Who Inspires You?
You don’t have to do it alone.
Sometimes we need to look to the guidance of others for a boost of motivation. This week listen to segments from some of my most memorable guest interviews and let the inspiration flow!
Who Inspires You?
Episode Transcript
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DENISE: Hello Everyone welcome to Positive Forward Motion. I am so happy you are here! As I was preparing for this week’s episode, I was struggling a bit to come up with a topic that could describe how I was feeling, and get the message across to you, my listeners. I was going to title this topic “Who’s your power person?” You know, who is that person or people that you reach to for inspiration, motivation and a good old kick in the ass when needed?
Well, as I was creating the episode I went back to listen to some of my favorite Positive Forward Motion interviews for ideas, and when I was listening I got all fired up and inspired and thought “Why don’t I share some of my favorite parts of each interview with everyone?”
It no secret, right? We all have good days and bad days. There are days when you will be the inspiration to others, and there’s days when you need others to inspire you.
So, for this episode I decided to share snippets of 6 different interviews. I hope they inspire you as much as they inspire me!
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The first snippet is from my interview with Valorie Kondos Fields, also known as Miss Val. She Miss Val never tumbled, flipped, or played any type of organized sport.
And yet, she became a legendary Hall of Fame Coach, through curiosity, creativity, attention to detail, and unwavering care for the overall well-being of her athletes. Listen carefully as Miss Val shares one of her favorite things that she tells young people.
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VALORIE: One of my favorite things when I’m speaking and speaking to young people is I always tell them, “I want you to think about something… Okay, how many people have lived before you’ve lived? Like how many BILLIONS?”
I don’t know how many, I don’t know. Cause remember, I have no left brain so I don’t do math.
How many people have ever lived before you? And they go, “okay nobody.”
Okay, and when you die, will there ever be another you? And when they start connecting those dots, and then I say:
“There has never been another you on this planet, and there never will be. You’re here for a reason, and you don’t have to go curing cancer to be that reason. Just you are being your authentic self, being kind and helping someone feel good about themselves today is why you’re here. Cause nobody else has what you have to do that! You’re here for a reason, you’re not a mistake! You’re here for a reason!”
And you see their little eyes start, like, spinning and glowing and it’s like, it’s so cool for them to get…
I think it’s like the first time that they realize they are unique. They are a gift! Now let’s just, as you say, I mean I love what your podcast stands for, is taking one step forward in a positive direction every day, and it doesn’t matter how big that step is.
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DENISE: This next inspirational snippet comes from Sister Madonna Buder, also known as The Iron Nun. Sister is the oldest women to have completed an Iron Man at the age of 82, and now at 90 years young there is no slowing her down! She just entered another triathlon and will be competing at the end of September in Colorado. Here is sister as she shares her 7 D’s on dreaming.
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SISTER MADONNA: Well, you know. What you have just said, one of your key words was “you have dreamed”, now that’s the beginning! And I just got back from doing two 2-hour presentations, plus an hour each of book signings in Philadelphia, and one of the things I remember saying is because a lot of people want to have the urge to do the Ironman distance triathlon.
Which of course maybe you know but not everybody does, it’s a 2.4-mile swim, 112 miles of biking, and 26.2 miles marathon.
PAST DENISE: Back to back to back. Yes!
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SISTER MADONNA: So, I said, you know, just practice the 7 D’s. And the first is you have to have the DREAM! What you mentioned, and your dream came true. So, with the Dream comes the Desire. With the Desire comes the Dedication. With the dedication comes the discipline. With the discipline comes the determination, with the determination, you DO IT! And then it gets DONE! With or without your realizing it.
PAST DENISE: Wow.
SISTER MADONNA: And it’s better if we don’t really realize it. If we just concentrate on going through the motions, which is a healthy lifestyle when you think about it, they are worthwhile motions. Not wasted, even if you have a bike crash, you at least tried!
And you know, I think there is no such thing as a failure. Because your best ways to learn, is through making your mistakes! The only failure is not to try. And you cancel yourself out, there goes every potential you might have as a human being that’s instilled into you. If you don’t get out and try.
But you’ve gotta dream it, so you have the desire to do it, so you want to put the discipline and dedication into it, to get enough determination to get you going!
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DENISE: Next is Debora Coty, author of Too Blessed to Be Stressed. Her books remind me each day to not allow my blessing to be my stressing in life. And at the end of our interview she shared one of your favorite quotes and left the listeners with this takeaway… I’m gonna tell you, you’re gonna want to grab a pen because you are going to want to write this one down!
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DEBORA: How bout a tiny little story, I’ll try to make it fast. This is a quote by one of my favorite heroes of the faith, Corrie ten Boom, and I found it! I thought I had read everything Corrie ten Boom had ever written. She was as you recall, World War II she was in a concentration camp for harboring Jews, and she was a survivor of that, but she lost her family there in the concentration camps. But, this particular quote came to me when I was trying to decide whether to do this horrendous writing project that my publisher wanted me to write 365 days worth of devotionals for women, and that was just overwhelming, I was just totally overwhelmed!
And I was praying about it because my inclination was to say no, in fact I had said no for about a year prior to that. But something got my attention about this one, and then I found this quote and it said; “Attempt something so big that unless God intervenes, it is sure to fail.”
And that, that just seeped in under my skin and stayed there. And I just knew I had to try this impossible, impossible task. It took me forever, and it was harder than I thought, but you know what? I did it! And I knew then that it wasn’t from me, it was from Papa God doing it all and it was worth it.
