely grateful for the patience I have learned with difficult life situations.
3. My age – Am 74 and in good healthy and can be physically active.
4. Life long meditation practice.
5. Slowing down.

My adversity has been chronic pain. 5 gifts from that:
1. It’s prepared me well for Coronavirus isolation!
2. New interests
3. New ways of doing things
4. Given me a mission and purpose in life
5. Became a public speaker and patient advocate

As a bonus – led to meeting new people, making new friends and experiences I otherwise would not have

Greatest Challenge Today: my greatest struggle adversity today is feeling stretched thin or pulled between competing priorities. I struggle for focus/clarity and maintaining my attention.

I am grateful for the following things related to our caused by the struggle:

I am grateful for the following things related to or cost by a struggle:

1. I stumbled on this 21-day challenge in my emails as I pinged along this morning and was reminded that I wanted to commit to this.
2. I have a job. There is a lot to accomplish here.
3. I have a chance to refresh the business approach and influence the business plan for the better.
4. I have the freedom to pick and choose where I focus my attention.
5. I enjoy research and exploration of possible solutions.

Today, I must give a speech on Zoom, get thru many tasks and stay positive.

1) I get to share my passion for my industry
2) I have such knowledgeable ans smart entrepreneurs around me
3) I am elevating other
4) my friend is coming over to work out outside to keep me motivated
5)my god and family loves and supports my highest good.

My greatest struggle today is controlling my diabetes and my weight.

5 things I am grateful for because of this:

1. Medicine that helps me take control.
2. Doctors who really care about me.
3. An employer who offers me ways to improve my health.
4. My husband who loves me just the way I am, but supports me in making changes.
5. Water – available at my home that’s not nasty to the taste!

My greatest struggle today is performing daily exercise. Five things I’m grateful for because of this adversity are:
1) It’s an opportunity for me to be a stronger leader (by example) to my family
2) I can include my family
3) I can easily find the time with my schedule and being home all the time
4) Improving my health will help me feel better and perform better in all aspects of my life
5) Strengthening my body requires strengthening my will, which is far more important.

I’m late to the challenge but I feel called to still participate. My greatest struggle is depression. I know God has given me so many blessings throughout my life but sometimes joy feels sucked out of me. I tend to listen to that negative voice in my head about myself that says you’re not good enough, you didn’t do enough, you’re not loved etc. Lately I’ve felt God trying to pull me out of the darkness. I’m grateful for
1) Knowing that God loves me with a passion unlike any other.
2) My family, who has stood by each other through our many struggles in life.
3) A beautiful phone call with a beautiful friend who led me to the John O’ Leary page.
4) This moment of peace.
5) Knowing that this struggle is God’s invitation to healing.

My struggle is with finances which also leads to what I’m grateful for. I’m divorced and remarried and we have a blended family of 6 kids ages 14-26. We struggle check to check but we both have great jobs, we just seem to have one expense after another and we don’t make extravagant purchases. It baffles me and leads to many arguments.. but I’m grateful for my job and my wife as well as our blended family.

My biggest struggle today would be not being able to get out of the house, feeling stuck inside. I am grateful for this struggle because 1)My grandson’s birthday celebration will be a small family gathering, 2)I have a nice, dry, and warm house to stay in, 3)I am blessed to be able to continue to work from home, 4)I work for a company that is supporting us through this time, and 5)I don’t have to leave my house, I can stay safe by staying in. Thank you for this 21 day challenge. I am looking forward to the next challenge.

This is my Day 1 . . . and my greatest challenge is figuring out how to make wise and right decisions for our business, people, customers and partners. Five things I’m grateful for, because of this struggle are:

1. We can seek His wisdom and the ability to make changes we wouldn’t have otherwise made.
2. We are thinking differently about ways to make these decisions.
3. We have opportunities we wouldn’t have otherwise had, ie relief packages, Zoom, working from home full time, being with family, etc.
4. We have the empathy, support and trust of our volunteer leaders, because we are all in this together.
5. We can see now, and will be able to look back in a year to see more of, how God is with us in it all!

John, thank you so much for doing this! I have seen you speak several times and always leave, In Awe.

