In this short motivational monologue, the speaker shares how a colleague’s curiosity about Formula 1 led the team to watch the film Rush and the Netflix series F1: Drive to Survive. Observing the drivers and teams handle extreme pressure, frequent technical failures, and contract uncertainty, the speaker highlights their steady demeanor despite many factors outside their control. The central message – the “Moment of Yes” – is a reminder to focus on what we can control: our effort and attitude. By treating life’s chaos like an F1 race and “controlling the controllables,” we can respond more effectively to challenges. The talk ends with a light personal note about the speaker’s dog Mako barking and a wish for a great day.
Chapters
Good morning, everyone. Here is your A Moment of Yes for Monday, May 10th. Yes. All right, so here we go. It's a new week. Here's how this Moment of Yes came about. So about a week and a half ago, 2 weeks ago, Holland said to Hollister, uh, hey, I'm curious, like, I want to know more about F1 racing. Curious question. Hollister said, hey, what can we do to, uh, to, you know, kind of expose him to that? So, oh, I said, do you remember that great movie by Ron Howard? I think it's called Rush. It was about the 2 F1 racers back in the, I think the '80s or the '70s. True story. Good movie, by the way. Um, and, uh, so we watched that, me, Shepherd, and Holland watched that movie. Uh, it was really good. And then we had noticed on Netflix that there's a series called F1: Drive to Survive. Now I've seen that on Netflix for years. I think there's like 3 or 4 seasons and I heard good things about it. But now that Holland was interested in this F1, I'm like, oh, let's check it out. So we fell in love with this series. From the get-go. Like, we were like binge— we've been binge-watching. Actually, we're not through the first season, but in the last week we've been watching 1 or 2 episodes a day, and it is so fun to watch. It's, it's obviously like this high-performance soap opera between the drivers and the teams and billions of dollars being thrown around. But really what has become most fascinating to me is just how these guys handle these high-pressure Situations and how they handle all of the adversity and all the challenges. And specifically, this is a sport where there are so many things outside of your control, especially as the driver, right? The drivers are celebrated because like these guys are crazy and they have to be so good at what they do. But when it comes right down to it, there are so many factors that go into their success, from the car that they're driving to their pit crew to Um, to the other drivers around them, the conditions. And they might be driving a perfect race and then something happens in the engine and they got to shut it down. Or they're driving the perfect race and another driver totally sabotages the race out of their control. And what I'm just blown, blown away by every episode is just the, the steadiness that these guys have to have. And really the whole teams have it, but like the steadiness that they have to have. To be driving the perfect race or just be battling and then something happens completely outside of their control and then to be able to let it go and move on. And you don't see these big temper tantrums. You don't see these big explosions even though like these guys are— it's life and death and they are just battling each other and they're doing jerky stuff to them on the road. Their demeanors are so under control. And they're in a sport where there's only 20 spots A year. There's only 20 driver spots in the world, right? The 20 drivers. And so they're constantly stressed about their contract. Are they going to get a contract? Are they going to get a seat? So, all of that to say, your moment of yes for today, as Mako barks, is noticing that so much is outside of our control. Again, this is an idea. This is a yes and idea that we come back to over and over and over again. So much is outside of our control. All we can focus on is what we're doing, right? And whatever we're doing to make sure that we're controlling what we can control, which is very little. We know it's effort and attitude, right? Effort and attitude is the only thing I can control. And so, as the craziness swirls around us, we're going to control how we respond to the situation. This is nothing new, but watching this series has been a big reminder of that and a fun reminder of that. Again, we see all these different examples in the world and we can take them and we can make them work for us. So that's your moment of yes for today. That's your F1 Drive to Survive. Control the controllables. Have a great day, everybody.
