If there is one thing that I’ve learned this week it is that I am annoyingly positive as a business coach. In the wake of current events, I too have experienced my fair share of adversity with my job, my family, and my friends. I understand that our country, well, our world is in a state of panic and uncertainty so I am in no way oblivious. However, I refuse to let that take away and destroy who I am at my core. So instead of lamenting and solely focusing on the negative and the things that are out of my control I have chosen to carry on with my ridiculously and borderline insane optimism. I have decided to surround myself with those who are going to continue to propel me forward rather than focus on remaining stuck in the doom and gloom. Instead of consuming mass quantities of negative social media posts and click-bait articles that are only concerned with exacerbating fear, I have opted to seek wisdom and motivation from those who think as I do. I am by no means a religious person, but I still find wisdom in the teachings of those who are, and my favorite by far is Bishop TD Jakes. I mean, there’s just something about listening to the man speak that makes me feel like I could bench press a mountain or go one hundred rounds with Muhammad Ali. So this morning I decided to go down a rabbit hole of powerful TD Jakes quotes and break down what they mean to me as well as how I have chosen to apply them to our current situation. So strap in true believers as I attempt to get real spiritual in an attempt to bring some much-needed positivity to this $#!% show!
Notable Quotables – Courtesy of Bishop T.D. Jakes
“A setback is a setup for a comeback.”
Let’s talk about this one first… In all honesty, I want to run around with a tattoo gun and inscribe this on the foreheads of the entire population so that every time they look in the mirror it serves as a constant reminder. I get it. Business is hard. Life is hard. But if everyone who has ever been successful simply gave up or called it quits at the first experience of a setback, nothing would have ever gotten done. To me, a massive part of business coach success is experiencing difficulty or failure in route to the end goal. TD Jakes also said, “Strength is forged through resistance.”. So for me, I personally choose to take the bad and see how I can learn from it. What lessons can I learn through adversity in order to make an epic comeback?
“Never make a permanent decision about a temporary situation.”
THIS. RIGHT. HERE. I freaking love this quote. If I were to write a memoir detailing all of the jackassery that resulted from me making monumentally drastic decisions out of temporary situations that sucker would rival the Bible in terms of length. It might feel logical in the moment, but I can assure you as a recovering jackass it’s not worth it to just simply react. I’ve said it once before in a previous diary, proper preparation prevents piss poor performance. It’s in all of our best interests to strategize and come up with a calculated game plan when the going gets tough. We have to look at the long term effects of our decisions rather than focusing on the brief and fleeting satisfaction that comes from a rash decision.
“Sometimes what makes us insecure and vulnerable becomes the fuel we need to be overachievers. The antidote for a snakebite is made from the poison, and the thing that made you go backward is the same force that will push you forward.”
You can choose to be great, or you can choose to be average. You can choose to be Captain Mopey Pants, or you can choose to be a laser show of positivity and optimism. No matter the circumstance it ultimately comes down to our choice to take the cards that we’ve been dealt with and use them to our advantage. This kind of goes back to the first quote. It’s not about the setback itself, but more of how we can plan to achieve the comeback in spite of the situation. Sometimes bad crap has to happen in order to make a breakthrough. The snake bite portion of the quote makes me laugh in a morbid way. I mean, can you imagine what the first person to treat a venomous snake bite with the very same venom must have been thinking? It was probably something along the lines of, “Well Gary, you’ve already been poisoned. It couldn’t hurt to shoot some more into you and see what happens. Here goes nothing!”. A perspective is a powerful tool when utilized properly. It’s far too easy to focus on the negative and feel powerless, but it is truly satisfying to take the bad and turn it into a force of good instead.
“Others can inspire you, but ultimately the only thing that empowers you is what lies within you and learning how to better utilize what you’ve been given.”
Again, another quote regarding overcoming the hand you’ve been dealt with. I wonder if Bishop Jakes is trying to teach us something here? I wonder why he keeps saying that success can be achieved through adversity? Could it be that he’s experienced this very situation and emerged stronger as a result? …Why am I asking so many questions?
“Big ideas come from forward-thinking people who challenge the norm, think outside the box, and invent the world they see inside rather than submitting to the limitations of current dilemmas.”
This quote is by far my favorite of the bunch because I feel like it is speaking directly to me as a business coach. I’ll be honest here, I do not like to subscribe to the given narrative. Why? Because typically it sucks. I’ve experienced the influence of “the new” current dilemmas too many times and every single time it’s soul-sucking. There’s always going to be that next wave of negativity. There will inevitably be another event that causes panic or adversity. But if I choose to dwell in that dilemma I’m doing myself a disservice. I am then allowing myself to let others think for me and to steal my joy. I’d much rather take the good with the bad, examine the facts, and throw on some Wu-Tang and move the hell on with a plan that better suits my ideal world.
“Nobody likes hard times, but it’s the unpleasant experiences that are often the catalysts to build the character required for our Destiny.”
Are we getting the core message here? I feel like I’m beating a dead horse, but it has to be done. Much like advertising, people need to hear or see an idea multiple times before it starts to set in, so if I have to die on this positivity hill so be it. Of course, it is not pleasant to experience the negative, the hard, or the unpleasant. But these are all temporary things that often result in a lesson learned or a moment of growth.
If you’ve made it through these amazing quotes and somehow you’re still saying, “But Jason, it’s not that simple! You can’t just choose to be positive. What about all of the bad things out there that can and will challenge your positivity?”, I have one final piece of advice for you as a business coach. In the words of my mentor and brother from another mother, Method Man, “ Hey, you, get off my cloud!
You don’t know me and you don’t know my style”. I have no time for the negativity of others and neither should you. Staying positive and motivated is a choice and we cannot let others make that decision for us.
