Hey there, it's Michael. Welcome to Whole Again, A show about helping us embrace life with mindfulness and resilience through the wisdom of cons, Sugi on Fridays. I love sharing a mindset shift for you to help you navigate today's uncertainty with a bit more grace and today. It is a special episode. It's number 300.
I like to think that's pretty cool. 300 moments to pause, 300 invitations to slow things down, to put the phone down, even though you're probably listening to this on your phone. 300 invitations to breathe deeply. And remember who you are to remember your strength and your courage, and the resilience that's within you, beyond all the noise and uncertainty and all the different kerfuffles of today.
Whether you've been here from the very beginning when I called the show, the Kazuki podcast, which I started before the pandemic, or this is your very first episode, I wanna say thank you for being here, for showing up and contributing to a community that's like-hearted and open to different perspectives.
Too often we talk about how we want to be with like-minded people. I see it a bit different. I wanna be connected with people who are like-hearted, that have kindness and compassion, and empathy and love coming from their hearts and are open to different perspectives or different mindedness. I believe that's the way we find a way to connect better.
Our KSU spirit today, I have a story for you. It's about my dad and it's also about you. My dad is a bowler and because I'm his son, I'm also a bowler. But my dad, he has taken a to a completely new level. I think he is bold, about 20,000 games in his life. That's rough math. Don't hold me to it. Decades of games, a whole bunch of leagues and tournaments, and travel a lifetime of stepping up to the lane, lining up and letting that ball go.
In all those 20,000 games though that he's bold, he's only had one perfect game, a 300 game, and most people can bold their whole entire lives and never have a single one. Unless you're a pro bowler, but most people never reach perfection in bowling. To get a 300 game, you have to make 12 strikes in a row.
No mistakes. Total precision. It may be a good break every now and again. It is the dream that every bowler chases to get a perfect game. So getting a 300 game in my book is awesome sauce. You get a special gold pin when you do, you get some awards and a ring, I think. But the truth is that one perfect game, it doesn't define him.
What does is all the other games that he bowl, the other 19,999 games that came before and after his 300, the games where the pins didn't fall the way he wanted them to. Where his shot was off, he was having a rough night, all of that. What defines him and what defines all of us is if we keep on showing up, keep on trying, trying to do something in an excellent way that getting back up that.
Coming back from maybe a tough night of bowling to do it one more time in a way that's resilience. I don't think I have to share with you that we live in a culture today that is obsessed with perfection, with just the right outcomes. All the merit badges, that gold pin that my dad got, or by measuring ourselves by someone else's highlight reel.
The real flex in all of this isn't in the perfect game. It's about showing up with mindfulness, with resilience, with presence. It's in our ability to show up and work towards mastery, knowing that we're all perfectly imperfect. That's what KSU teaches us because after all. There are so many different perspectives on what perfect looks like.
What's in our control is showing up and putting in the work. That's what this podcast is all about. A space to practice, a space to remember that we're all working towards something and some days we'll be easy and other days will be really challenging, but we keep showing up Nevertheless. 'cause we know good things happen over time when we keep on showing up.
This is your resilience. It's also being mindful because you're not attaching your identity to some version of perfect. Rather, you're on this journey of 20,000 games and choosing to take a step towards mastery. Choosing progress over perfection. Before wrapping up this episode, let's take a moment together, wherever you might be.
Take a
deep breath in and a slow exhale out allowing this moment to be enough and you can repeat. What I share quietly, or you can simply listen. I
choose progress over perfection. I'm strong, not because I never struggle, but because I keep showing up even when it's hard, even when I'm tired, even when I'm unsure.
Today, I honor effort. I
trust the process. I give myself grace,
one breath at a time,
one step at a time. I keep pedaling. I keep going because I know that good things happen when we show up. And again, I'd like to thank you for showing up. And being part of our community. Whether this is your first episode or you've listened to all 300, thank you for being here.
This podcast is perfectly imperfect as we all are. And with each episode, I try to take a step towards mastery in hopes that one day. I'll have a 300 game episode, the perfect episode for you to help you feel whole again. But until that moment comes, we keep putting in the work, we keep showing up and offer a moment of support knowing that together we go far.
So again, thank you for being here. If you haven't yet signed up for the free text messages I send out three times a week, you can do so by texting whole again to 8 6 6 6 1 2 4 6 0 4. I'll set you up
and if you wish to further enhance your digital health, I'll invite you to take my smartphone wellness check and you can access it through the link in the show notes, or you can visit my website, which is Michael O'Brien shift.com, and it's absolutely free. And it will help you scroll less and live more.
And of course, I hope you'll join us here on whole again every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and discover how to heal, grow, and become more resilient and celebrate our scars as golden symbols of strength and resilience. Until then, remember, you can always come back to your breath. You've got this. And we've got you.
