I'll start at the end. The one I just posted today 2/28:
so, today is the last day of the OPT challenge, and I want to joke that the one positive thing is that I don't have to come up with one of these for tomorrow. But I learned a lot during the last few weeks about coping strategies, dealing with depression and anxiety and trying to move forward no matter what. So my OPT is the line ESPN Baseball Writer Buster Olney closes every blog with. It is a simple affirmation, one that should be said everytime one wakes up in the monring.
"And Today will be better than yesterday."
(and the flip side, the last thing one should try to say before falling asleep is "And tomorrow will be better than today")
For those of you who don't know Coach Meyer, he was at one point the winningest basketball coach in NCAA/NAIA history (Coach K at Duke supplanted him), but he credited a severe car accident that cost him part of his lower leg for saving his life.
Why?
Because during the surgery to try to contain the injuries he sustained in that severe car crash, the doctors found that Meyer had cancer in his liver and bowels.
He came back two years later and earned that most wins record (surpassing Bob Knight).
He received the 2009 Jimmy V award for perserverance, and ESPN's Buster Olney wrote a book about/with him "How Lucky Can You Be: The Story of Coach Don Meyer". Although he passed away in 2014, during the OPT Challenge, I came across a PowerPoint presentation that he had on his website. Some of it is humorous. Some of it is Spiritual. All of it is, in its own way, useful.
https://www.coachmeyer.com/Informati...Powerpoint.pdf
The reason I knew about Coach Meyer? Olney (to this day) ends every column with the line "And Today Will Be Better than Yesterday")