What Was Your Success Today?
Michelle:
When I was younger, I loved watching the Summer Olympics. I especially remember watching the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. There are two reasons that specific Olympics reigns supreme in my memories. The first reason is that my grandparents lived in Los Angeles and they had tickets to many of the track and field events. While my grandparents brought back some Olympic pins as souvenirs, it was my grandfather’s reverence when telling us about President Ronald Reagan opening the Olympic Games and my grandmother’s stories of all of the amazing athletes they saw from countries all over the world, that pulled me in. But my second reason and the reason I still love to watch the Olympics today, is I LOVE gymnastics. And in 1984 US gymnastics was making its comeback. I watched as gymnasts Mary Lou Retton, Peter Vidmar, Juliana McNamara and Bart Connor took gold medals in individual and team gymnastics. Years later, in 2008, as we watched Nastia Lukin and Shawn Johnson compete, we heard a story about Olympian Bart Connor.
Chris:
The story talked about how Bart Connor was able to overcome a torn bicep muscle to go on to win two gold medals in the ‘84 Olympics. When asked how he did it, he explained that when he was growing up, each night before bed his parents asked him his success of the day. He said, “Every night, I went to bed a success. Every morning, I woke up a success. When I got injured, I knew I was going to come back because I was a success every day of my life.” When Michelle and I went to bed that evening, we talked about what a powerful concept that was and we decided that we wanted it to be part of our daily interactions with our daughter. The following night at dinner, I asked Taryn, “What was your success today?” She looked at me and said, “Well, I made it through the school day.” The next few weeks, her answers were quite similar. However, around week five, I asked, “What was your success today?” Taryn responded, “You know, I hit my tumbling pass at cheer today. I didn’t talk back when I wanted to and I got an A on my Math test.”
Michelle:
Two weeks after her big sharing, she said, “Hey Mom, what was your success today?” After I answered she said, “Dad, your turn.” And so it began…Now, we only get to hear Taryn’s successes on a weekly basis when we have dinner together and we also get to hear her fiancé’s successes too. Recently he asked us why we share our successes. We told him about Bart Connor’s story but also told him that it is really easy to focus on the mistakes of the day, the people who frustrated or upset us, or anything else that went wrong. It is a bigger and better challenge to retrain our brains to look for the positive things in our day. The one great conversation, the person who made us smile or the accomplishment that made us proud. So, we are challenging you to answer, “What was your success today?”
