Make no mistake. There’s a lot you can’t control about your retirement. The economy. The markets. That neighbor. But there is something you can control that will make a big difference in your quality of life. Your mindset. Michael O’Brien shares his compelling story and how he learned how to prevent bad moments from turning into bad days.

Michael O’Brien joins us from the Garden State of New Jersey.

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Michael O’Brien is President and Founder of Peloton Coaching and Consulting. As a certified executive coach, he has advised, motivated, and inspired Fortune 500 executives, entrepreneurs, and other difference-makers at organizations like Brother International and Johnson and Johnson. He also serves as a mentor and volunteer with organizations that promote professional growth, such as the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association and James Madison University’s College of Business. Before starting Peloton Coaching and Consulting, he was a healthcare sales and marketing executive and received his marketing degree from James Madison University. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and two daughters.

Michael is the author of two books, his inspiring memoir: Shift: Creating Better Tomorrows: Winning at Work and in Life and the companion work, My Last Bad Day Shift: How to Prevent Bad Moments from Turning into Bad Days: a practical and powerful guide to lead a life free of bad days.

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For More on Michael O’Brien

Shift: Creating Better Tomorrows: Winning at Work and in Life

My Last Bad Day Shift: How to Prevent Bad Moments from Turning into Bad Days

Website

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Podcast Episodes You May Like

Self-Compassion – Dr. Kristin Neff

The Mindful Body – Ellen Langer

Living Like You Mean It – Jodi Wellman

Taking Stock – Dr. Jordan Grumet

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Wise Quotes

On His Last Bad Day

“But as I went through my recovery, I tried to put up this good front, like, Okay, we’re going to make it. But I wasn’t believing any of my hype. A mentor came to me and said, Hey, listen, everything in your life is neutral until you label it. You get to look at this any way you want to. And so then I started to realize, Okay, well, we’re all living moments. Every day is filled with a whole bunch of moments. And if I have people in my life who I love and love me back, then I can’t call a full day a bad one. That’s why I came back to call my, that accident day, my last bad day. I’ve had definitely bad moments since then, but I still have a lot of love in my life. So I can’t call a full day a bad one. But I also knew this, that I had to find a way to ground myself because my recovery felt so overwhelming. I had to figure out, much like in sports, how to slow the game down. Everything was just coming at me, much like life today. And I just knew I had to slow things down a bit to create some space so I could be thoughtful and intentional about how I wanted to go forward.”

On Who You Surround Yourself With

“I think it’s very important to surround yourself with people who bring out the best in you. And I think this is a big thing because for a lot of us men, especially as we think about retirement, a lot of our relationships are work relationships that we think those guys are our friends, but they’re really our colleagues. And some of them are friends, and they’ll stay friends for a while. And I think it’s very important to surround yourself with people who bring out the best in you. But it’s a minority of the relationships we have, maybe on one hand or both hands. So as we go into this next phase of our lives, into retirement, men or women, it’s good to have people around you who can bring out the best in you, to help maybe clarify things when you get stuck or challenge you so you can be the best you can be – or to be there in celebration or to be there for a crisis or some type of comfort. So that’s helpful because the people around you can help shift your perspective around change.”

On Gratitude

“I think a gratitude practice is key, so to be grateful is one of the 20 [lessons]. I didn’t know anything about gratitude, except maybe around Thanksgiving – give thanks. But we didn’t use the word gratitude. During Thanksgiving, when I was growing up, my parents weren’t tuned into that it was like, Well, where’s the turkey? Come on, let’s eat, watch the game. And so I didn’t know about gratitude until really coming through my accident recovery. Gratitude is really a process of understanding what you still have and what’s working in your life. And when you go really deep, you can even be grateful for some of the tough moments because our tough moments tend to give us the most growth – not guaranteed, but a lot of times. And a lot of people will say to me, Well, if you’re grateful for everything, do you lose your edge? Do you lose your thirst for more? And to that I say absolutely not. You can be grateful for what you have and still be thirsty and driven for more, as opposed to leaving that your glass is always half full or like half empty. and you’re coming from that place of depletion as you go after things. For me, gratitude is about No, I have an amazing cup and it’s pretty full. It’s pretty amazing. And I’m looking for a bigger glass.”

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About Retirement Wisdom

I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms.

About Your Podcast Host 

Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.2 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.