In this short motivational monologue, the speaker greets the audience and frames Monday, March 15th as a "moment of yes" during the chaotic week of March Madness. Using the tournament as a metaphor, he explains how successful coaches break the daunting goal of winning six consecutive games into a series of single‑game objectives, urging listeners to focus on one step at a time. He connects this approach to his own habit of completing 104 consecutive days of daily yoga, emphasizing the value of small, consistent actions and the use of a bracelet to track progress. The core message is to adopt a "yes, and" mindset—accepting the present moment, responding with one’s best effort, and then moving to the next task—thereby avoiding overwhelm amid personal and academic pressures. The talk ends with an encouraging call to stay present, take each action sequentially, and have a great day.
Chapters
Good morning, everyone. Here is your moment of yes for Monday, March 15th. Yes, it is the middle of March. How was your weekend? Was it, was it madness? Was it madness here in March? Because this is March Madness week. The week kicks off. Oh, best time of year. Kind of crazy in these COVID times where you have teams that are backup teams in case a team gets COVID. What's up with that? That's craziness. That's nuts. So let the madness begin. Now, one of my favorite ideas about March Madness is you look at the teams over the years that have done well in March Madness, and when you hear how their coaches talk about it, they, they say that they avoid the temptation. Let's say it takes 6 wins to win the tournament, 7 if you're Michigan State this year, but 6 wins to win the tournament. If you looked at that, the brackets and everything, and you thought, okay, we've got to win 6 games in a row, that can be Overwhelming. That can be a little daunting. In fact, that's when teams start to overlook teams and get upset in the process. But what I love about whether it's Coach K or Tom Izzo, what they talk about is they take like their little 2-game weekend and they just break it down into— it's a 2-game tournament, right? It's a series of 3 2-game tournaments. And to have their focus just be on the opponent that they're playing, right? The goal is not to win 6 games in a row. The game is to win 1 game 6 times, right? The next game, the next game, the next game. And I just love the simplicity of that focus, of that mindset, where we put everything we need to put into what we're doing in this game, and then we'll take care of the next game, and then we'll take care of the next game. That allows us to bring our full attention to the moment. And that's what is being required of us. Right, to live yes and is to say yes to what is happening in the moment and respond to it with our best response possible, the and. So, I'm wearing my little, my 100-day bracelet. I am on day 104. That's right, I did my 100 days of yoga for a minimum of 10 minutes a day. And I kind of wasn't changing the bracelets for a few days and I realized, oh my gosh, I'm on day 103. Today's 104. I just did my 10 minutes before class here, and I'm gonna keep going because I know it's been a benefit for me. 104 days have flown by. But to go back to that idea, if I thought about, oh my gosh, I've got to do 100 days of yoga, that's overwhelming. So that's why the bracelets are like, no, you're just on day 1, or you're on day 15, or you're on day 30. So just do what needs to be done today. So it's Monday. I know there's probably a lot going on. I know for me this week is going to be swirling, finishing this class, hopefully getting on a plane to go to Europe on Thursday, and just a lot of craziness around that as well. So the temptation is to get overwhelmed instead of bringing our attention to what can I do right now, and then do the next thing, and then do the next thing, and do the next thing. That's your March Madness Monday for the 15th. Let's just bring it back, let go of the madness, bring it back, and do what you can do right here, right now. Yes, and, yes, and, yes, and. Have a great day, everybody.