“Attempt something so big that unless God intervenes, it is sure to fail” – Corrie ten Boom
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DENISE: One of my greatest memories is when I got the opportunity to go to Houston, Texas and meet with Anthony Graves. When I think I am having a tough day and I start to lose hope, I think back to Anthony’s story for strength and encouragement. I cannot imagine spending 18 years on death row for a crime I had nothing to do with, and that is exactly what happened to Anthony. He never gave up hope and he has so much to share with the world. So, today I am going to share Anthony’s message on living life and the choices we have.
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ANTHONY: I remember the first time I got an execution date. Uh, the officers came and picked me up to take me down to the Captain’s office. The state had called them and said that they was going to execute me on a certain day, and so they had to take me down there so that the Captain could tell me and ask me what I wanted them to do with my body once, after they executed me, and what I wanted my last meal to be.
And I never forget how that changed my life. Totally, it just.. just, hearing them tell me that they was going to kill me for something that I didn’t know anything about. The thought that came in my mind changed my whole life, and that thought was “Psshh, I’m just gonna live till I die.”
Because I knew that’s something they couldn’t take from me. No matter what they did to me physically, they couldn’t take the fact that I had a right and a choice as to how I wanted to respond to what I was going through. And my response was “I’m just gonna live till I die.”
Because that’s something they can’t take from me, and if they can’t take it from me, I wasn’t gonna give it them. And that began my life from existing on death row, to now living on death row.
Because that thought reminded me that no matter what circumstances I face in life, I have a choice as to how I wanna respond to it. I always remember that, because when you know that, then you start thinking about the best way to respond to a situation that you think is chaotic in your life.
And the best way is, is to be positive! Is to be positive cuz’ you’re gonna get something out of it that’s gonna teach you a valuable lesson, that’s gonna be your blessing one day. So positive thinking was the only way for me, cuz’ other than they they would have killed me, or I would have killed myself before I even laid down. So I chose to do positive thinking and move forward positively, and today, you know, I have a platform where I’m around the country educating people about our need for criminal justice reform, so it’s been a blessing for me.
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DENISE: Back When I was 18, I read a book called Rhinoceros Success and to this day I have a house and office filled with Rhinos as a reminder to keep charging through the jungle of life. I have given away hundreds of Scott Alexander books to students, employees, and even complete strangers. Here is a section of my interview with Scott:
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SCOTT: That’s another interesting question Denise, “How long is long enough?” Um, my philosophy is if you are out doing what you want to do, if you’re out chasing success, you ARE a success! Like, as far as I’m concerned, when you were doing your sales job back then, you were a success back then, you were digging back then, and you just kept digging!
You’re a success the minute you decide in the morning; “DANG IT, I’m gonna be a rhino, I’m gonna get out there in the jungle and CHARGE!”
And you take action! And at that point you are a success, you are on the road, you’re doing it! You know, you’re having the adventures! You know, just enjoy it! It’s like happiness. When are you gonna be happy? BE HAPPY NOW! You are a success NOW! You know, enjoy being a rhino!
Have you ever heard of or gone into one of the yogurt shops where you can put anything on your yogurt? Well attitudes are kinda the same way, you know? We can make ourselves whatever we want to be. You know, we can make ourselves happy people, are we gonna be curmudgeons? You know, you get to decide!
Again, that, it goes back to you have the power to choose! Well how are you gonna make yourself? You know, you can decide all of these things in advance. Like, when somebody cuts you off in traffic, are you gonna be the type of person that chases them for two miles giving them the finger; “I’M GONNA GET YOU YOU LYIN MOTHER!”
Or are you gonna be the sorta person’s all, “Ahh no worries mate, you’d be right!”
You get to decide all that, it’s like making your own yogurt and you have to eat this thing so you might as well make yourself as delightful as you can, you know?
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DENISE: A couple years ago I was attending a fund raiser for Outward Bound, and I got to hear Roz Savage speak. Roz has rowed across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian ocean SOLO! Here’s what Roz has to say about happiness and self-reliance:
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ROZ: Wow, you’ve raised so many great points there, and I’m gonna try and… There are so many thoughts coming up in my mind, I’m going to see how many of them I can manage to remember. I know I definitely used to be in that mindset of looking outside of myself for happiness and fulfillment. There was that “I’ll be happy when…. I pass that exam, or when I get that promotion, or when I’ve earned this much money, or when I start dating that guy, or get married to that guy!”
And it’s so easy to pin our happiness onto these things outside of ourselves, but the problem with that is that we can’t control the things outside of ourselves, so a big part of my growing up process was to realize that I had to look to myself and look inside in order to make myself happy. That I couldn’t make anyone else responsible for my happiness or blameworthy for my lack of happiness! And, you know, I still have to remind myself of that, that I can’t make other people responsible for my emotions.
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DENISE: These are just a few examples of where I turn when I need a boost of inspiration and motivation. I am constantly seeking and learning about other stories cuz’ I have always found that other stories of Positive Forward Motion help to keep me going.
I am wishing you all much happiness and success both personally and professionally and remember we do not have to go it alone! Choose others to empower, motive, and inspire you to be your best. I am super proud of you and I know you got this!!
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DENISE: Thank you so much for listening! If you liked this episode, please rate and review and share this podcast to help us spread out message of positive forward motion!
And don’t forget, you can follow me for more daily doses of positivity on Instagram and Facebook @DeniseScattergood, and you can find me on Twitter @AlertTrainers. You can also opt in for my daily text messages by texting the word “Positive” to 313131.
And remember, each episode comes with a free worksheet to help keep you on track. It’s simple! Just go to DeniseScattergood.com, you can find a free PDF download link under each episode. And be sure to tune in every Wednesday for a brand-new episode, and remember no matter how small your step is, as long as you’re taking it in the right direction, that’s what I call Positive Forward Motion!
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