Welcome. I hope everyone is doing well. The first thing I want to tell you is that the young man in the photo above is our 7-year-old grandson, Nathan.
Last Thursday I was a guest on The Empowered Whistleblower podcast with Dawn Westmoreland. On her podcast she discusses strategies with her guests to stand up to bullying and discrimination for adults and children, which was a perfect fit for You’re Amazing And I’ll Prove It! I had a great time and we will let you know when the podcast is aired and we have a link to it. In the meantime check out her podcast at https://www.mentalhealthnewsradionetwork.com/our-shows/the-empowered-whistleblower/
We are getting some views on our Science Proves God Exists video on my Neal – The Crazy Inventor channel on YouTube. Check it out if you haven’t had a chance yet and share it with everyone.
Our tech guru, Shane, is working hard. He has written a new book description for Amazon and is helping us with writing other items for advertising, as well as running our advertising campaigns. He is such a blessing – we really needed help in the marketing area. Go Shane!
Now for this week’s story:
Throughout our lives we are all going to be put into situations that are nerve-wracking and extremely difficult to handle. When these times happen what should we do? How do we go about handling the difficulty that’s about to come our way?
One of the things I use to cope with nerve-wracking situations, I learned from playing and watching basketball. Magic Johnson was a player who seemed to always rise to the occasion. The more difficult the situation the better he played. So, the question is why? Why did Magic excel when others did not? I got my answer when Magic gave an interview.
The interviewer told Magic, I’m going to give you a situation in which you find yourself and I want you to tell me what you are thinking. You (Magic) are in the seventh game of the NBA finals. You’re on the other team’s court. There’s 2 seconds on the clock in the 4th quarter. The Lakers (Magic’s Team) are losing by one point and you’re going to the foul line to take two shots. There are 20 thousand people screaming for you to miss these shots. As you step to the line and the ref hands you the ball what are you thinking? Magic immediately put his index finger to his lips and made the shhhh sound. He then said, I think quiet. I think about how quiet 20 thousand people are going to be when I make these shots and how beautiful that sound is.
Interesting. In his career Magic practiced thousands and thousands of foul shots. He had prepared himself physically and mentally to be an excellent foul shooter. So, when he steps to the line there is nothing he needs to think about. His body already knows what to do. Because of this, Magic starts thinking past the shots and focuses on the results of what he is about to do. In this case, successfully making two foul shots.
Obviously, this only works if you have prepared yourself for whatever it is you need to accomplish under pressure. I personally have done this many times. For instance, the night Lady Linda and I taught our first You’re Amazing And I’ll Prove It! class we had prepared in every way possible, so going into the class Linda and I were thinking about the celebratory dinner we were going to have right after the class. The class went extremely well and our dinner was Amazing! (You’ll find Lady Linda and I reward ourselves with food a lot)
Another time I used this technique of thinking past the problem, was when my daughter was 11 years old. She and I had witnessed a crime which led to the death of a woman. The man who committed the crime was being tried for murder. There were 50 other witnesses, but my daughter and I were the only witnesses who had actually seen this man being violent towards the victim (his wife). Because of this there was no way of convicting this man without my daughter’s and my testimony.
It took two years for this case to go to trial. I’m sure you can understand the kind of pressure that’s on an adult in a case like this. However, I was part of this and I couldn’t begin to imagine how much pressure my 11-year-old daughter was under. Not only did she have to testify, but she had to do it in front of the man that killed his wife. My daughter knew all the details because she had lived it. I told her just tell the truth of what she saw. Meanwhile when she was on the stand, I wanted her to be thinking of going to Red Lobster right after hers and my testimony was over.
This worked so well that when I was sitting outside the courtroom waiting for my turn to testify, I could hear the courtroom break into laughter when the defense lawyer was unable to trick her into saying something.
So, the next time you find yourself needing to perform at a high level, under pressure, take a page from Magic. Prepare in every way possible and then think past the problem. Think of some reward you’re going to give yourself after a job well done. You’re Amazing And I’ll Prove It!
You can buy my book, You’re Amazing And I’ll Prove It! on Amazon in paperback and Kindle. If you have already read You’re Amazing! I would greatly appreciate you giving it a review on Amazon. It will help us spread the message of positive self-esteem and self-acceptance. All of us together can heal the world one person at a time.
As always, I welcome your comments and stories. If you would like to follow my blog, please click on the plus (+) sign in the upper left-hand corner of this page. See you next week!
Neal G. Brownell
845-657-3009
knowledgeisfreedompublishing@gmail.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/nealgbrownell.author.publicspeaker
Twitter: @NealGBrownell
Guest on – Be Awesome Podcast with Dr. Kristina Hallett (air date TBD)
Heroes Like You Podcast with Joe Belliston (air date TBD)
Let’s Live! with Thurman Greco – Woodstock, NY cable TV
Beyond Risk and Back with Aaron Huey (air date TBD)Which Way? with Shari and Jann Simmons (air date Friday 1/10/20) The Empowered Whistleblower with Dawn Westmoreland (air date TBD)
Neal Brownell The Crazy Inventor 