Monday Motivation: It's Just A Leg

What's up, Cadre crew? Happy Labor Day. Happy Labor Day weekend. Hope everyone's having a wonderful weekend thus far. Number two, we just celebrated, I should say honored, International Overdose Awareness Day. I don't think that there's a human being in our country that hasn't been directly or indirectly affected by the opiate crisis. Sometimes it's okay to just stop and ask that. Like, so if you're in a meeting, if you're running a meeting, if you're meeting with peers, colleagues at a family event, you know, just ask that question, has anybody here been, you know, affected by the opiate crisis?

And my gut is, everybody will raise their hand, and then you can just kind of shut up and listen and just figure out what that means for everybody that's maybe been faced with different challenges in their life through this journey, that is the opiate crisis, or. Or opioid use disorder, or addiction struggles. All the things coupled with International Overdose Awareness Day is the start of recovery month. Recovery month is when individuals, through whatever means necessary, have determined to stop using substances.

And I hope someday recovery month can actually change to. I mean, it will never change, but, like, I made a choice month, because to me, recovery just gives way too much power to the disease and not the choice and the choices that individuals are making to live this way every single day. It's a choice. It's a choice that they have every single day to make this choice. And when you make this choice, good, bad, or indifferent, our life is always about decisions and choices that people can head in a different direction or not.

It's not a choice to be diagnosed with a disease. Mental health. Mental health disorders, opioid use disorder, addiction disease, addiction disorder, etcetera, those are all real. But coupling it with the fact that this is something that now I'm making, and I'm taking the power back, and it's my choice of how I want to live my life and go about my life, I think is really, really important. It's recovery month. So, again, you got international overdose Awareness Day. You got recovery month. And then last but not least, you guys ready for this?

We're going back to school. So we are going back to school. Some schools have already been back now for the last week or two. Other individuals are going back this past week, and individuals are going forward this next week. Right? So lots changing for families, lots changing for moms and dads, drop off pickups, schedules, meeting the teacher, you know, getting classrooms, going to get all the supplies close, shopping. You're going to see a drastic change in your kids mental health. And I have a feeling this first couple weeks is going to be a rude awakening for a lot of kids and a lot of parents, maybe behaviors acting out, et cetera.

So just want to make sure that, you know, we're all on the same page here, that things might change and kind of change a little drastically for you and your family over the next week or two. Bear with it. Bear with the changes. Start finding your center. Focus on what you can control. Right. What can you control? What time you go to bed at night, what time you wake up starting off the day. Right. Making your bed, what you're putting in your body. Are you filling up your kids with sugar and cereal and stuff like that on their way out the door?

Are you focusing on maybe, like eggs and bacon or some high protein meals? Right. Some organic stuff. So just some things to think about, you know, as you continue to evaluate your schedules and getting things off and your rules, routines and rituals. But I have one message I want to share with going back to school that will forever be buried in my heart. And it's always at the top of mind when I think about going back to school. First grade was awesome. Second grade. Third grade. Fourth grade. Come back to school.

Fifth grade. So coming back to school in fifth grade, we show up at school, get your homeroom, meet the teacher, all the other things. You're in fifth grade, you're walking in, you're coming back. And there was an individual that came back to our classroom that no longer had a leg, right. And a lot of questions and people are wondering and looking and all that other stuff. And there was talk in the town, of course, but we didn't have social media, we didn't have any of those things and certainly wasn't newspaper worthy.

But regardless, when an individual came back in fifth grade from fourth grade summer, she had lost her leg due to an accident mowing the lawn. And so ultimately she came back with only one leg. And we were all connecting and talking and having our morning meeting and community and getting to know each other and what they did over the summer and all this other stuff. And I'll never forget her response. And her response was, I'm not going to mention her name, but her response was, it's only a legacy.

And I just, I want your mind to go there for you. You know, at ten years old, eleven years old, twelve years old, heck, 50, right? Where there's so much drastic that we think about, about not even have our cup of coffee in the morning or anything like that. And here's this resilient 1011 year old when all this happened and she lost her leg. And her response to all of the other peers in the classroom was, it's just a leg. I was blown away. It's a moment that will forever be etched in my mind of what that sounded like, what that made me feel like.

And not only that, but the support that we all had for her in fifth grade to be able to make sure that she could have the best year ever with us and we could have the best year ever with her. I think our teacher did such a great job for setting up that conversation. I think that's half the battle, is setting up those conversations and talking about those things. Miss, you know, who you are. You know, fifth grade, I'll forever remember that moment when you just said, you know, it's just. It's just a leg.

And for me, man, it just puts things in perspective. It just puts things in perspective for my children when we're having bad days, my wife, me, when we're having bad days, or my high ankle sprain, it's like, I have a leg. I can run. I could do this, I could do that. Sure, she could do that with her prosthetic or otherwise, but I didn't go through that trauma. So, at any rate, you know, I just wanted to say that when you think. When you have some days and you're thinking about some things, I hope this.

This mantra comes in your head. It's just. It's just a leg. Where, in other words, it's just. It's just a Monday. It's just a tough day. It's just something I have to get through. It's just another thing that I have to bury through. Right? That's okay, Heidi. Happy Monday to you. Let's go. It's gonna be a fantastic week. I cannot wait. You know, I'm so excited for our kids to go back to school. You know, embrace our rules of routines and rituals outside of our home at the school. I can't wait. I can't wait to see how the kids show up.

The most important thing is that we're nice to each other, that we support one another, we have empathy for one another, and we love each other, right? I mean, that's what we always talk about as parents. And then, you know, of course, give it your all, do your best work. Always your best work. Always give it a ten. That's so important, man. It's just a lot of life lessons that you live at. 89. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. Ultimately just kind of transcend who you are for the rest of your life. But, yeah, we just have.

We have an unbelievable week ahead of you, ahead of here, ahead of this week for you here at Cadre. Look forward to all the lives. Look forward to what's coming down the pike. We have a new group of wellness experts that are coming on. 0. We're so excited about this group. It's going to be amazing to have this extra different vantage of their niches, what they bring to the table, what their respective wellness expert advice mantras, messages that they can connect with you and the rest of this world.

I'm looking forward to it. I hope you're looking forward to it. I'm so jacked to hear the messages of others that have lived through this. I would like to call it almost like pure connection, for lack of better words, you know, with our expert advice. But be on the lookout. You're going to see a variety of different names. There's going to be twelve plus new individuals that are coming forward on our app. So be on the lookout, folks. Have an amazing week. Take care of y'all. Bye.