Recognizing the moments - Michael O'Brien

Michael O’Brien is the Chief Shift Officer and Resilience Expert at Peloton Executive Coaching and helps leaders prevent bad moments from turning to a bad day. He has shared his personal transformational Last Bad Day story and leadership advice on the TEDx stage, with Fortune 500 companies, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Real Simple, and ABC-KATU.

What does being grateful mean to you?
Gratitude for me is acknowledging what is present in my life right now.

Right now, at this moment, what are 3 things you are grateful for?
Well, I just recovered from COVID so I will start with my health. Of course, my family and then third would be the ability to pause in this moment of chaos.

Who is someone in your life you‘re grateful for, and why? (This question doesn’t require any thought, its the first person that pops into your mind). For example, It could be your barista, a physicist, or your mom.
My wife, because of how much love she puts into the details.

Why did you pick Kintsugi as the title of your podcast and how does gratitude fit in with Kintsugi.
I chose Kintsugi because it captures how we are all perfectly imperfect with flaws, scars, and wrinkles. It shows how we might break, but we can become a more beautiful version of ourselves. Of course, there are parallels to the physical and emotional scars of my accident. Through my accident, I believe that I was broken and now better. It speaks to being resilient and being grateful that our challenges often help us the most. (The Kintsugi Podcast)

How exactly did gratitude help you get through what you describe in your book as the most difficult times in your entire life?
It helped me see what I still had and could do. It helped shift my perspective so I could see hope, and ultimately, faith that I could get through that moment.

All the profits from your book “Shift, Creating Better Tomorrows: Winning At Work And In Life,” go to World Bicycle Relief. How did you get involved with them? And could you also share how you got involved with Charity Water?
Many people encouraged me to write my memoir. They told me it would be great for my business, but writing a memoir is a naked journey, and I wasn’t motivated to write to make money. Ultimately, I wrote it for my daughters, who were too young at the time to understand what we went through as a family. Since it wasn’t about the money, I wanted to give the money away. World Bicycle Relief made perfect sense because they provide the gift of mobility. Since I lost my mobility, and the story is about how to move forward, I reached out to them to form our partnership. I did reach out to other cycling advocacy groups, but they had too much red tape to participate. Regarding Charity Water, I found them through Seth Godin’s work. Water is such a basic need we take for granted – we need it for life. (My Last Bad Day, SHIFT: How to Prevent Bad Moments From Turning Into Bad Days)

In “Shift” you briefly share the story of your family touring Auschwitz back in 2012 in your #3 Be Forgiving. This story really stuck out to me, the power of it all… Would you please share how this day impacted the way you now feel about gratitude in more detail?
That was a life-changing trip, Chris. As I shared, it helped me with forgiveness, but also gratitude. I was struck by how grateful Eva was for the ordinary as we were surrounded by death and horror. I wondered how you could see the light when it’s so dark? Goodness, when surrounded by evil? The trip helped shape my gratitude practice by acknowledging the simple and more ordinary aspects of life. Today we spend too much time on the extraordinary. We live on the edge as a way to grab attention, but we miss the tiny moments that make life worth living. I will never forget that trip. I could probably write another book just on that two-week trip alone.

In “Shift” Chapter 11 you have a list of 20 things to live by, #20 is: Be Happy. In closing, how does gratitude fit into the equation of being happy? How can gratitude help people to be happy, particularly now in this uncertain time we are living in?