As an extrovert, the social isolation of our current situation is really beginning to weigh on me. I get energy from being physically around people and all the nuances that go along with face to face conversations. I will not lie and say that I am always coping well during this time of quarantine. Yet some valuable things have happened because I must face this adversity with the rest of the world. My husband and I have found the time to reconnect and break some unhealthy patterns that were developing in the “busyness” of life. I have been able to pause long enough to reflect on my core values and on the inconsistencies between my stated values and the way in which I was living my life—I’m getting back to the heart of the matter. I am learning more about leading others through chaos and what it really means to help empower others. I am building deeper connections with people in my network that likely would not have occurred without this event. I am gaining a deeper understanding of how to be dependent on God instead of my own strength. For these things I am tremendously grateful.
“Adversity is like a strong wind. It will most certainly tear away from us everything that can be torn. Yet, it will also leave the things that matter most…reminding us who we really are.” John O’Leary
#inawe (posted on my social media but I could not figure out how to tag you)

Hello 🙂
I’m on day one! The biggest challenge lately has been not being busy and out an about with work. I am a Realtor. What this has led to is more time for me to work on my business. I have been putting some really important things off. I have done so much and am learning so much as a result of watching webinars and taking the time to implement these new skills into my business. I am very thankful for that. I also am thankful for all the time I get to spend with my children now. I again due to being so busy showing houses and doing open houses that I had put somethings off with my family too. I am loving the time to reconnect and do some projects around the house together. Something I want to take away from this time when things pick back up to speed is to prioritize my time and don’t procrastinate.

I was married for 33 years. I got brave enough to leave 4 years ago. My top 5 things I’m grateful for are the following.
1. I found that all I needed to do was literally cross over the threshold of the home I believed I’d live in for my life. That’s all God needed me to do. From that moment on HE placed people in my path to guide this new journey. Literally it was raining people! A modern day miracle for sure.
2. The 5 years prior to leaving were very rough. In the midst of that time, I’d decided to get a pet. Never had one before. I rescued my precious Bella – she had lived in a puppy mill for 7.5 years. She was the BEST thing I could’ve done for Me! I thought I was saving her- other way around!
3. Modern day miracle- my Brownstone. You see, I’d lived in my beautiful 2 story colonial, white with black shutters and red door for 27 years. Beautiful yard I tended to, hundreds of flowers and I could name each one. And yet, when I decided what would it look like if I chose to leave- I remembered when my town had built this street of beautiful brownstones. How it came about and I bought it is still a story of Wow! Only God could have orchestrated how it came to be! And it is interesting to me- in my past, my home was wide yet not very deep. Now my home is narrow and very deep! A perfect metaphor of how I choose to live.
4. Coming out on the other side. The Joy that comes from enduring something, walking through the pain, dealing with the journey, knowing it wasn’t easy yet having a focused goal- to walk through it showing others they too can choose not to stay a puddle on the floor and to come through it with as much grace and ease as possible. To thrive not simply survive.
5. My newest pet Beatrice. Bella lived her life with me for 6.5 years. She had done her work and it was time for me to let her go. I held her and told her how much I loved her as she went to sleep. I asked her to check with God and the 2 of them send me a buddy sometime soon. 6 weeks later an incredible story- I mean really, how does a dog get from being found outside of a city in Texas to a shelter in Kansas- when just 3 days before I had decided to put my name on Petfinders -so I received an email that the breed I was looking for had just arrived that morning. I was the first to see her and home we went.
None of these things and experiences would I have if I hadn’t had the literal 5 seconds of courage to crises the threshold.
Grateful- yes, I’d say so!

Greatest challenge today was grocery shopping. I now have to be conscious of how far I am away from other shoppers. There are marks on the floor indicating how far away I can stand from the next shopper while waiting in line. Plexiglass separates me from the cashier. These are all new in the last couple of weeks. I am wondering how many of these will remain when this is over.

Things I’m grateful for due to the current circumstances (1) more time with family (2) helping my grandkids with distance learning (3) more time for reading (4) spending more time enjoying the outdoors (5) since I’m shopping less I’m spending less $$$

My biggest struggle is fear, anxiety and sadness. How are people going to be able to get through this crazy time? How are people going to be able to put food on their table, if they have run out of money due to losing their job? Are my loved ones going to be OK? My husbands father is currently in the hospital and we can’t even visit him right now. My heart breaks for those who have lost their loved ones to this virus. So many people did not have a chance to say goodbye to their loved ones due to risk of exposure.

Gratitude:
Amid all of this fear, anxiety and sadness, I have a new perspective on life. I see things through a new lens, life is so precious. I am so grateful for today. I am grateful to live in the United States and appreciate that we have wonderful hospitals, medical staff and doctors. I am grateful for the ability to unplug from media, take a deep breath and just be. I am grateful to have the free time (and ability) to go outside, go hiking, go to the park with my sweet puppy. I am grateful for family and friends, whom I stay in contact with over the phone. It is so important to remember that everyone is going through this and staying connected, reaching out and just talking to someone is so helpful! And lastly I am grateful for humor and inspirational articles, like yours John! I make it a point to share uplifting and funny things with my friends and family to keep our spirits up.
I appreciate all of these posts. It is so good to reflect on gratitude, even when it is difficult to do so. I hope you all stay safe and healthy!

