Lots to be thankful for today.

I had a wonderful time on the water with some teammates. Getting time to get to know each other better, shoot the bull, and talking about things other than work was awesome.

My ride to and from Eau Claire was a combination of thought time, reading, and talking. The majority of it was productive, but there were also moments of relaxation and focus on the present.

One of the things that kept ringing through my head all day was a small handful of quotes from Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl. While laying in bed I switched up books for a change of pace and can across some of my favorite concepts. To summarize, they are all focused on remembering that we all always have a choice to make in our attitudes and emotions. Suffering, setbacks, challenges, and frustrations are all a part of our life and it is in how we handle them that we shape who we are.

And there were always choices to make. Every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self…

The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity – even under the most difficult circumstances – to add a deeper meaning to his life. It may remain brave, dignified, and unselfish. Or in the bitter fight for self-preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal. Here lies the chance for a man either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him. An this decides whether he is worthy of his sufferings or not.

… the tendency there was to look into the past, to help make the present, with all its horrors, less real. But in robbing the present of it reality there lay a certain danger. It became easy to overlook the opportunities to make something positive of camp life, opportunities which really did exist.

With all going on these quotes were wonderful reminders for me to stay present, focus on choosing my attitude and mindset, grow through adversity, and become better through whatever comes my way.

Thanks!!!