My biggest struggle:

I can’t help everyone that I’d like to help during these times and I miss the daily face to face interactions with my family, friends, and clients.

Five things I’m grateful for.

1. I’m considered essential, so my life has not been as disrupted as others.
2. I have more time with my family during these times.
3. I have a great staff of people to work with that are dedicated to helping others.
4. I have great clients that are understanding of the current situation and take time to listen and understand how we are adjusting our approach during these times.
5. My wife is an awesome cook and together we make great meals for our family.

I am struggling most with fear/uncertainty right now. My mom is at higher risk because of her age; my husband works in the medical field and travels for his job. I have found myself worrying (“What if one of them gets COVID-19? What if they need help and I can’t do anything because I’m not there?”) even when I don’t want to, and when I know we are told not to in Matthew 6:25-34. So, five things I am grateful for because of this are: (1) My mom is OK. We have family who live close to her and will be there if she needs something before I could get there. (2) My husband is OK. His circumstances are challenging, but he is not new at this and he will navigate safely. (3) I have friends and family who will pray with me and for me about my fears. (4) We serve a MIGHTY God who will ALWAYS watch over us and work all things for good (Romans 8:28). (5) When I feel anxiety about this, I am trying to redirect it in positive ways; in particular, I am trying to make a point of letting people know that I appreciate them. Everyone is scared as we watch this unfold – hopefully sharing some kindness and gratitude will help us all want to be there for each other. (John – thanks for this challenge as a way to focus on the positive and stand in awe!)

My biggest struggle is working through a life change in separating from my husband not knowing how financially I will make it on my own. I’m grateful that I have a good job and a steady income, for support from my friends and family, for support to grow myself as an individual and move myself forward and for access to resources that will help me heal.

I’m concentrating on the very immediate and small today. My biggest struggle *today* is with focusing on what needs to be done. I’m on day 1 of eLearning from home for my two teenage girls and staring down the barrel of an unknown amount of time being with them while my own business suffers. I’m a single mom and the challenge is *a big one* So today I am grateful that 1. even as distracting as they are, I love that my kids WANT to hang out with me, *want* to share funny memes and TikToks and all of that with me. Most teenage girls want as much distance from their mom as possible and I’m grateful thats not who I am raising. 2. I’m grateful that my business IS busy enough that I have work to do. 3. I’m grateful for my job time flexibility. 4. I’m grateful that I live in a community that provides resources so that my girls CAN eLearn and not just lay around. Them laying around is easier for me, less distracting but doesn’t serve them well and 5. And really, I’m grateful that the energy in my house is so delicious that it is distracting. We have funny pets and a fun environment and I think that as distracting as it is? its pretty cool that we like one another.

My biggest challenge right now is with the messaging in my keynote speech.
I feel very strongly, and God-led to anchor my keynote on three main pillars. I’ve used them as guideposts in earlier speeches and have even had them fed back to me.
The struggle is that I’ve heard from many people that the 3 keys that I like to talk about the most are not economically viable. In other words, that it will be hard to get people to pay for what I Know and felt led to speak on.
I’ve seen some success as a platform speaker and am grateful for that, I just know that I could be so much better if I followed what is true to me and burns in my heart.
The blessing in all of it is that I get to pray and lean more on God and the Holy Spirit, to help me find the best solution and direction for my biz moving forward.
Another blessing is that I get to spend more time understanding myself, my gifts, and the impact that I want to have in the world.
Thank you for reading…

My biggest challenge is watching my kids struggle with challenges and often be excluded or incorrectly judged because of them. While I wish they didn’t have to endure these challenges, I am grateful to be reminded that God loves all of us and we all belong to him. I am grateful for the empathy I have developed because of this challenge. I am grateful for the reminder not to judge as the world judges. I am grateful that these challenges reminds me to reach out and try to befriend and include others, despite my shy nature.I am grateful for the knowledge that one day they will be made whole.

My biggest struggle today is the disruption the Coronavirus is causing for so many people who are impacted. I’m grateful for all of the service workers who continue to work including grocery store checkers, butchers, bakers, shelf stockers and drive- through pickup runners. I’m grateful for the “thank you’s” given to them that bring a smile to their faces. I’m grateful for the chance to help older shoppers get what they need. I’m grateful for the beautiful weather today that will make outdoor activities possible. I’m thankful for the grace and patience I see all around.

Being slow to anger with my 6-year-old daughter.
1. I am grateful that I have recognized my quickness to anger because now I can change it.
2. I’m grateful for my daughter because she forgives.
3. I’m grateful for my daughter because she’s helping me grow.
4.I’m grateful for the gift of motherhood because it is truly an honor.
5. I’m grateful for the ability to imagine a more beautiful way of communicating with my daughter because now I can get myself ready to make it happen.